1896 Republican National Convention

The 1896 Republican National Convention was held in a temporary structure south of the St. Louis City Hall in

The convention was originally slated for the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall. However it was determined that repairs and upgrading the Hall could not be done in time and so a temporary wood convention hall was built in 60 days at a cost of $60,000 on the lawn south of City Hall which was under construction.^[1] At the conclusion of the convention, both the temporary building as well as the original Exposition Hall were torn down and a new Coliseum was built.

The 1896 Convention was held in St. Louis less than a month after the

Platform

The Republican platform of 1896 favored the gold standard but left the door open to free coinage of silver, it also supported acquisition of Hawaii and parts of the Danish West Indies, favored a canal across Central America, naval expansion, sympathized with revolutionaries in Cuba and Armenia, wanted exclusion of all illiterate immigrants, applauded gains in women's rights and pledged "equal pay for equal work". It also supported creation of a "National Board of Arbitration".

Presidential nomination

Presidential candidates

• 
  Former

  Governor
  William McKinley
  of Ohio
• 
  Speaker
  Thomas B. Reed
  of Maine
• 
  Matthew S. Quay
  of Pennsylvania
• 
  Governor and former Vice-President
  Levi P. Morton
  of New York
• 
  Senator
  William B. Allison
  of Iowa

Presidential Balloting / 3rd Day of Convention (June 18, 1896)

• 
  1st Presidential Ballot

Vice Presidential nomination

Vice Presidential candidates

• 
  Former

  State Senator
  Garret A. Hobart
  of New Jersey
• 
  Former

  Henry Clay Evans
  of Tennessee
• 
  Former

  Governor
  Morgan G. Bulkeley
  of Connecticut
• 
  Representative
  James A. Walker
  of Virginia
• 
  Governor
  Charles W. Lippitt
  of Rhode Island
• 
  Speaker
  Thomas B. Reed
  of Maine
  (Declined Consideration)

For a running mate, McKinley had preferred Speaker Thomas B. Reed, with whom he had worked for many years in the House, but Reed would accept only the top spot on the ticket.

Coming into the convention, former Vice President

• 
  1st
  Vice Presidential Ballot

See also

• History of the United States Republican Party
• List of Republican National Conventions
• U.S. presidential nomination convention
• 1896 United States presidential election
• 1896 Democratic National Convention
• McKinley at Home, Canton, Ohio
• William McKinley presidential campaign, 1896

References

Bibliography

External links

• Republican Party platform of 1896 at The American Presidency Project