When President William McKinley, the champion of monometalism appointed three bimetallist as special envoys to Europe in 1897 to secure an international agreement to adopt bimetallism, it was met with great skepticism. The political pundits of the day were having a field day with it. The American (A National Journal published weekly on each Saturday) suggested that McKinley was either a "weak man unworthy of the great place he occupies" bending to the pressures of the "currency monopolists who elected him" or an "unconscionable man playing a double game" who sent these men as a distraction.
Bimetallism is a monetary standard where the monetary unit can be one of two metals, usually gold and silver with a fixed rate of exchange between them. The United States Constitution established gold and silver as the legal tender of the United States in 1787 with a floating exchange rate between them. The exchange rate was 15:1 but began slipping in 1834 and was effectively abandoned in 1873. American currency was now based on a mono-metallic gold standard. Opponents of monometalism included farmers and debtors who thought that the gold standard favored creditors over debtors. In 1893, a severe nationwide depression gave silverites or supporters of bimetallism an opportunity to pitch silver as the answer to prosperity. They pitched that silver would inflate the money supply and provide more cash for everyone.
During the 1896 presidential election, William Jennings Bryan emerged as the champion of bimetallism and William McKinley as the champion of the gold standard. Jennings was the Democratic candidate and McKinley the Republican, but the issue did not fall neatly along partisan lines; both parties were split on the issue. Nevertheless, by time the Democrats had their convention in Chicago, the Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryant became the party's favorite and his famous "Cross of Gold" speech electrified the audience and helped put a plan endorsing free silver into the platform of the Democratic party platform.
"Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." - William Jennings Bryan 1896
The Republican party was also split. When "Silver Republicans" who were concentrated in the Western states where silver mining was an important industry left the main Republican party to create the Silver Republican Party in 1896, they chose to also support the Democratic William Jennings Bryan. The Republican party wanted to reiterate their support for the gold standard and opposition to "the free coinage of silver” but included a compromise in their platform that the free coinage of silver if supported by an international agreement would be allowed. There was much disbelief among the Republican party that the Europeans could ever settle on a fixed standard to make that possible. Nevertheless, the Republicans pledged to promote such an agreement. Until then the gold standard was to be maintained.
"The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of a law providing for the redemption [resumption] of specie payments in 1879. Since then every dollar has been as good as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are therefore opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the earth, which agreement we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be maintained. All of our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designated to maintain inviolable the obligations of the United States, of all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of most enlightened nations of the earth." - Republican Party Platform 1896
That pledge gave the Free Silver Democrats and the Silver Republicans the opening they needed, on Grover Cleveland's last day in office, Congress passed an act to promote an international agreement to support the free coinage of silver. Thus, William McKinley, a champion of the gold standard (as was Grover Cleveland) was obliged to appoint a special envoy to Europe to promote such an agreement. It all seemed like nothing more than a political game. Yet, when McKinley appointed the leading advocate of silver, Colorado Senator Edward O. Wolcott heads must have turned. Was McKinley taking this seriously? In addition to Wolcott, he also appointed to other bimetallists, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois and Charles J. Paine of Massachusetts. There were lots of rumors that McKinley was using the special envoy as just a distraction and was secretly working against it. In his report on the work commission's work, Wolcott tried his best to deny these rumors about the president, maybe even too hard. Jennings first explained that there was no sleight of hand; all three men appointed were all bimetallism and their views were known beforehand. As bimetallist they did not hide their belief that "continued adhesion to a single gold standard means only disaster to our agricultural and commercial interests". After explaining the difficulties obtaining agreement between France and Great Britain (a story beyond the scope of this post), Wolcott turned to the statements made by representatives of the New York bankers in England who assured the British that bimetallism was dead and that the President shared this view. They even produced "alleged statements of the Secretary of the Treasury" to back up their claims. On the other extreme, there were rumors that the President was secretly opposing the efforts of the commission, and that there were no hopes that such an agreement would ever succeed.
In the end, no international agreement was reached and as the world's gold supply began to increase due to technology advances in mining and the discovery of new deposits, McKinley was able to keep America on the gold standard alive.
Here is an excerpt from President William McKinley's first State of the Union address on bimetallism.
"Under the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1897, for the promotion of an international agreement respecting bimetallism, I appointed on the 14th day of April, 1897, Hon. Edward O. Wolcott of Colorado, Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, and Hon. Charles J. Paine of Massachusetts, as special envoys to represent the United States. They have been diligent in their efforts to secure the concurrence and cooperation of European countries in the international settlement of the question, but up to this time have not been able to secure an agreement contemplated by their mission."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. 2020. First Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: <https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-15> [Accessed 29 April 2020].
1897. The American: A National Weekly Journal Of Politics, Literature, Science, Art, And Finance, Volumes 26-27. The American, pp.53-56.
En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Bimetallism. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetallism> [Accessed 29 April 2020].
En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Cross Of Gold Speech. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Gold_speech> [Accessed 29 April 2020].
Encyclopedia Britannica. 2020. United States Presidential Election Of 1896 | United States Government. [online] Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1896> [Accessed 29 April 2020].
International.loc.gov. 2020. STATEMENT RESPECTING THE WORK OF THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLIC COMMISSION. [online] Available at: <http://international.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2010/20101105002in/20101105002in.pdf> [Accessed 29 April 2020].
Presidency.ucsb.edu. 2020. Republican Party Platform Of 1896 | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: <https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1896> [Accessed 29 April 2020].
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