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1896 Election Dbq

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(a) One factor that determined the outcome of the 1896 election was the fact Cleveland industrialist named Marcus Alonzo Hanna was determined to see McKinley, Republican Candidate, elected; “I love McKinley,” He once said. The Republican platform cleverly straddled the money question but leaned toward hard-money policies. He believed that the free coinage of silver would bring financial ruin to America, in which William J. Bryan’s, Democratic Candidate, “Cross of Gold” speech demanded inflation through the unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 ounces of silver to 1 of gold, through the market ratio was about 32 to 1. Free silver became almost as much a religious as a financial issue. Using his vast wealth and power, Hanna directed
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