Gold Democrats

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GOLD DEMOCRATS

GOLD DEMOCRATS. Repudiating the free-silver platform of the Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, Gold Democrats organized the National Democratic Party in September 1896. They nominated Senator John M. Palmer of Illinois for president on a conservative, gold platform, thus providing an anti-Bryan ticket for those Democrats who could not stomach voting for Republican candidates. Nevertheless, many Gold Democrats either voted for Republican William McKinley or avoided voting, with the result that Palmer polled only 134,635 votes. Gold Democrats did not nominate candidates in 1900, because some drifted back to the Democratic Party and others turned to the Republican Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Glad, Paul W. McKinley, Bryan, and the People. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1964.

Jones, Stanley L. The Presidential Election of 1896. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1964.

Jeannette P.Nichols/a. g.

See alsoFree Silver ; Gold Standard ; Silver Democrats .

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