98: Silver & Gold: From Grover Cleveland to William Jennings Bryan & William McKinley

“You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

This is the story of Gilded Age’s later presidencies.

Grover “the Good” Cleveland is known as a man of integrity and honesty. Those characteristics alone are enough to get him to the White House. But as Benjamin Harrison interrupts his terms, the frustration of farmers and factory workers is boiling over into more labor strikes. Soon, working-class Americans are rallying around one issue in particular: the minting silver.

The issue is ripping the Democratic party apart. Should they continue to support the gold standard, as Democratic president Grover Cleveland does? Or should they support the working-class “silverites,” as a young Congressman from Nebraska named William Jennings Bryan hopes to do? This question will be settled as the Dems pick a nominee to square off against the Republicans’ 1896 presidential candidate: William McKinley.

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