What role might the Panic of 1893 have played in the outcome of the election of 1896?
The Panic of 1893 was serious and lasted some time. The president in office Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not through his fault, but because of overspending in President Benjamin Harrison’s administration, the treasury got busted. Harrison had the first billion dollar Congress and grossly misspent in giving Grand War of Republic veterans no matter how short service or even if committed foolish accidents, got huge pensions. Harrison, who had busted the Treasury, left office in 1893. So the Panic of 1893 had one important point in the election in that the Democrats could not nominate a conservative like Cleveland. That got young William Jennings Bryan a member of House from Nebraska, who had at least some pretense of reform. The Republican Party of 1896 was not reformist. Therefore, if the Panic of 1893 had continued the presidential would have much closer, and Bryan might have even narrowly won. After all even with the economy improving, the 189
