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1896 Republican National Convention

American political convention

Field	Value
year	1896
party	Republican
image	RP1896.png
image_size	125
image2	RV1896.png
image_size2	125
caption	Nominees
McKinley and Hobart
date	June 16–18, 1896
city	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
chair	John M. Thurston
presidential_nominee	William McKinley
presidential_nominee_state	Ohio
vice_presidential_nominee	Garret A. Hobart
vice_presidential_nominee_state	New Jersey
totaldelegates	924
votesneeded	463
presidenttotals	McKinley (OH): 661.5 (71.59%)
Reed (ME): 84.5 (9.15%)
Quay (PA): 61.5 (6.66%)
Morton (NY): 58 (6.28%)
Allison (IA): 35.5 (3.84%)
Not Voting: 22 (2.38%)
Cameron (PA): 1 (0.11%)
ballots	1
previous_year	1892
next_year	1900

McKinley and Hobart Reed (ME): 84.5 (9.15%) Quay (PA): 61.5 (6.66%) Morton (NY): 58 (6.28%) Allison (IA): 35.5 (3.84%) Not Voting: 22 (2.38%) Cameron (PA): 1 (0.11%)

The 1896 Republican National Convention was held in a temporary structure south of the St. Louis City Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, from June 16 to June 18, 1896.

Former Governor William McKinley of Ohio was nominated for president on the first ballot with 661½ votes to 84½ for House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, 61½ votes for Senator Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania, 58 votes for Governor Levi P. Morton of New York who was vice president (1889–1893) under President Benjamin Harrison. New Jersey banker Garret A. Hobart was nominated for vice president over Henry Clay Evans of Tennessee. Joseph B. Foraker of Ohio placed McKinley's name in nomination.

The convention was originally slated for the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall. However it was determined that repairs and upgrading the Hall could not be done in time and so a temporary wood convention hall was built in 60 days at a cost of $60,000 on the lawn south of City Hall which was under construction. At the conclusion of the convention, both the temporary building as well as the original Exposition Hall were torn down and a new Coliseum was built.

The 1896 Convention was held in St. Louis less than a month after the infamous 1896 tornado that devastated a large swath of the city and killed at least 255 people. There was speculation that it might be unfeasible to hold the convention in the city, but, after a concerted cleanup effort was undertaken, the convention went ahead as planned.

Platform

The Republican platform of 1896 favored the gold standard but left the door open to free coinage of silver, it also supported acquisition of Hawaii and parts of the Danish West Indies, favored a canal across Central America, naval expansion, sympathized with revolutionaries in Cuba and Armenia, wanted exclusion of all illiterate immigrants, applauded gains in women's rights and pledged "equal pay for equal work". It also supported creation of a "National Board of Arbitration".

Presidential nomination

Presidential candidates

Image:William McKinley by Courtney Art Studio, 1896.jpg|Former Governor William McKinley of Ohio Image:TBReed.jpg|Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine Image:MatthewQuay.jpg|Senator Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania Image:Levi Morton - Brady-Handy portrait - tight 3x4 crop.jpg|Governor and former Vice-President Levi P. Morton of New York Image:William Boyd Allison.jpg|Senator William B. Allison of Iowa

Presidential Ballot	Candidate	1st	McKinley	Reed	Quay	Morton	Allison	Cameron	Not Represented	Not Voting
661.5
84.5
61.5
58
35.5
1
14
8

Presidential Balloting / 3rd Day of Convention (June 18, 1896) File:1896RepublicanPresidentialNomination1stBallot.png|1st Presidential Ballot

Vice Presidential nomination

Vice Presidential candidates

Image:GHobart.jpg|Former State Senator Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey Image:Portrait of Henry Clay Evans (3x4a).jpg|Former Representative Henry Clay Evans of Tennessee Image:Morgan G Bulkeley (3x4a).jpg|Former Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley of Connecticut Image:JAWalker.jpg|Representative James A. Walker of Virginia Image:CharlesWLippitt.jpg|Governor Charles W. Lippitt of Rhode Island Image:TBReed.jpg|Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine (Declined Consideration)

For a running mate, McKinley had preferred Speaker Thomas B. Reed, with whom he had worked for many years in the House, but Reed would accept only the top spot on the ticket.

Coming into the convention, former Vice President Levi P. Morton had strong support to re-take his former office from delegates who favored the gold standard. However, McKinley's manager, Mark Hanna opposed Morton's addition to the ticket, instead favoring Garret A. Hobart or Minnesota Senator Cushman Kellogg Davis. Though McKinley's camp did not strongly oppose the party's gold standard platform, Hanna feared that the nomination of Morton would cause silver Republicans such as Colorado Senator Henry M. Teller to bolt the party. He also feared that the nomination of Morton would be considered a concession to Thomas Platt and the party bosses. Hanna was ultimately successful at keeping Morton off the ticket, but many silver Republicans nonetheless supported the Democratic ticket of William Jennings Bryan and Arthur Sewall.

Vice Presidential Ballot	Candidate	1st	Hobart	Evans	Bulkeley	Walker	Lippitt	Depew	Reed	Brown	Grant	Thurston	Morton	Not Voting	Not Represented
533.5
277.5
39
24
8
3
3
2
2
2
1
15
14

Vice Presidential Balloting / 3rd Day of Convention (June 18, 1896) File:1896RepublicanVicePresidentialNomination1stBallot.png|1st Vice Presidential Ballot

References

Bibliography

Official Proceedings of the Eleventh Republican National Convention; Held in the City of St. Louis, Mo., June 16, 17, and 18, 1896

References

[https://books.google.com/books?id=rHk0AAAAIAAJ&dq=1896+republican+national+convention+exposition&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 Official Proceedings of the Eleventh Republican National Convention – 1896]
(17 June 1896). "Hanna Fighting Hard Against Morton". New York Times.
(18 June 1896). "McKinley to be Nominated Today". New York Times.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1896-united-states-presidential-election republican-national-conventions 19th-century-in-st.-louis political-conventions-in-missouri 1896-in-missouri 1896-conferences june-1896-in-north-america conventions-in-st.-louis 19th-century-political-conferences charles-w.-fairbanks garret-hobart william-mckinley levi-p.-morton

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