The Panic peaked in 1894, but unemployment would remain high and money tight for years. During the presidential election of 1896, the arcane issue of the money supply—a debate over maintaining the gold standard versus allowing a standard based on both gold and silver—took center stage. Populists and Democrats argued that farmers and labor needed the infusion of silver, which would lower interest rates and allow them to obtain loans more easily. The Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan, galvanized delegates at the party’s Chicago convention with his famous plea not to “crucify mankind
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