popular with neither the rank nor file of his party,
through a total lack of personal magnetism, and though he received the
nomination, Cleveland easily defeated him. The remainder of his life
was passed quietly at his Indiana home.

* * * * *

We have seen how Cleveland's independence and want of tact estranged him
from his party, and the party itself was soon to run upon virtual
shipwreck, under the guidance of strange leaders. A word must be said,
in this place, of the extraordinary man who led it three times to
defeat.

When the Democratic national convention met in Chicago in 1896, one of
the delegates from Nebraska was a brilliant and eloquent lawyer named
William Jennings Bryan. He had gained some prominence in his state, and
had served in Congress for four years, but he was practically unknown
when he arose before the convention and made a free-silver speech which
fairly carried the delegates off their feet. Good oratory is rare at any
time; its power can hardly be overestimated, especially in swaying a
crowd; and Bryan was one of the greatest orators that ever addressed a
convention.

His nomination for the Presidency followed, and the result was the
practical dismemberment of the Democratic party. For Bryan was a
Populist, as far as possible removed from the fundamental principles of
Democracy, advocating strange socialistic measures; and the conservative
element of the party regarded him and his theories with such distrust
that it put another ticket in the field, and he was badly beaten. Twice
more he led the party in presidential campaigns, each time being
defeated more decisively than the last. His engaging personality, his
ready oratory, and his supreme gifts as a politician won for him a vast
number of devoted friends, who believed, and who still believe, in him
absolutely; but the country at large, apparently, will have none of him.

* * * * *

The Republican nominee in 1896 was William McKinley, of Ohio, best known
as the framer of the McKinley tariff bill. Born in Ohio in 1843, he had
served through the Civil War, had been a member of Congress and twice
governor of Ohio. He was a thorough party man, and modified his former
views on the silver question to conform with the platform on which he
was nominated; his campaign manager, Mark Hanna, was one of the most
astute politicians the country had ever produced, and raised a campaign
fun