I.
O,
there are Bills of many a kind, bills that are good and bad;
Bills
which appear quite sane enough, and which appear quite mad.
Of
bills and bills, and Bills and Bills the country’s had her fill,
The
only Bill we want just now is the great M’Kinley Bill.
Chorus
M’Kinley
Bill, M’Kinley Bill, we want you in the chair;
Protection
is the word for us, protection fair and square.
An
honest dollar for the poor, we’re bound to have the same;
M’Kinley
Bill, M’Kinley Bill, we’ll see you through the game.
II.
There’s
Billy Bryan from the west, he doesn’t fill the bill;
The
Wilson ill has played the deuce with Uncle Sammy’s till.
The
income tax has petered out, the factories are still;
The
Bill to make the chimneys smoke is the great M’Kinley Bill.
Chorus.
III.
O,
Grover he has filled the bill; that is, to small extent;
But
he can’t run a nursery and be the President.
And
tho’ M’Kinley couldn’t hit a duck ‘twere sitting still,
He’ll
hit the mark November next, will this M’Kinley Bill.
Chorus.
IV.
Another
bud has blossomed on the Democratic tree;
Sound
money has a pleasant sound republicans agree.
But
we want no patched up affairs, the sound that makes us thrill
Is
the greatest Bill M’Kinley, and the great M’Kinley Bill.
Chorus.
Sept.
6, 1896
N.Y.
World contest, for “Campaign Song” prize.
The
Campaign and Election of 1896:
The Panic
of 1893, one of America's most devastating economic collapses, placed the
Democrats on the defensive and restored Governor McKinley's stature in national
politics. McKinley dominated the political arena at the opening of the 1896
Republican presidential nominating convention held in St. Louis. His commitment
to protectionism as a solution to unemployment and his popularity in the
Republican Party—as well as the behind-the-scenes political management of his
chief political supporter, affluent businessman Marcus Hanna of Ohio—gave
McKinley the nomination on the first ballot. He accumulated 661 votes compared
to the 84 votes won by his nearest rival, House Speaker Thomas B. Reed of
Maine.
The
Republican platform endorsed protective tariffs and the gold standard while
leaving open the door to an international agreement on bimetallism. It also
supported the acquisition of Hawaii, construction of a canal across Central
America, expansion of the Navy, restrictions on the acceptance of illiterate
immigrants into the country, equal pay for equal work for women, and a national
board of arbitration to settle labor disputes.
The
Democrats, meeting in Chicago, rallied behind William Jennings Bryan, a former
congressman from Nebraska. A superb orator, Bryan stirred Democrats with his
stinging attack on the gold standard and his defense of bimetallism and free
silver. He won the nomination on the fifth ballot. The Democrats pegged their
hopes for victory on their opposition to (1) the protective tariff, (2) the
immigration of foreign "pauper labor," and (3) the use of injunctions
to end strikes. They also supported a federal income tax, a stronger Interstate
Commerce Commission, statehood for the western states (Oklahoma, New Mexico,
and Arizona), and the anti-Spanish revolutionaries in Cuba, who were also
supported by the Republicans.
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