The Election of 1900

American Imperialism and the Full Dinner Pail

August 17, 2009 Mike Streich

 By 1900 the United States had entered global affairs as a colonial power, espousing imperialism as a matter of national interest & security, despite Democrat opposition.

By the time of the presidential election of 1900, much had changed in the United States. Although William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic contender, attempted to resurrect the gold-silver debate, the issue was no longer important. What had changed, however, was America’s expansion in the Caribbean and the Pacific following the successful completion of the 1898 Spanish-American War and the annexation of Hawaii. Imperialism would become the dominant issue, although most Americans identified more strongly with McKinley’s “full dinner pail.”

William McKinley and the Republican Party in 1900

The “Splendid Little War,” as John Hay called it, gave the United States hegemony over former Spanish colonial islands. America’s “March of the Flag” had added Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, despite fierce Filipino resistance that would result in a lengthy and bloody war of conquest and occupation.

But there were Americans that saw American imperialism as contrary to national principles and the fabric of democracy. Bryan capitalized on the issue, despite his support of the treaty with Spain ending the war. Republican Senator George Hoar, in his Autobiography, claimed that the Senate would never have been able to ratify the treaty without support from Democrats and Populists who were encouraged by Bryan after he came to Washington with the express purpose of supporting the treaty.

Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President

Teddy Roosevelt did not want to be Vice President. His service during the war as a “Rough Rider” turned him into a national hero. But he was content to serve as Governor of New York and was planning a reelection campaign at the time of the Republican National Convention. Roosevelt, however, was a reformer and, as such, posed a threat to the Republican Party boss of New York, Tom Platt.

Tom Platt worked behind the scenes to secure the VP nomination for Roosevelt to get him out of New York. In this, he was opposed by Mark Hanna and McKinley. Hanna was again the National Chairman and the “king-maker” of the election. Utterly devoted to his friend McKinley, he mistrusted Roosevelt. “Don’t any of you realize that there’s only one life between that madman and the presidency,” he declared as public opinion gathered to force the nomination.

Roosevelt was sincere in his refusal to accept the nomination, but in the end bowed to the deluge of Republican Party sentiment. After his nomination, Hanna said to McKinley, “Your duty to the country is to live for four years from next March.” Unfortunately, McKinley would be assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY in 1901, making “that damned cowboy” president.

The Campaign of 1900

Bryan, as he had done in the election of 1896, traveled the nation giving speeches. But unlike 1896, both Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Hanna took the Republican message to the people. Hanna, who was once caricatured as the instrument of the trusts, had mellowed and crowds took to him, viewing him as a common American with their best interests at heart.

Roosevelt, however, was the phenomenon who championed McKinley and American interests. During his nomination speech of McKinley at the Philadelphia convention, Roosevelt stated that McKinley “stands for honesty at home and for honor abroad.” This same message resonated with voters.

The election results gave the Republican Party its greatest victory since 1872. William McKinley’s subsequent assassination in mid-1901 propelled Theodore Roosevelt into the White House, the first VP in American history to be reelected in his own right after the term ended in 1905. Roosevelt’s two terms would greatly enhance American prestige internationally and force progressive reforms domestically.

Sources:

• Paul F. Boller, Jr. Presidential Campaigns From George Washington to George W. Bush (Oxford University Press, 2004)
• Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (New York: Random House, 2001)
• James Ford Rhodes, The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations 1897-1909 New York: the Macmillan Company, 1922)
• Page Smith, The Rise of Industrial America: A People’s History of the Post-Reconstruction Era (Penguin Books, 1984)

Copyright Michael Streich. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.