New Britain for Sound Money

This silk ribbon, part of the New Britain Industrial Museum’s civil and political history collection, helps tell the story of a series of divisive presidential elections from over a century ago. (NBIM 2024.10)

The Gold Standard and the Election of 1896

The concept of sound money is one you may not be familiar with today, but in 1896 it was a hot-button political issue that divided the Northeast from much of the rest of the country, along class and labor lines. Midwest farmers wanted free silver, also known as bimetallism, a monetary system under which both gold and silver bullion could be minted into coin. They believed that it would bring more value to their crops while the country slowly recovered from an economic depression, known as the Panic of 1893. They thought that backing the U.S. dollar with silver would weaken it, and that a strong dollar drove down the prices of their crops. These farmers, largely in the Midwest and Deep South, were debt-burdened mortgage payers. Northeast industrialists wanted the gold standard, because they believed it would strengthen the value of the dollar. Urban laborers, most of whom were wage-earning renters, were also in favor. They believed that a stronger dollar increased the value of their labor. 

Across the Northeast, students and laborers formed “Sound Money Clubs”, organizing and advocating for then-Governor of Ohio and Republican candidate William McKinley. His campaign platform of “Prosperity at Home, Prestige Abroad” emphasized imperialistic foreign policy and strong national credit. His opponent, William Jennings Bryan, campaigned almost exclusively on the issue of free silver and courted the rural vote. Bryan, perhaps best known for his role as a special prosecutor  in Scopes vs. Tennessee, was not the Democratic Party’s original choice of candidate– the party was split between Gold Democrats, Silver Democrats, and Populists, who also supported free silver. When incumbent Grover Cleveland declined to run for a second consecutive term, the Democratic Convention swung towards Bryan’s free silver ideas, bolstered by his intense and passionate Cross of Gold speech.

“If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands 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.”

(Excerpt from the Cross of Gold speech, delivered at the Democratic
National Convention on July 9, 1896)

Bryan conducted a whistle-stop campaign, traveling by rail all across the country to meet with farmers in the wheat, cotton, and corn belts and giving dozens speeches per day. He campaigned for the rural vote, emphasizing in the Cross of Gold speech that farmers were the basis of the nation’s economy– not city laborers: “Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again; but destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.” Unsurprisingly, this further alienated the urban vote, and Bryan didn’t win a single state in the Northeast. 

Meanwhile McKinley conducted his campaign from home, allowing people to come to him and using a new campaign strategy of courting wealthy investors for campaign funds. His campaign manager, Mark Hanna, paid for trainloads of people to visit McKinley at his home, threw massive parades, printed thousands of pamphlets, and even hired Republican orators such as Teddy Roosevelt to speak across the country, endorsing McKinley and denouncing Bryan. Leveraging the fears of bankers and investors, Hanna promoted McKinley as a great defender of capitalism. Workers and laborers were told that factories would close and the whistles wouldn’t blow the day after the election if Bryan won.

“Prosperity at Home, Prestige Abroad”

A campaign poster for William McKinley, c. 1895-1900. Library of Congress.

In New Britain, factory owners, industrialists, and workers were all in for McKinley and sound money. Factory workers organized Sound Money clubs, including the Stanley Sound Money Battery, the Corbin Sound Money Club, and the Russell & Erwin Sound Money Brigade. They met to discuss public monetary policy and politics and held parades, demonstrations, and campaigned for sound money candidates. “There seems to be more real political enthusiasm in this city than in all of the rest of the state,” wrote The Hartford Courant on October 9, 1896, “There is hardly a street in the city but what has a McKinley and Hobart banner. Every shop, no matter how small, has its sound money club and nearly every society has banded its members together to fight for sound money.”

The P&F Corbin Sound Money Club even crafted a large, gold-plated bug and sent it to Gov. McKinley to show their support, a nod to the nickname of pro-gold Democrats and Republicans, the “Gold Bugs”. By September of 1896, the Corbin club alone boasted more than 1400 members, and all three thousand employees took part in a parade and banner-raising at the P&F Corbin factory. Each employee who participated received a gold ribbon with “The Corbin Sound Money Club” inscribed upon it. Philip Corbin himself sent a dispatch to candidate McKinley to tell him about the demonstration, to which they received the reply:

“Please accept my grateful acknowledgement for your gracious message of good will. It is an assurance of victory when the workingmen, democrats and republicans, unite under the banner of sound money and national honor. 

William McKinley”

(The Hartford Courant, September 25, 1896)

“We Want Gold and Plenty of It”

Demonstration by the Stanley Rule & Level Sound Money Club, Elm and Church Streets, New Britain, c. 1896. Stanley Black & Decker Archives.

McKinley, of course, won the election of 1896, but that didn’t spell the end of grassroots sound money campaigns– when he ran again in 1900 as incumbent, Northeastern industrialists and workers backed him once more. Independent clubs came together to form a Connecticut branch of the National Commercial and Industrial League, “an organization of men engaged in all classes of commercial and industrial pursuits who have faith in the principles of the republican party and its ability to deal wisely with all questions of public policy.” (The Hartford Courant, August 4, 1900.), which attracted businessmen from most of Connecticut’s major industrial centers. Demonstrations and parades continued, with thousands of workers from Russell & Erwin, Stanley Rule & Level, Humason & Beckley, Skinner Chuck Company, North & Judd, Trout & Hine, Vulcan Iron Works, P&F Corbin, and Stanley Works participating.

A Sound Money parade in Hartford drew over 100,000 spectators, and boasted marching contingents from factories in New Britain, Meriden, Torrington, Rockville, Willimantic, Manchester, and more.

The Hartford Courant, November 5, 1900

Bryan’s second campaign platform of anti-imperialism following the Spanish-American war and bimetallism proved unpopular once again and the power of the pro-business Northeast– as well as many other industrial centers around the country– voted overwhelmingly for the Republican ticket. William McKinley won the presidency once more. 

Six months into his second term, McKinley was assassinated and succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.