Crimson Banners Fly: The Rise of the American Left Revisited

[Snazzrazz Mazzlejazz]

Bryan has just leaped off of a dangerous tightrope, and while I predict it shan't go well for him, I hope that he manages to succeed and continues to do well for another term. Anyways, this timeline is excellent and I hope updates continue to come at such a fast rate.

[Pyro]

Bryan has just leaped off of a dangerous tightrope, and while I predict it shan't go well for him, I hope that he manages to succeed and continues to do well for another term. Anyways, this timeline is excellent and I hope updates continue to come at such a fast rate.

Thanks! We will see how things turn out for him soon

[Pyro]

Governor Roosevelt with Lockport City Officials at Newfane Station, August 15th, 1899 - Source: Wiki Commons

Sixteen years prior to these events taking place, during the presidential election of 1884, a sizable group of dissatisfied Republican voters rejected their party nominee and voted Democratic. James G. Blaine, the senator from Maine, was mired in scandal and could not withstand attacks from the Democrats recounting his many faults. Blaine lost a nail-biter election to Grover Cleveland due in part to the defection of 'Mugwump' splitters. Now, in the wake of Bryan doubling down on the silver issue, a similar phenomenon seemed to be taking shape.

Harper's Weekly, The Washington Post, and other conservatively bent publications capitalized on Bryan's fateful choice with new articles highlighting the president's unstable currency theory and his contempt for sound economics. Gold Democrats like Olney were once more featured in several of these editorials. "It is increasingly apparent," he wrote, "that Mr. Bryan's moralism does not account for sanity." The Democratic Old Guard, a contingent which halfheartedly backed the president from the moment of his Oath of Office, could back him no longer. "The mutation unleashed upon the party of Jefferson and Jackson must be reversed. If we must suffer McKinley for a time, then so be it."

This fortune transpiring before the Republican Party required an appropriate response. If it sought to forge this unified opposition, it needed to designate a presidential candidate capable of appealing to both Republican voters as well as pro-business Democrats. Several vastly disparate Republican candidates begun working toward the party nomination by the time January rolled around, including former vice presidential pick Henry Clay Evans of Tennessee, but none yet captured the bare appeal necessary to allure Bourbon elites. RNC Chairman William McKinley, considered by this point as the voice of the national party and a clear-cut frontrunner for the nomination, flatly denied any interest in once more seeking higher office.

The candidate amassing the most momentum leading to the convention rather lacked the aforementioned appeal. Theodore Roosevelt, national war hero and potential foil for Bryan's electioneering, was overtly vying for the presidential nod. After the war, the bombastic Roosevelt shuffled back into New York politics and gained favor with the state Republican Party. He was thereby, by a near-unanimous decision, placed on the top of the GOP gubernatorial ticket for 1898.

Roosevelt stormed the political barricades as if he was still at war in Cuba, delivering upwards of twenty speeches per day in a manner clearly inspired by Bryan's crusade for office. Donning his Rough Rider persona, the candidate vigorously paraded through the state in a close contest with Tammany Hall's selection, Democratic judge Augustus Van Wyck. He won this engagement and barged his way into the governor's mansion as if it was Santiago. "In the long run," declared the new governor, "he serves his party best who most helps to make it instantly responsive to every need of the people, and to the highest demands of that spirit which tends to drive us onward and upward."

Senator Platt and the state party leadership commonly coordinated with Governor Roosevelt during the early months of the latter's tenure in office, developing governing strategies and advising the newcomer how best to deal with an unruly legislature. Once Roosevelt started signing off on legislation that instituted a new tax on franchises and leaned into laws meant to break apart hugely influential corporate trusts, the more conservative Republican machine ended its amicable relationship with the governor. Desiring a middle-ground between rosy populist Democracy and jaded Social Darwinism, Governor Roosevelt also worked to enact an 8-hour working day for state employees, greater government mediation in labor disputes, and civil service reform.

The governor honed in on his opinion of United States' foreign affairs while serving in that role. Speaking to the virtues of a code of morality he judged "the strenuous life", Roosevelt stressed patriotism and masculinity in tandem with international action during a Chicago speech.

In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the State which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who pre-eminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.

Last year we could not help being brought face to face with the problem of war with Spain. All we could decide was whether we should shrink like cowards from the contest, or enter into it as beseemed a brave and high-spirited people; and; once in, whether failure or success should crown our banners. So it is now. We cannot, as the present administration desires, avoid the responsibilities that confront us in Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. A job half-finished is a job not finished. If we drove out a medieval tyranny only to make room for savage anarchy, we had better not have begun the task at all.

         Theodore Roosevelt, "The Strenuous Life" Speech, April 10th, 1899

Roosevelt's own writing in 1899 demonstrated his personal wish to remain in the gubernatorial role for a second term to further develop his unique policies for New York before setting foot on the national stage. However, feeling as though President Bryan's "ineptitude" on domestic and foreign matters "brought dishonor to the flag" and cowardice to the republic, the governor contemplated greater ambitions. Sometime in mid-February, Roosevelt sent a telegram to his friend, former Assistant State Secretary John M. Hay, requesting he assist in the campaign. He did the same for an assortment of other characters, including famed journalist and photographer Jacob Riis.

Platt, who was in the midst of devising an under-the-radar plot to elevate Roosevelt to the vice presidential slot at the national convention, reacted with a mix of astonishment and rage once hearing the news. It frankly shattered his plan to pieces. The convention would, by tradition, categorically disallow an active presidential candidate to be placed in the call for vice president, meaning Roosevelt would either end up in the White House or back in the governor's mansion for a second term. The senator needed to trek the extra mile if he indeed wished to, as he once admitted, "get rid of the bastard."

[Pyro]

U.S. Senator Mark Hanna, 1900 - Source: Wiki Commons

Roosevelt, to put it mildly, embodied everything the Republican establishment dreaded in a nominee. His severing of all ties to the state party machine indicated his unruliness and tendency to act on instinct, and his reformist economic ideals alienated any plausible monetary assistance from lucrative corporations. Choosing the New Yorker at the convention would also plainly jeopardize McKinley's strategy to take down President Bryan in November. The Rough Rider simply could never be allowed the nomination of the Republican Party at the presidential level. The RNC needed someone else.

In order to soundly thwart Roosevelt, the Republicans required an individual similar enough to the governor to captivate an audience, yet, at the same time, be nothing alike in terms of personality or policy. Representative Evans possessed some appeal to the Old Guard, but he sorely lacked a solid base despite proving his worth as a strategist for the Harrison Campaign. Other potential picks like retired Governor Levi Morton and former Speaker Reed suffered from analogous defects to Evans'. Apart from Roosevelt, there were remarkably few well-known figures emerging as consistent enemies to 'Bryanism'. On the conservative end of the spectrum, the lone name was Marcus Hanna.

The mastermind behind McKinley's early, oft-forgotten presidential campaign and the de facto leader of the Ohio Republicans, Senator Mark Hanna, from the point of his ascension to the Senate, bitterly opposed President Bryan and the Democrats. Unlike the type of opposition utilized by Reed, Hanna obstructed Bryan whilst proposing alternate solutions. During the intense debate over electoral reform, the Ohioan essentially agreed with the president over the core problem. He acknowledged that the antiquated process of state legislatures appointing senators demanded some degree of adjustment, but squarely rejected the concept of direct election.

Hanna thereby proposed to his colleagues a less radical approach, theorizing that the cure for the vacancy problem lied in temporary appointments. He believed that the federal government merely needed to grant state governments the ability to appoint interim senators, and require it do so in the case of a vacancy. Doing this would solve the vacancy issue and ease tension from deadlocked legislatures without completely rewriting the entire process. Unfortunately, he was unable to accrue adequate support to amend the resolution and it passed in its original form. Still, Hanna's ingenuity demonstrated the exact type of moderate governing the Republican stalwarts longed for in a president.

The Ohioan formally initiated his presidential campaign upon learning of Roosevelt's interest to run. Hanna re-formed much of his politically adept team from the 1896 operation and began working toward the nomination in earnest. He applied the strategy originally meant for McKinley, accruing Southern delegates as speedily and efficiently as possible. In the span of a few months, Hanna locked in the bulk of the South in addition to securing a majority of delegates in Illinois. Hanna supporter Charles G. Dawes, a Chicago businessman and state party official, became a key figure in the campaign's Midwestern operation as it sought to drive in swathes of delegates to Hanna's side.

By his personal accounts, Hanna enjoyed running his own campaign far more than managing another's. His authority went unquestioned by those working for him, even by elder colleagues. Hanna rarely approached others for advice, but did so in his 1900 campaign for the presidency, consulting fellow Ohioan William Rufus Day. An associate of McKinley, Day befriended Hanna several years prior and corresponded with the senator frequently upon the latter's inauguration to the Senate. Within this correspondence, it is revealed that Day foreshadowed the greatest stumbling block to Hanna's prospective nomination. "I fear there are signs that the Mr. Roosevelt has taken Pennsylvania. Quay has lost the respect of his peers."

         Jay R. Morgan, The American Elephant: A Study of the Republican Party, 1980

The senator from Ohio drastically underestimated the organizational prowess of his chief competitor, not realizing that Roosevelt's ties to the expansionist wing of the GOP equaled Hanna's influence with the state party machines. Support from party bosses was no longer sufficient in rounding up state delegates. Morgan expounds, "Dreams of an American Empire blinded considerable portions of the Republican Party. Hanna's plan ignored this fact." Hanna, who was running on a conservative, broadly isolationist platform, was blind-sighted by the degree to which imperialism infected the whole of the party in the last two years. Roosevelt's stance on incorporating the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba into the United States' sphere of influence, as well as his reform-minded repudiation of bosses, machines, and trusts, led to his sweep of the Western delegations in addition to outpacing Hanna in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

[Orwell]

Didn't Hanna get diagnosed with stomach cancer around this time

[Continential]

Didn't Hanna get diagnosed with stomach cancer around this time

But the curse which killed all presidents elected every 20 years until 1980

[Pyro]

Didn't Hanna get diagnosed with stomach cancer around this time

I've read that he dies from a bout of typhoid fever, not cancer.

[Orwell]

Didn't Hanna get diagnosed with stomach cancer around this time

I've read that he dies from a bout of typhoid fever, not cancer.

You're right, I don't remember how I got to stomach cancer, I was thinking of Governor Floyd B. Olson of Minnesota.

[Pyro]

Exposition Auditorium, June, 19th, 1900 - Source: Wiki Commons

By the time the Republican National Convention convened, Roosevelt and Hanna were about tied in pledged delegates. The Ohioan retained a small advantage in terms of raw numbers, but the New Yorker frequently argued that his partisans were less likely to bail out in the case of a second ballot. Roosevelt's pummeling of Hanna along the West Coast pushed the latter to adopt a more virulent campaign strategy: demonizing the governor in the same vein as President Bryan. He openly referred to his competitor as a "fanatic opportunist" and a "sure-fire road to a two-term Bryan," deepening the rift between the two camps. Hanna started to stir the mudslinging pot at on the onset of summer in a last-ditch hope to avoid a contested convention, but he ultimately failed in his goal. As fate would have it, the nominee would be decided at the RNC.

The Exposition Auditorium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania opened its doors on June 19th for the convention festivities. Chairman McKinley ushered in the start of the event, then opted for Senator Edward Wolcott (R-CO) to serve as the temporary chairman over the tense arena for the first day, followed by Senator Lodge on the second. Lodge brought the committee to order whence he was handed the gavel, and commenced in the delivering of a speech restating the tenants of the '96 Republican platform. He touched on the need to raise tariffs, pass legislation to cement the gold standard, modernize the military and protect American commerce. These ideas generated hefty applause, but the proceeding tirade against President Bryan ended in a deafening roar of approval.

During these years of Democratic spectacle, we had presented to us pure political chaos. The party of melancholy and unfulfilled promises under President Cleveland devolved into one absent of intelligent action. We have endured unending artificial agitation, humorously dubbed reform, heroically blockaded by the U.S. Senate: the last vestige of common sense governing. [...] We have also, for the last two years, been paralyzed as a nation, stunted by a radical bent on darkening the shining light of Old Glory. It is the task of the American people to embrace its responsibility to the lands liberated from foreign tyranny. Should we turn the islands, where we had destroyed all existing sovereignty, loose upon the world to be a prey to domestic anarchy and the helpless spoil of some other nation? Never! The outcry against our call, the demand that we serve as guardians of freedom, is as empty as the cant about 'militarism' and 'imperialism' is devoid of sense and meaning.

         Henry Cabot Lodge, Opening Remarks to Republican National Convention, June 20th, 1900

Senator Lodge's skillful correlation of the Bryan Administration and the Democrats with anti-imperialism, and more so his phrasing which insinuated communal, party-wide agreement on the topic of the former colonies, proved a sharp blow to Hanna's prospects. Hanna was often mum on the matter, but he did not exemplify the same attitude toward jingoism that Lodge and Roosevelt had. Lodge was meant to be impartial, and, in truth, he refused to outright endorse any one candidate, but this dig at anti-expansionists (which, as previously mentioned did result in immense applause) served to help bolster the governor.

Lodge may also have influenced the final platform proposal decided later that day, as a plank calling more explicitly for authority over the Western Hemisphere was confirmed by a voice vote over the objections of a minor opposition. Regardless of the undoubted divisiveness over the limits of American sovereignty, this victory for the expansionist faction seemed to, for the time being, settle the issue. After all, no one walked out of the auditorium upon final passage of the platform, as had been the case in 1896 regarding bimetallism.

With the rising of the sun on June 21st arrived the third day of the Republican National Convention. Following a brief opening prayer, Senator Lodge declared that the business of nomination was next on the agenda. As established by the traditional convention rules, proponents for individual candidates were instructed to rise and present short nominating speeches. Three candidates were to be formally nominated, in order: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Hanna, and Henry Clay Evans. The call took place alphabetically, with Alabama first.

Mr. P.D. Barker of Alabama immediately yielded the floor to Massachusetts, whence Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., formally proclaimed the nomination of Governor Roosevelt for the presidency. His speech ended in rapturous applause, but much of it may have been out of respect for the commander's actions during the war with Spain. Hanna's nominating speech came from Senator Joseph Foraker of Ohio, then seconded by John F. Jones of South Carolina. They chiefly spoke to Hanna's merits as a businessman and, to a minor extent, his activities in the Senate. Henry Evans was nominated by Representative Henry R. Gibson (R-TN) in a manner similar to his vice presidential nomination four years previous, and it invoked positive reaction primarily from the Tennessee delegation. Then, at Gibson's closing remarks, Senator Lodge instructed the reading clerk to begin calling the roll.

TWELFTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

THE BALLOT: PRES		1st Call		924 DELEGATES
Mark Hanna		405
Theodore Roosevelt		393
Henry Clay Evans		116
OTHERS/BLANK		10

The first call, as all were despondently aware, did not succeed in designating a nominee. Hanna led Roosevelt by about ten delegates, but he remained far behind the necessary threshold to secure the nomination. No longer bound by state party decision-making, and incidentally invalidating months of toilsome work from both of major campaigns, the delegates were now free to be swayed on the convention floor. Hanna and Day's tactic to rely on state machines to decide the nominee on the first ballot failed, placing the ball squarely in Roosevelt's court. The New Yorker had a knack for instinct, perhaps a consequence of his military service, and an indecisive nominating convention seemed to play to this significant advantage over the more calculative Hanna. Just prior to the second ballot, Roosevelt operatives exuberantly persuaded as many delegates as possible to shift the numbers dramatically enough to generate unanimous consent for his nomination, just as Harrison accomplished in 1896.

This did not manifest on the second ballot, nor on the third. Numbers slightly fluctuated betwixt the leading contendors, but neither again ascended above the 400 count. The campaigns, their die-hard delegates, and the candidates themselves brazenly refused to budge. This deadlock threatened to stall the convention indefinitely. An infuriated William McKinley personally wired Hanna and Roosevelt with a plea to resolve the ordeal in a cordial manner, but neither camp backed down. "Whispers swirled throughout the convention hall," wrote Jay Morgan, "speculatively started by Senator Platt, that Roosevelt refused an offer to serve as Hanna's vice president. It was hardly surprising, knowing Roosevelt. The only post he desired on the federal level other than the presidency was Secretary of War, and Hanna, of course, curtly disallowed his opponent to have a say on foreign affairs in his administration."

Behind the scenes, the two camps warred. Once the convention adjourned for the day, Hanna continued to deride his competitor, spilling rumors to the delegates of Roosevelt's alleged plot to bolt from the party if he should be denied the nomination. In the midst of the conundrum, the Ohioan reportedly screamed to a conciliatory colleague, "I will not have that damned cowboy in the White House!" Roosevelt felt much the same about Hanna, letting it be known that the Ohioan's affinity with organized capital, "exonerated Democratic doubts regarding our earnestness for reform." Senator Hanna was not one to shy away from the cause of corporate aggrandizement, and during his career indeed associated consolidation with prosperity. Personal attacks aside, Hanna's rampant conservative program may have been what kept Roosevelt from forging a compromise.

[Elcaspar]

Seems like the Republican Party is at a bit of an impasse, which might end up giving Bryan an advantage in the general election if it goes on.

[We Live in Black and White]

Seems like the Republican Party is at a bit of an impasse, which might end up giving Bryan an advantage in the general election if it goes on.

Not to mention Roosevelt's ego. If he doesn't end up getting the nod, he might run third party out of spite, as per IRL 1912.

[Pyro]

Internal View of the Republican National Convention, June 19th, 1900 - Source: Wiki Commons

When all was at its bleakest, a new prospect appeared at the dawn of the fourth day. Exhausted delegates disgusted with the bitter deadlock began suggesting the introduction of a 'dark horse' candidate. Deep-rooted proponents of the two leaders stayed determined on winning the nomination, but others believed that the contest could only feasibly conclude with a new name selected. Several fresh faces arose in the proceeding ballot, among them Henry Cabot Lodge and Robert Todd Lincoln, but one man alone stood out from the pack. Proving to peel away a significant amount of delegates from Hanna and Roosevelt, the campaign for Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana was born.

In a peculiar twist of destiny, Beveridge had been approached by a member of the national committee on the evening of June 21st with the offer. The Hoosier contemplated his options, and subsequently complied. Already a delegate from his home state, Beveridge himself was present at the Republican convention when his name appeared in the ensuing roll calls the following morning. Delegates seized the moment with avidity. Representative Evans bowed out from consideration on the fifth ballot and endorsed Beveridge, markedly boosting his chances. Governor Roosevelt, who was a personal friend and political ally of Beveridge, somberly accepted the writing on the wall. He therefore wired his supporters to champion the nomination of Beveridge for president. That put him over the top.

TWELFTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

THE BALLOT: PRES		1st Call		2nd Call		3rd Call		4th Call		5th Call		6th Call		7th Call		924 DELEGATES
Albert J. Beveridge ☑		0		0		0		31		143		199		508
Mark Hanna		405		389		386		373		375		355		340
Theodore Roosevelt		393		399		383		371		377		350		62
Henry Clay Evans		116		121		126		120		8		1		5
Henry Cabot Lodge		0		0		0		12		10		11		4
Robert Todd Lincoln		0		0		0		6		3		3		3
William McKinley		0		0		0		5		1		1		1
Joseph G. Cannon		0		0		0		2		2		1		1
William B. Allison		0		0		0		1		2		0		0
Morgan G. Bulkeley		0		0		0		1		1		1		0
OTHERS/BLANK		10		15		29		2		2		2		0

One of the single most contentious and unpredictable conventions in modern history thereby resulted in the nomination of Indiana Senator Beveridge for president (humorously, the fourth straight Republican nominee from that state). He appeared to be suitably strait-laced for the conservative wing and adequately internationalist for the imperialist wing. Beveridge matched President Bryan in terms of oratory skills as well as age, 38 years to 40, respectively. The nominee proceeded to deliver a fiery acceptance speech, the first of its kind delivered by the party's nominee personally at the convention, with as much passion as his famous 'March of the Flag' address.

Party victories, as such, are nothing; the progress of the American people is everything. Harmony with the onward movement of the Nation makes a party invincible. Opposition to the progress of the Republic means deserved defeat. In our internal commerce and industry it is toward cooperation and combination. This is only another way of saying that civilization is progressing. But while we are in harmony with the times, we are not blind to the evils which cling to the great trunk which itself is sound. But we insist that the tree shall not be felled because of the evils. When combinations of capital attempt to arbitrarily raise prices from motives of mere greed or unjustly reduce wages merely to increase dividends, they must be prevented, punished. But apply a remedy - do not administer a medicine of death.

Now, a word for our 'enlightened' foes of expansion. Let men beware how they employ the term "self-government." It is a sacred term. It is the watchword at the door of the inner temple of liberty, for liberty does not always mean self-government. Self-government is a method of liberty - the highest, simplest, best - and it is acquired only after centuries of study and struggle and experiment and instruction and all the elements of the progress of man. Self-government is no base and common thing to be bestowed on the merely audacious. It is the degree which crowns the graduate of liberty, not the name of liberty's infant class, who have not yet mastered the alphabet of freedom. Savage blood, Oriental blood, Malay blood, Spanish example - are these the elements of self-government? The rule of liberty that all just government derives itself from the consent of the governed applies only to those who are capable of self-government. We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, wee govern our children without their consent.

         Albert J. Beveridge, Speech Accepting the Republican Nomination, June 22nd, 1900

In the spirit of reconciliation and in recognition that Roosevelt approved of the nominee while Hanna certainly did not, Beveridge floated the business-oriented Senator Chauncey Depew for vice president. To Republicans, notably elder statesmen in the business wing, Depew was remarkably popular. He served the nation politically since 1856, when he championed the election of John C. Fremont for president. Depew also held a degree of appeal for curious Northern Bourbons due to his history in the railroad industry and law service to Cornelius Vanderbilt. Hanna, who privately preferred Cornelius N. Bliss for the slot, reluctantly agreed.

TWELFTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

THE BALLOT: VICE PRES		1st Call		924 DELEGATES
Chauncey M. Depew ☑		802
Hempstead Washburn		101
William B. Allison		14
Mark Hanna		6
OTHERS/BLANK		1

[Continential]

I wanted Teddie but since this is the Republican Party in 1900, Roosevelt was lucky to be close to winning

[Pyro]

Convention Hall, July 4th, 1900 - Source: Wiki Commons

On July 4th, the Convention Hall in Kansas City began hosting the Democratic National Convention. Leading Bryan Democrats excitedly awaited the opportunity to broadcast their message of unity and determined reform in contrast to the more divided, decidedly anti-reform Republicans. This, the party of the president, needed to convey the right theme, one entailing hope for the future and resistance to empire, if it sought solid victory that November.

Chairman James Jones brought the arena to order, and following a brief opening prayer allowed for Kansas City Mayor James A. Reed to initiate the ceremonies. Reed discussed the significance of the convention being held on Independence Day, reiterating the Declaration of Independence and reflecting upon the words of Thomas Jefferson, the "...patron saint of Democracy." Framing the mood of the delegates, he continued, "In these days, when we are being told that Jefferson was an expansionist, it is well to [...] recall the fact that the expansion Jefferson believed in was expansion upon American soils. The doctrine of Jefferson was the doctrine, of all the fathers of the Republic. They told us 'That entangling alliances were to be avoided.' [...] The Republican party has latterly, it seemed, concluded to try the experiment of entangling alliances. It longs for standing armies, it pines for a world supremacy."

Mayor Reed proceeded to denounce the Republican platform along with its standard-bearers, Albert Beveridge and Mark Hanna. To this he received thunderous applause. Temporary Chairman Charles Thomas, the governor of Colorado, spoke next. He elaborated on Reed's rejection of GOP expansionism and recalled the merits of a 16-to-1 currency system. Thomas, as well as proceeding speakers, touched on the indefensible nature of private monopolies and trusts, the need to lower the tariff whilst raising an income tax, and the call for state governments across the nation to promptly approve of the proposed constitutional amendment. The final platform of the Democratic Party included hefty planks for all of these significant issues, approved in unison by the pro-Bryan delegates.

Apart from the most fervent anti-imperialist conservatives, Bourbon Democrats were nowhere to be found. Gold Democrats were dismayed by Bryan's insistence on economic reform and bimetallism, and outright refused to take part in the Democratic convention. Some professed a common cause with the president regarding his foreign policy, but the overwhelming majority within this faction stood by Richard Olney's Harper's Weekly statements. To them, the silver issue simply overshadowed all others.

EIGHTEENTH DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

THE BALLOT: PRES		1st Call/Unanimous		936 DELEGATES
William Jennings Bryan ☑		936
OTHERS/BLANK		0

When the time arrived for nomination, the call was unanimous for William J. Bryan. As all could see, this was no longer the party of Grover Cleveland types, but one rejuvenated with populist tendencies and the tide of reformism. Bryan, as denoted by tradition, did not attend the convention himself. He was stationed at his Lincoln home throughout the proceedings and communicated via telegraph to his colleagues in Kansas City. The president did not believe it wise to repeat his convention antics from four years prior. Alternatively, he consulted with his team of seasoned campaign operatives and developed the strategies which would come to define his 1900 general election romp.

Bryan eventually decided against retaining incumbent Vice President John McLean for a second term. If the Bourbons planned on hitching onto the Beveridge bandwagon, the president required a new component to his 'triple alliance.' Seeing as the Republican Party repudiated Rough Rider Roosevelt, Bryan thought it may serve him well to designate a war hero as the accompanying face on the Democratic ticket. "[Bryan] felt inclined to underline the fact that the War with Spain was no war of conquest," wrote Thomas O'Conner. "It was, therefore, indispensable to bond war patriotism with anti-imperialism. Assuaged by Rear Admiral Sampson and other close friends, a disputably antipathetic Commodore George Dewey responded to the president's call with affirmation.

EIGHTEENTH DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

THE BALLOT: VICE PRES		1st Call Before Shifts		1st Call After Shifts		936 DELEGATES
George Dewey ☑		707.5		936
Joseph Wheeler		100.5		0
Adlai E. Stevenson		84		0
Richard Olney		13		0
Charles A. Towne		10		0
Horace Boies		8		0
Elliott Danforth		8		0
Julian S. Carr		2		0
David B. Hill		1		0
Abraham W. Patrick		1		0
Jim Hogg		1		0
OTHERS/BLANK		0		0

[Pyro]

President Bryan Election Poster, 1900 - Source: Wiki Commons

Chapter VI: The Election of 1900: Setting Sail for an American Century

President William J. Bryan, now a veteran in national political campaigning, greased the wheels of his electoral organization and prepared to embark on his mission for re-election. Seeking to be one step ahead of the narrative, as early as the spring of 1900 Bryan began conducting a refreshed whistle-stop tour throughout the country. Strategists universally, on all ends of the political spectrum, recognized that this methodology was critical in deciphering how the Nebraskan conquered the Republican machine previously. As such, the president repeated all he had learned. From the East to the Midwest, Bryan recited stump speeches to massive, devoted crowds.

Flexible currency still appealed to a score of indebted farmers and small businessmen in the South and West, as well as within enclaves of Silver Republicans and Populists. In any locations where these demographics were sure to be present, Bryan relayed his call for Free Silver and pledged to make it a reality if granted a compliant Democratic Congress. When it came to the Midwest, however, Bryan knew the silver issue fell on deaf ears. Instead, in more industrialized regions, the president focused on the plight of the laborer and the detriment brought on to the economy by trusts and pools.

At the turn of the century, trusts dominated the market for basic goods like glass, paper, salt, tobacco and steel. Bryan was politically savvy enough to coin the rise of corporate consolidation as a potent threat and, as president, worked to push the popular opinion of trusts closer to his framing. He frequently pointed to the Sulzer-Hepburn Act as a step in the right direction and referred to the now-bolstered Interstate Commerce Commission as proof that he treated the issue seriously. Leaning back into evangelical populism, Bryan remarked, "There can be no good monopoly in private hands until the Almighty sends us angels to preside over the monopoly."

Vice President McLean greatly assisted in boosting Bryan's messaging all throughout the state of Ohio just as he had before. McLean, though likely disappointed that the president chose to nominate Dewey in his place, cordially stayed onboard as an influential consultant on the campaign trail and the go-to figure for press relations. Other leaders in the Bryan camp like Secretaries Stone and Hogg directed regional efforts in their respective home states, Missouri and Texas. Former Vice President Adlai Stevenson volunteered to do the same in Illinois.

Albert Beveridge also learned some lessons from 1896. Frankly appalled by Benjamin Harrison's final, lackluster campaign, the senator looked to engineer a drastically different operation. Like President Bryan, Beveridge spoke at hundreds of events all around the country to directly petition the voters. The Indiana senator also wisely adjusted his speeches to accommodate for demographic differences. With insight from Mark Hanna, the senator built a campaign on “business principles," organizing diverse bureaus appealing to different constituencies: Germans and Irish, Black and White, conservative and liberal. He deployed dozens of proponents across the country who spoke on his behalf and personally distributed tens of millions of pamphlets in different languages.

Both major candidates were athletic orators, but the Republican nominee honed in on a completely distinct audience from the Democrats'. Instead of appealing to populist agitation and fermenting anger at the present system, Beveridge embraced "conservative sensibilities" in his stump speeches. He sought to make clear that even-minded governance and moderate domestic reform, not dramatic changes in the economic system and constant sparing with the legislative branch, would lead to heightened prosperity for all. Having long-since made a name for himself among fellow Republicans as a bonafide American patriot, the star of Indiana was met with crowds of equal enthusiasm to Bryan's.

To his immense fortune, Beveridge too allied with a cadre of similarly gifted speakers. Charles Dawes in Chicago and John Hay in Indiana did well to champion their party's nominee, as did Hanna, albeit exclusively for GOP investors. Once Beveridge confirmed the trusted service of Theodore Roosevelt at the closing of the national convention, he thereby added the crown jewel to his team. The ferocious governor vowed to counter Bryan and the "disgraceful" cause of "Populist Democracy" at every turn, and he did just that, often recounting that the views of the president were "figments of disordered brains."

Roosevelt, in a rather revealing letter to the senator, relayed that the opposition attracted the worst America had to offer. He explained that while the GOP campaign accumulated upstanding patriots in its drive to ensure the revival of "civilized politics," the Democrat gathered "all the lunatics, all the idiots, all the knaves, all the cowards, and all the honest people who are slow-witted [in their] will to ride down the gullet of crackpot communistic and socialistic doctrines." In total agreement with the governor's philosophies, Beveridge, and later the RNC, adopted like-minded anti-Bryan, aggressively patriotic terminology.

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Depiction of President Bryan from Judge Magazine, August 11th, 1900 - Source: Wiki Commons

Imperialism vs. anti-imperialism was, undoubtedly, the defining issue of the 1900 election. The battle for the soul of American foreign policy, which began at the end of the Spanish-American War, stood to categorize partisan debates in the coming century. Since 1898, Journalists began coining this a precipice of the 1900 Election. When the general election did erupt, the prediction proved incredibly accurate.

The candidates believed in vastly disparate overseas policies. Bryan's perspective supposed that the war had been justified solely because its end-goal was the liberation of Cubans from the tyrannical rule of Spain. As the conflict wound down, the president grew deeply concerned over the prospect that the United States could delve into hedonistic expansionism. More so, as previously established with the Paris Treaty and subsequent debate in Congress, the Bryan Administration and the bulk of the Democratic Party were not interested in colonial endeavors in Cuba nor elsewhere.

Democratic suspicion over imperialist aims for world conquest hung over the realm of politics in this period. When violent conflict exploded in China over intrusive European occupation during the autumn of 1899, President Bryan controversially refused to dedicate American troops to the cause, to the fierce derision of his opponents. The Republican Senate demanded the president act, but he would do no such thing. Bryan did express a willingness to include the Hawaiian islands in the American sphere of influence to prevent other nations from gobbling up the archipelago, but opposed outright annexation. He echoed the sentiments of fellow anti-imperialist Champ Clark, a representative from Missouri, who once questioned, "How does it happen, then, that we have gotten along splendidly for one hundred and nine years without these volcanic rocks? Have we grown weaker as we have multiplied in population? Certainly no jingo will have the hardihood to maintain a proposition so preposterous."

Bryan's supporters, particularly Southern and Midwestern planters and farmers, intensely opposed opening competing markets in the Pacific. Agrarian forces held no ambitions in the acquisition of offshore territories, and actually found the whole ordeal a wasteful distraction as domestic matters remained ignored. As a result of his resilience to annexation, the president received endorsements from the Populist Party as well as the newly founded American Anti-Imperialist League, a diverse and decentralized organization of self-described "non-interventionists." Through incorporating such sentiment into his administration and political campaign, Bryan sought wider appeal from individuals and organizations which advocated similar foreign policy perspectives.

In his acceptance speech of the nomination, President Bryan concentrated heavily on anti-imperialism as a moral issue. Bryan cited the contest, "between plutocracy and democracy," likening the newfound drive for empire an, "attempted overthrow of American principles [...] The last plague, the slaying of the first-born which will end the bondage of the American people, and bring deliverance from the Pharaohs who are enthroning Mammon and debasing mankind. Those who would have this nation enter upon a career of empire must consider not only the effect of imperialism on the Filipinos, but they must also calculate its effects upon our own nation. We cannot repudiate the principle of self-government in the Philippines without weakening that principle here." To Bryan, the concept was flagrantly unjustifiable.

Stratton: Forgive me, John, but I simply do not agree with your assessment. If you examine his language, you would see that Bryan's call to avoid war was not pacifistic, but strictly anti-imperialist. He entered the fray with Spain, and he even supported protectionism in Hawaii! Bryan was no pacifist. His urging of the citizenry to stave off Beveridge-Roosevelt imperialism was precisely in line with how the people felt. Military veterans who witnessed the realities of war in Cuba wrote to him in fear that Beveridge would drag them into brutal wars in the Philippines and-

Marks: Now...  yes now that may be true to some degree, I will admit, but on the whole it was not the path he should have trekked. He was most definitely correct in upholding the 'government of the people' ideal, but it alienated all of the moderates, all of the segregationists in the South, and escalated opposition from the non-McLean press from a position of apolitical neglect to one of fierce mocking. It was the morally right thing to do, absolutely. But was it smart, politically? I just don't think it was.

         Professor Dominic Stratton of Cambridge University and Presidential Historian John Marks
         Republic or Empire: A Rountable Discussion on Capitalist Imperialism, Aired 2001

Where Bryan saw aggressive annexation, Beveridge perceived rich opportunity. Regarding U.S. control over Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, the Republicans forecasted a natural forging of economic gateways into foreign markets. The senator's 1898 March of the Flag speech popularized imperialism and forever associated it with the Republican Party. In addition to this, a large segment of the big business community which once opposed war with Spain now fervently sided with Beveridge in his search of an 'El Dorado' in the Pacific markets. By all accounts, the public was soundly split on the topic, although the sheer loudness emanating from the Beveridge operation certainly presented an advantage to their side.

A key shift in the debate arose when the Philippines secured final and total independence from the Spanish Empire in August of 1900, concluding the Philippine Revolution and firmly cementing its own democratic government. This fundamentally altered the discussion. Beyond Hawaii, the Philippines had been in the sights of the imperialists from the onset of the Spanish-American War. Logically, this became a prime target for American expansion and the Beveridge Campaign leaped at the opportune chance. No longer did imperialism amount to renewed war with Spain over its colonies, but rather asserting influence over an independent nation reeling from a lengthy revolutionary war.

Beveridge, in seizing the opportunity, doubled-down on his rhetoric referencing the inability of "uncivilized peoples" to self-govern and the God-given right of the United States to expand outward. "That flag has never paused in its onward march. Who dares halt it now - now, when history's largest events are carrying it forward; now, when we are at last one people, strong enough for any task, great enough for any glory destiny can bestow? How comes it that our first century closes with the process of consolidating the American people into a unit just accomplished, and quick upon the stroke of that great hour presses upon us our world opportunity, world duty, and world glory, which none but the people welded into an invisible nation can achieve or perform?"

Bryan shot back, frustratingly asking, "Is it our destiny to designate the fates of all other nations? Is our national character so weak that we cannot withstand the temptation to appropriate the first piece of land that comes within our reach? The advocates of imperialism find it impossible to reconcile a colonial policy with the principles of our government or the canons of morality." While the president honed in on defending the newly sovereign nations of Cuba and the Philippines, the opposition continued to capitalize on war-driven patriotism.

Fixating on a core message of patriotic sentiment juxtaposed with involvement in international affairs, Senator Beveridge introduced as his slogan, "Commerce Shall Follow the Stars and Stripes". Bryan scoffed at the arrogance of his competitor, yet he did not adjust his own messaging in retaliation. His staunch isolationism clashed with his vice presidential nominee, George Dewey, who urged the president to shift closer to the Hoosier. Dewey found himself at ends with Bryan's uncompromising foreign policy, incidentally indicating to a reporter in mid-September that he found faults with the Democratic line on economic expansion and, to make matters worse, would not deny favoring Beveridge's stance on the subject. Bryan was most likely incensed at Dewey's implied treachery, but there is no documented response from the nominee.

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Logo of the Social Democratic Party of America - Source: Wiki Commons

In June of 1897, members of the American Railway Union conglomerated at Handel Hall in Chicago. The union, being on its last legs, was not expected to survive the convention. Organizer Eugene V. Debs, alongside other prominent figures in the emerging American Left, engaged in an effort to build support for a new organization from the ashes of the fledgling ARU. He articulated that the novel coalition needed to stand by workers in all industries, and that it must be dedicated to a "grand co-operative scheme enabling people to work together in harmony in every branch of industry," and fight "until the old barbaric system has been destroyed and the republic is redeemed and disenthralled and is, in fact, the land of a free and happy people."

Named the Social Democracy of America, this broad collection of various factions included a slew of radicals and activists, from union officers like James Hogan and Roy Goodwin to famed anarchists like Lucy Parsons and Emma Goldman. The organization urged all honest citizens to unite "to conquer capitalism by making use of our political liberty and to make democracy 'the rule of the people' a truth by ending the economic subjugation of the overwhelmingly great majority of the people." The party did not, however, root itself in Marxist ideology, to the disappointment of the more orthodox socialists in attendance. It instead supported a generic classless vision of society, one initially propped up by Debs, which urged caution in preaching class consciousness. These individuals supporter an older, more utopian, analysis, putting forward an idea that all of society, as long as it upheld moralism and the right values, could bring about socialism. Editor of the left-wing Appeal to Reason newsprint, Julius Wayland, encapsulated the idea. "What is Socialism?" he asked during a published interview. "Merely Christianity in action. It recognizes the equality in men."

Tensions over the route of the party platform boiled over at the 1898 summer convention of Social Democracy. Reconciling differences between electorally-minded reform socialists with revolutionary anarchists was always an improbable task, especially at this relatively youthful stage of the labor movement. The convention, overall, was divided over not only their interpretation of socialism, but whether their "colonization" project (establishing a highly-concentrated bastion of socialism in the Western states) would come to pass. The orthodox wing, led by rigid Marxist Daniel DeLeon of the Socialist Labor Party, assertive labor activist and former People's Party delegate Victor L. Berger, and historian Frederic Heath intensely disliked the aforementioned relocation plan. They implored Debs join their legion to pursue electoral means and greater political action.

Despite his distrust for Berger's vision, Debs stunningly reversed his position on utopian colonization and joined the minority contingent in bolting from Social Democracy. The Berger forces thereby converged and founded a separate group: The Social Democratic Party. This SDP was concise in its platform. Under capitalism, it argued, two distinct classes with conflicting interests had developed: the working class and the capitalist class. Unlike the more nebulous organization that preceded it, the Social Democratic Party called for explicit changes aside from the overthrow of capitalism itself. This included legislation to eliminate dangerous working conditions, complete nationalization of popular resources, and complete equality for women. It also allied itself with the crusade of labor to cooperate on economic issues, including endorsing strikes, boycotts and the 8-hour working day.

The studious Debs publicly accepted the program and disavowed support for colonization. It took a great deal of convincing from his colleagues in the SDP to fully commit to abandoning the prospect of transforming the Democratic Party. Debs, once an avid supporter of the Bryan presidency and the cause of Free Silver, drifted away from the Democrats out of a sense of disillusionment to their lackluster commitment to far-reaching social and economic progress. The reform movement had run into a stone wall, which could neither be breached nor scaled. Debs found that only through persistent activism and a long-term fight to convert the American people to the cause of socialism could the wall be destroyed.

Debs emerged as a leading voice in the SDP, and spoke frequently to massive crowds and for union organizations. He addressed public audiences as well as meetings of workingmen and women on strike. His stardom appeared to stem less from an advocacy of socialism than his role in the 1894 Pullman Strike. That strike proved to be a momentous occasion in the history of the American labor movement, from the unprecedented use of the injunction to the imprisonment of the union's leaders. Not since the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 had a labor struggle influenced national culture. Debs symbolized heroism to many of these workers, so it was of little surprise when the SDP unanimously nominated their single most famous personality for president in 1900.

Somewhat reluctantly, Debs accepted the unanimous decision reached by the SDP at their March convention. It was a long-shot, to be sure, but socialists did encounter a series of minor victories since the inception of the party. It achieved its first success in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1898, where socialist John C. Chase was elected mayor with union support and the votes of Irish Catholic shoe workers. The following year, socialists won control over the Rockton, Illinois, city government with significant union backing. Debs knew presidential victory was unlikely, but perhaps his tireless proselytizing could boost the liberation march he represented. Thereby, from September onward, the candidate began a six-week national tour: the first ever of its kind for the cause of socialism.

Ah, my friends, this movement of socialism will be popular in the next few years. It is moving forward in all directions; every man, woman, and child in the land is vitally interested in it. Such a meeting as this is immensely suggestive, immensely significant; it bears testimony to the fact that men and women are thinking upon this great question as they have never thought before; they realize that the world is trembling on the verge of the greatest organic change in human history. And the socialists realize that the next ruling class of the world will be the working class. So they are pressing forward step by step until the minority they represent becomes the majority, and seizes the reins of government and inaugurates the system of the cooperative commonwealth. If you believe in these conquering principles we ask you to join the new crusade and stand side by side with us, and cast your lot with socialism and cast your votes for the Social Democratic Party and hasten the day of its triumph.

I look into the future with absolute confidence. When I strain my vision the slightest I can see the first rising rays of the sun of the cooperative commonwealth; it will look down on a nation in which men and women — I say men and women, because in the new social order, women will stand side by side with men, the badge of inferiority will be taken from her brow — and we will enjoy the enraptured vision of a land without a master, a land without a slave.

         Eugene V. Debs, "Competition vs. Cooperation" Speech, September 29th, 1900

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Harper's Weekly Illustration of Bryan and Dewey - Source: Harp Week

The voting kicked off on November 6th, 1900, a cold, cloudy Tuesday. Only time would tell whether the American public concurred with President Bryan's arguments and permitted him an additional four years, or if they desired a new face in the Executive Mansion. Democratic and Republican-affiliated publishers ramped up their ongoing efforts to circulate negative stories and depictions of their opposing candidate. The New York Journal propped up Bryan as a brave, war-time president and attempted to characterize Beveridge as a power-hungry creature moving against the grain. Harper's Weekly, on the other hand, squarely sought to define the incumbent president as an irreconcilable lone-wolf unsuited for the duties of governing. In the weeks leading up to the vote, the latter publication regularly referenced in-fighting between Bryan and Dewey as evidence of the president's inability to manage a unified country.

Preliminary news was not kind to Bryan, with reports of Republican-leaning districts experiencing abnormally high turnout. The same held true with select minority demographics, like German immigrants, who rushed to the polls to expel the Nebraskan from Washington. It appeared as though the nomination of Dewey for vice president did little to persuade conservative Democratic voters, as Election Day dispatches confirmed that the bulk of these individuals intended on voting for Beveridge and Depew. It seemed 'The Great Commoner' ultimately failed to markedly grow his solid base of support since ascending to the presidency.

Yet another facet that played to the advantage of the Republicans in Midwestern swing states leading up to the 1900 election was their outreach to black voters. President Bryan spared no words for the cruel and and unjust treatment of black Americans, and waved off any notion that he would offer even the slightest remedy for their situation. He felt no inclination to adjust a stance that led to his political success. To Bryan's credit, he did condemn lynchings in his speeches, but at the same time the president avidly defended so-called "suffrage qualifications". He exclaimed, "[Southern black voters] may qualify themselves to vote tomorrow; the condition is not hopeless. But in the case of a colonized Philippines, the qualification is permanent. There is no means provided whereby the subject may become a citizen."

In an interview with Nick Chiles of the Topeka Plaindealer, Bryan also declined to comment on the rights of black Southerners following a particularly ruthless speech recently delivered by Senator Tillman. The South Carolinian brazenly affirmed that newly instituted voting regulations were straightforwardly meant to keep black people from voting. "We have done our level best [to disenfranchise blacks]. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it." When Chiles questioned Bryan per his feelings on the matter, the president responded, "I won't answer that question. Is your paper Republican or Democratic in politics?" In the end, feasibly a direct result to the mass disenfranchisement of black men, Southern turnout dropped by about 16%.

As Harrison, Blaine, and all prior Republican candidates accomplished in previous elections, Senator Beveridge dominated in the Northeast and made significant gains in the Mid-Atlantic states. Bryan could not make inroads in New Jersey, winning a lowly 42% of the vote. Similarly, the president unearthed abysmal defeat in New York, 43% to 54%, endangering the Empire State's status as an attainable win for the Democrats on the national level. To the profound joy of Senator Depew and Governor Roosevelt, their home state provided Republicans with their greatest victory margin since Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Republicans in Pennsylvania granted its 32 Electoral Votes to Senator Beveridge in a similar fashion to Harrison's 1896 figures. President Bryan secured wins in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia as he managed to do previously, but the Beveridge Campaign ensured that the Nebraskan would not again eke out a win in West Virginia. As for the Solid South, Bryan remained in the driver's seat. Perhaps due to the dissipation of the Populist Party in the South, however, the Nebraskan's commanding raw vote totals from four years prior were not replicated.

A majority of the Western states stayed loyal to Bryan in 1900. The president's insistence on pushing for Free Silver in his second term locked-in many of the same voters that chose the captivating orator in his first run. Results in Nevada, Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming demonstrated sweeping wins for the president, with the same taking place in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Utah. Kansas proved more difficult for Bryan this time, but he did manage to secure a very narrow win in the Sunflower State. Breaking from the trend, however, the president was less fortunate regarding the West Coast. Washington, Oregon and California - all states won fairly confidently by the Democrats in 1896 - universally sided with Beveridge.

At last, in the contentious Midwest, a combination of depressed Democratic turnout, invigorated black and immigrant support for Republicans, and an evenly divided showing among industrial laborers negated the natural advantages of Bryan's populism to these voters. Beveridge swept his opponent in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, in addition to grabbing fair successes in Michigan and Indiana. The Hoosier proved to inspire voters in Illinois as well, where he captured the attention of the state's residents and thereby added its 24 Electoral Votes to his count. These numbers presented thus far awarded the Republican challenger with the necessary threshold in the Electoral College to end the election, yet it is worth mentioning that he also won a slight victory in Ohio against the incumbent.

Senator Beveridge, with 264 Electoral Votes, thereby won the presidential election and ushered in a dramatic repudiation to President Bryan.

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The Election of 1900: Final Results

[TheOnlyOne234]

The great commoner falls, a bleak day

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1900 Congressional Elections      

Senate
Republican: 41 (-4)
Democratic: 39 (+8)
Populist: 4 (-1)
Silver Republican: 2 (-1)
Silver: 2 (0)

House
Republican: 200 (+37)
Democratic: 152 (-29)
Populist: 4 (-4)
Silver Republican: 1 (-1)
Silver: 0 (-1)
Independent: 0 (-2)

  House of Representatives Leadership

Speaker Joseph G. Cannon (R-IL)
Minority Leader John J. Lentz (D-OH)
Minority Leader John Calhoun Bell (Pop-CO)
Minority Leader John Franklin Shafroth (SR-CO)

Evidently, the referendum on President Bryan included the Democratic House in its scope. An apparent conservative reaction to Bryan returned the House of Representatives to Republican hands, thereby providing President-elect Beveridge the mandate necessary to govern effectively. Representative John Lentz had his position reduced to that of minority leader as a jubilant Joseph Cannon acquired the highly-coveted speakership. Cannon remarked on November 8th to a gaggle of press, "Gentlemen, it is my sworn oath that the 57th [Congress], the first of the new century, shall rise to the ranks of the 37th and 41st."

Promising renewed economic growth, legislation affirming the gold standard, and peaceful coordination with the president, Republicans successfully swept away many of the freshman Bryan Democrats. Voters made clear in 1900 their disdain for Free Silver and subsequently whittled away the pro-Silver representation, dissolving half of the House Populist delegation in the process. These results were far from a worst-case scenario, all in all, but it was discouraging for the Bryanites to witness nearly all of their midterm gains disappear.

Regarding the Senate, as only four states thus far ratified the proposed constitutional amendment, the process remained the same for appointments and vacancies. In a fascinating turn of events, Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate fared fairly well in their elections, succeeding incumbent Republicans in several instances. Ironically, this was certainly due to Democratic takeovers of various statehouses during Bryan's presidency. In other words: the reversal of 1896 and 1898. Republicans, for the most part, were winning statewide popular votes, but Democratic control of select state legislatures stayed consistent beyond 1900. Needless to say, conservative Republicans quickly jumped onboard the amendment locomotive as the results poured in.

In Massachusetts, a state easily carried by Albert Beveridge, incumbent Senator George F. Hoar lost his bid for re-election. Hoar, as one of the few anti-expansion Republicans in the legislature, proved a valuable asset to anti-imperialists and helped justify President Bryan's foreign policy. With Beveridge running for the presidency, the Boston-based Republican Party refused to commit to Hoar's re-nomination. One third of the state legislature's majority party propped up former Boston Mayor Edwin Curtis and cast their votes in his favor as others chose Hoar. This granted a pathway to victory for the pro-expansion, conservative Democratic candidate. With the full backing of the minority Democrats along with several Republican defectors, the state government appointed former Secretary of State Richard Olney to the Senate.

Encapsulating the deterioration of the national People's Party, one of the few incumbent Populists, Senator Marion Butler (Pop-NC), lost re-election to a Democratic challenger. Butler had been an avid fusionist in the People's Party and a key figure in the choice to nominate Bryan for president in 1896. He assisted Bryan Democrats in the Senate to the best of his ability and, prior to Wilmington, had been anticipated to receive an endorsement from the state Democratic party in his re-election campaign. Instead, the party chose rabid white supremacist and segregationist Furnifold Simmons, who walked away an effortless victor of that contest.

State legislatures in New York and Indiana held special elections to determine the successors for Depew and Beveridge, respectively. Republicans in Indiana unanimously selected James A. Hemenway, an incumbent congressman, who went on to defeat Democrat William Davis with little difficulty and retain the seat for the GOP. The New York Republican Party, on the other hand, did not have a name in mind. Some offered up former Governor Frank S. Black for the role, others suggested Frank Hiscock, a one-term senator during the early 1890s. Both men declined. Democrats, meanwhile, rallied around former senator David B. Hill in unison.

The Old Guard eventually settled on the congressman representing New York's 25th District, James S. Sherman. Having been born in the politically prominent Sherman family, the New Yorker already possessed a degree of fame upon his inauguration into the House of Representatives in 1886. He proved himself a fierce ally of McKinley during endless tariff and currency debates, and later backed the Ohioan's ill-fated presidential candidacy in 1896. Sherman, in 1900, campaigned for the Beveridge/Depew ticket within his home state, and, perhaps for this effort, the congressman was designated the choice of the Empire State Republicans. Sherman's bloc in the state legislature far outnumbered Hill, therefore handily winning Depew's seat.

  

Senators Elected in 1900 (Class 2)

John Tyler Morgan (D-AL): Democratic Hold
James Berry (D-AK): Democratic Hold
Thomas M. Patterson (D-CO): Democratic Gain
Vacant (-DE): Democratic Loss/Legislature Failed to Elect
James Taliaferro (D-FL): Democratic Gain*
Augustus Bacon (D-GA): Democratic Hold
Fred Dubois (D-ID): Democratic Gain
Shelby M. Cullom (R-IL): Republican Hold
James A. Hemenway (R-IN): Republican Hold*
John H. Gear (R-IA): Republican Hold
Joseph R. Burton (R-KS): Republican Hold
Joseph C.S. Blackburn (D-KY): Democratic Hold
Murphy J. Foster (D-LA): Democratic Hold
William P. Frye (R-ME): Republican Hold
Richard Olney (D-MA): Democratic Gain
James McMillan (R-MI): Republican Hold
Knute Nelson (R-MN): Republican Hold
Moses E. Clapp (R-MN): Republican Hold*
Anselm J. McLaurin (D-MS): Democratic Hold*
W.C. Conrad (D-MT): Democratic Gain
William A. Poynter (D-NE) Democratic Gain
Henry Burnham (R-NH): Republican Hold
William Sewel (R-NJ): Republican Hold
James S. Sherman (R-NY): Republican Hold*
Furnifold Simmons (D-NC): Democratic Gain
A. S. Bennett (D-OR): Democratic Gain
George P. Wetmore (R-RI): Republican Hold
Benjamin Tillman (D-SC): Democratic Hold
Robert J. Gamble (R-SD): Republican Gain
Edward W. Carmack (D-TN): Democratic Hold
Joseph W. Bailey (D-TX): Democratic Hold
Thomas Kearns (R-UT): Republican Gain*
Thomas S. Martin (D-VA): Democratic Hold
William P. Dilingham (R-VT): Republican Hold*
Addison G. Foster (R-WA): Republican Gain*
Stephen B. Elkins (R-WV): Republican Hold
C.H. Parmelee (D-WY): Democratic Gain

*Special Election and/or Filled Vacancy

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Albert J. Beveridge, 26th President of the United States - Source: Wiki Commons

Part 3: Half-Staff

Chapter VII: To Pacific Shores: Beveridge and Imperial Normalcy

Upon learning of his defeat at the hands of the very symbol of imperialist expansion, President William J. Bryan was profoundly devastated. Bryan believed that he could not fail as long as the public supported him, and often said he deserved to fail without their support. Once the total presidential popular vote count confirmed his loss by several hundred thousand votes, Bryan had no choice but to accept that his position was not favored by the American public he so relied on. In a short and nonchalant concession address, the president stated, "My faith lies in popular democracy, and this faith is unshaken.

Eugene Debs, who like Bryan depended entirely on mass public support, learned that regardless of the size of his audiences and his tireless association of democratic socialism with a fulfillment of American democratic promise, the Social Democrats were unable to circumvent the reality of the electorate. He arrived in a distant fourth place in the election, behind Prohibitionist John Woolley, and collected a subpar 103,000 votes. He officially ended his candidacy with a bittersweet message. "Thus closes the campaign - and the results show that we got everything except votes. I am serene for two reasons: 1st. I did the very best I could for the party that nominated me and for its principles. 2nd. The working class will get in full measure what they voted for. And so we begin the campaign of 1904."

Three groups in particular were ecstatic over the final election results: The Republican Old-Guard, the Bourbon Democrats, and the big business community. Republicans, as one may imagine, were thrilled to win back control over the federal government for the first time since Grover Cleveland took office in 1893. They celebrated the occasion as a return to rational normality: a reactionary beckoning of past greatness. To Republican politicians and voters, the back-to-back terms of Cleveland and Bryan proved the chaotic and incapable nature of Democratic rule as opposed to the sagacious GOP.

For the Bourbons, analogous sentiment was shared. Holding such a degree of quiet disdain for President Bryan and the turmoil he had unleashed onto their once-Jeffersonian political party, conservative Democrats had even more reason to celebrate than the Republicans. Bourbons were indisputably significant in the toppling of Bryan from his Washington residence and they attributed immensely to the fundraising efforts by the Beveridge Campaign. Mark Hanna's enormously successful solicitation for campaign funds was matched by former Treasury Secretary John G. Carlisle and former Wisconsin Senator William F. Vilas, who similarly worked to sway entrepreneurial types like Andrew Carnegie to participate in the political game. Due to the work of Carlisle, Vilas, and others in that vein, it is estimated that Bourbons contributed about one half of Beveridge's war chest in the 1900 election.

Indeed, even affluent members of the American Anti-Imperialist League like Andrew Carnegie and John Carlisle preferred an expansionist like Beveridge to the populist mania of Bryan. In fact, the entire corporate community rallied hard behind the Republican candidate from the get-go, and, as such, they were positively ecstatic when news arrived of Bryan's downfall. The stock market leaped in reaction to the election results as industrialists excitedly awaited their new overseas opportunities. Although, as previously inferred, the economy did not plummet whatsoever once Bryan ascended to the presidency, it did certainly rocket upward with Beveridge taking office.

Albert J. Beveridge was officially inaugurated as the 26th President of the United States on March 4th, 1901. Once completing the Oath of Office, as administered by Chief Justice Fuller, the new president unleashed a powerful speech to a captive audience.

The next great business reform we must have to steadily increase American prosperity is to change the method of building our tariffs. The tariff must be taken out of politics and treated as a business question instead of as a political question. Heretofore, we have done just the other thing. That is why American business is upset every few years by unnecessary tariff upheavals and is weakened by uncertainty in the periods between. [...] Our greatest fiscal need is a genuine, permanent, non-partisan tariff commission.

Child labor in factories, mills, mines and sweat-shops must be ended throughout the Republic. Such labor is a crime against childhood because it prevents the growth of normal manhood and womanhood. It is a crime against the Nation because it prevents the growth of a host of children into strong, patriotic and intelligent citizens. Only the nation can stop this industrial vice.

Another market for our surplus requires no reciprocity except decent international treatment; and yet it is the greatest unexploited market on the globe - the market of China and the Orient. To that market we are carried by the development of another principle as natural as that of industrial combination - the principle of expansion. It is a principle universal, and manifests itself in the life of every individual, the progress of every business firm and sweeps onward through the whole range of human activity to the policies of nations.

As the old Whig party resisted American expansion of California, and went to its death; so the late Democratic party resisted American expansion over sea and went to its death. And now (the Democrats) demand that America turn away. Why should we, then, in the very hour when Commercial expansion is swiftly becoming our mortal need, abandon this prospect; give up the mastery of the Pacific and the control of the Orient? It is a policy of decrepitude, a proposition of disgrace.

We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has confronted every onward movement of the Republic from its opening hour until now, but without success. The Republic has marched on and on, and its step has exalted freedom and humanity. We are undergoing the same ordeal as did our predecessors nearly a century ago. We are following the course they blazed. They triumphed.

         Albert Beveridge, Inaugural Address Excerpt, March 4th, 1901

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Inauguration Ceremony for President Beveridge - Source: Wiki Commons

Confident as ever, newly inaugurated President Beveridge swiftly grew accustomed to his D.C. abode. His late wife, Katherine Langsdale, tragically died of tuberculosis roughly one year prior to the swearing-in, so Beveridge moved into the White House with no spouse nor children. At 38, the Hoosier became the second-youngest president in American history, following his predecessor. According to presidential historians like Ackerman, however, the elected leader did not seem to demonstrate any traits indicating political naivety.

Beveridge never viewed himself as a servant among servants. He was a commander right out of the gate, and command he did. His contemporaries affirm the image we have of Mr. Beveridge as a young dragon - eager and ambitious to a T. His personality remained unchanged from the day he arrived to the Senate through his presidency: desirous, arrogant and shameless, but never mean-spirited. He had a flair for self-dramatization, but he took matters of state with utmost seriousness. As once described by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Beveridge was an iron fist in a velvet glove. [...] Bryan figured himself a man guided by divinity to do what was right, always framing every position as a conflict between the moral and the venal. Beveridge rejected this featherbrained notion and took after the Machiavellian model.

         H. William Ackerman, Presidents of the Gilded Age, 2016

Beveridge was said, by Republican authorities in the early twentieth century, to have brought order and discipline back to the Executive Mansion. After four years of miserable melancholy under Cleveland and four more years of unbridled chaos with Bryan, it was finally time to modernize the executive branch and bring back stern management. Over half of the White House staff was released upon inauguration, those chiefly being older workers. Some historians speculate that Beveridge held suspicion regarding the loyalty of some of the long-term staff, and, intending to run a tight ship, fired any individual at will should he or she be declared 'unsatisfactory'.

As opposed to his direct predecessor and other former presidents who sought to shape a relatively balanced Cabinet, Beveridge believed his election, the first of its kind in the past thirty years to provide the winner a total majority of the popular vote, a mandate. As thus, he paid no mind to moderate critics who tempted the leader with calls to demonstrate bipartisanship and instead worked to form a league of professionals, supreme in their respective fields, who would align with the specific interests of the president. He did not find it necessary to consult with the national committee or any party elder to find the right persons. He reportedly possessed a list of names from the moment of his ascension to higher office.

There were practically no limits when it came to his final choices, especially none as comparable to Bryan's. Conservative Democrats in the Senate assured the new president that they would back his appointments one-hundred percent, so any fear regarding legislative disapproval was eliminated. First and foremost, the Manifest Destiny ideologue desired a state secretary willing to go the extra mile in terms of justifying and enacting an expansionist foreign policy. Beveridge chose his friend John Milton Hay, a state department official and leader of the Indiana branch of the presidential campaign. In agreement with the president's perspective, Hay sought as his mission to open the Pacific market for the United States and subjugate any territories necessary to achieve this goal.

For Secretary of the Navy, the president decided to select naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan. This navy strategist and military veteran, known at the time for his Sea Power authorship, solemnly agreed to take his post in the Beveridge Cabinet. Mahan would lead a newfound effort to modernize the creaking and rather neglected U.S. Navy. Mark Hanna, who wrote to the president in support of Hay and Mahan's appointments, made it clear that he would decline any appointment offered to him. Beveridge briefly had considered Hanna for Secretary of the Treasury, but upon Hanna's definitive declination, the president designated Iowa Senator William B. Allison for that role. Any remote suspicion from Republican elders that the new leader would renege on his promise to uphold conservative economic policies vanished when he selected Allison. The senator was a staunch supporter of the gold standard and a high tariff, and when tested during congressional debates, continuously held the party line as others wavered.

At the recommendation of Chairman McKinley, President Beveridge chose Philander C. Knox, President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, as Attorney General. McKinley interacted previously with Knox when the two met at a Republican fundraising event involving Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Carnegie. The Pennsylvanian fostered close ties with each of these aforementioned industrialists, personally serving as a director for the Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce and a counsel for the Carnegie Steel Company at the turn of the century. Knox himself was not heavily involved in political ventures, but at the bequest of McKinley and President Beveridge, happily complied in serving as the leading authority of the Justice Department.

The sole caveat to Beveridge's personalized shaping of the Cabinet was a deal he struck with Governor Theodore Roosevelt at the time of the Republican National Convention. Roosevelt, although he trusted and truly supported the Indiana senator in his mission to win control of Washington from the Bryan scourge, always had his own agenda in mind. He agreed to endorse Beveridge at the convention and vigorous campaign for his friend with an expectation that he would be rewarded with the Cabinet post he coveted so greatly: Secretary of War. When the election reached its conclusion, the new president approached the governor and made good on his promise. Once Congress confirmed the appointment of Roosevelt and elevated him beyond New York government, Senator Platt wrote, "It is the greatest relief of my days, the wretched soul shall never more govern our affairs."

The Beveridge Cabinet

Office		Name
President		Albert J. Beveridge
Vice President		Chauncey Depew
Sec. of State		John M. Hay
Sec. of Treasury		William B. Allison
Sec. of War		Theodore Roosevelt
Attorney General		Philander C. Knox
Postmaster General		Charles Emory Smith
Sec. of the Navy		Alfred Thayer Mahan
Sec. of Interior		Edward O. Wolcott
Sec. of Agriculture		James Wilson

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The White House Cabinet Room, 1901- Source: Wiki Commons

President Beveridge, having at his disposal an amenable Congress, prepared a legislative course of action and moved to enact his agenda. He had no patience for a middle-ground approach or any true method of compromise, believing that the majority-Republican House would gaslight any opposition and thereby eliminate it. Speaker Cannon wrote to the president declaring his intent to "do everything possible to [make up for] the last eight years." Cannon and Beveridge shared the same general conservative ideology, so captaining bills conducive to their whims would hardly prove an arduous task. "We must contribute," wrote Cannon, "to the stability and longevity of the Republic [...] and undo all that madman thrust upon us."

Unfortunately for the president, the congressional session timetable meddled with his legislative plans. Unless he intended on calling the new 57th Congress in for a rare specialized session, the first official session was not scheduled to meet until December of 1901. This effectively placed any and all moves to conduct domestic reform on the figurative back-burner. In the interim, Beveridge begun work toward a far more ambitious project.

In the initial few weeks of his presidency, Albert Beveridge met with military strategists, amicable businessmen, and political intellectuals regarding how best to pursue the Pacific markets. The president, though naturally wary of mediation, appeared open to other perspectives. Opponents of traditional colonialism suggested the president enter the foreign markets peacefully in a purely commercial manner. Secretary Hay belonged squarely in this group. Although he believed in the cause of expanding the economy of the United States into the Pacific, he hoped to persuade Beveridge to enact "Open Door" diplomacy in order to avoid any loss of American life whilst maintaining de facto ruler-ship in the desired markets.

Beveridge, who previously declared, "the Pacific is our ocean," was hesitant to hear out any theorem apart from unambiguous U.S. dominance, yet he nonetheless listened to the words of his advisor. He understood that carrying out the profound task of expansion could not be accomplished in a fortnight. The president also knew, however, that the so-called "people's mandate" that elevated him to the presidency was inspired primarily by the concept of modern imperialism and overseas growth of the United States. The pursuit of Hay's Open Door Policy was a plausible path ahead in fulfilling the commercial objectives of imperialism, however Beveridge maintained that any doors closed off to the United States would be battered down at any cost.

These defenseless independent nations, Beveridge thought, were destined to be ruled by larger, militarized forces. He determined that these countries, ill-suited to defend their own people from an outside invasion, had no business governing themselves. In further justification of overseas expansion, the champion of the "White Man's Burden" envisioned the United States as a biblical savior for these other populations. "The Great Republic, he announced, "before I die will be the acknowledged lord of the world's high seas. And over them the republic will hold dominion, by virtue of the strength God has given it, for the peace of the world and the betterment of man." To Beveridge and others of his white supremacist mindset, U.S. dominance was not subjugation, it was civilization.

The first key to realistically implementing modern imperialism would arise in the form of private investment companies. Small groups of wealthy U.S. investors began establishing commercial relations in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Latin American regions over the previous decade. Once Puerto Rico was released by Spain, for instance, their government eagerly accepted a high-interest loan issued by the New York-based Porto Rico Improvement Company. One loan grew into three loans, then four. Gradually, the company covered the entire internal debt of the sputtering island nation.

Finding U.S. holdings in jeopardy, Secretary Hay, immediately upon his confirmation, arranged for the Puerto Rican government, under President José Conrado Hernández, to settle the loans. The U.S. Minister to Puerto Rico hastily met with the local delegation and, together, they charted an ominous reimbursement plan. From June of 1901 until the debt was repaid, the United States would collect customs at every port in Puerto Rico. 60% of all customs would be commandeered to service debts to the Porto Rico Improvement Company, and the U.S. Navy would be stationed at each port to, as merchant documents state, "observe and report" each day's events and sums to Washington. For all intents and purposes, the United States now controlled the economy of Puerto Rico.

[Orwell]

YESSSS MY BOY ALFRED T. MAHAN