PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS OF 1806. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 





18, .Mini \v(.]]n-n al-o. contributed to the fund of 

 the Republican party, the offerings ranging from 

 a single dollar upward. Workingmen, farmers. 

 merchants, manufacturers, and lupines-; men of 

 all classes and from all sections of the country con- 

 tributed. 



Th> campaign, in which thousands of 



speai-. !' thousands of canvassers, millions 



of columns of newspaper literature, and hundreds 

 of millions of documents enter into the machinery 

 of education, is necessarily very great. Thousands 

 of halls had to lie rented for holding meetings; 

 thousands of speakers were kept in the field, with 

 their exposes paid: special trains were employed 

 to transport Mr. Bryan and his party, and also for 

 the convenience and necessary movement of other 

 distinguished speakers ; the telegraph wires were 

 constantly and freely used, and the sums paid for 

 the thousands of in- :veying instructions 



to speakers and to committees were very large. 



The Result. The election was held Nov. 3. 

 weather in nearly all parts of the United 

 s made it possible to bring out an unusually 

 full vote. This was especially so in the agricultural 

 States, on whose vote the result was expected to de- 

 pend. All parties made strenuous efforts to get 

 their voters to the polls. "Rallying committees" 

 were appointed in each voting precinct by both 

 parties, to <ee thai every voter cast his ballot, car- 

 riages were provided for the aged and infirm, and 

 no effort was spared to bring to the polls all those 

 who were entitled to vote. Officers of election, ap- 

 pointed from each party, sat at the polling places 

 with registration lists in hand, to prevent the poll- 

 ing of any vote that had not been previously regis- 

 tered and the right of the voter to cast his ballot 

 established. 



Elaborate preparations had been made for gather- 

 ing the returns from the polls and announcing the 

 result. Telegraph companies and pi it ions 



authorized their representatives to receive as fast as 

 possible the reports from polling places and trans- 

 mit them to points where they would be tabulated 

 and the result given to, the public. Each person 

 reporting a vote of a political division was directed 

 to compare it with the vote of that section in 1M2. 

 These figures were reported to the headquarters of 

 the county committees, and by them to the State 

 committees. Members of these committees, through 

 their familiarity with the former votes and with the 

 existing condition of each section of the State, were 

 able, after receiving a report from a few hundred 

 polling places in various sections of the State, to 

 make accurate estimates as to the result in that 

 State. These figures and their estimates were tele- 

 graphed to the headquarters of the committees in 

 Chicago, and were given to newspaper offices in 

 all parts of the country and supplied to places of 

 amusements, clubs, and such other organizations as 

 chose to arrange for them with the telegraph com- 

 panies. Immense throngs of people gathered in the 

 streets of the cities and villages before bulletin 

 boards and transparencies on which the returns 

 were displayed. The consequence was that before 

 midnight a' large portion of the 70,000,000 people 

 of the United States were cognizant of the fact that 

 McKinley and Hobart had been elected. The total 

 vote polled in the United States numbered 13.924.- 

 653. an increase of 1-rG per cent, over that of 1M 2. 

 The percentage of gain was especially large by rea- 

 son of the fact that the vote of 1892 was unusually 

 light, the gain on that occasion being but 5~9 per 

 cent., while the average gain in the elections during 

 the past quarter of a century has been about 12'5 

 per cent. McKinley's plurality over Bryan was 

 600,75)9. which was the greatest plurality ever given 

 to any President except Grant in 1872. ' Of the 447 

 VOL. xxxvi. 43 A 



electors. 271 were given to McKinley, a majority of 

 95 in the electoral coll 



The extremely vigorous eonte-t made by both' 

 parties in the agricultural States, which it w.-.- 

 lieved would determine the result of the cor 

 brought out an unusually full vote and showed large 

 gains ovcrthe preceding election. Tin.- total number 

 of votes cast in these States was. however, in only 

 three or four cases at all. in excess of the number 

 of persons twenty-one years of age and over in I 

 States in 1*90, as shown by the cen-us of that 

 The four States constituting the northern border of 

 that section which had been termed "the Solid 

 South" Delaware. Maryland, West Virginia, and 

 Kentucky were, for the first time in many \ 

 carried by the Republicans, and large gain.- 

 made in Virginia and Tennessee by that party, the 

 claim being made by its members that a proper 

 count of the votes in these States would have also 

 given their electors to McKinley. In the extreme 

 South and the mining States the Democrats were 

 successful, making large gains in many of them, 

 especially in the mining States, where the strong sil- 

 ver sentiment resulted in giving to the Democrats 

 the electoral votes of many States that formerly had 

 stood steadfastly in the Republican column. * The 

 Democrats carried South Dakota. Nebraska (the 

 home of their candidate). Kansas, and Missouri, in 

 all which the Populist party had cast heavy votes 

 in the preceding presidential and congressional elec- 

 tions, the entire vote of that party being in 1896 cast 

 for Mr. Bryan. 



The result of the election, in which more than 6.500.- 

 000 voters found their candidate unsuccessful, was 

 accepted by them peaceably, although a large share 

 of them had felt absolutely confident of success. 

 While this acceptance of the result of an election 

 is characteristic of American voters, the fact was 

 especially noticeable on this occasion because of the 

 feeling that had been aroused during the campaign 

 in the effort to convince the employed that the suc- 

 f the cause advocated by the employers would 

 be to their permanent disadvantage. Any feeling 

 of that character which may have existed, however, 

 was lost in the general expressions of loyalty and 

 good government, and the days which succeeded the 

 election were marked by renewed attention to busi- 

 ness and united support of the principles of the 

 republic. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN 

 THE UNITED STATES. A summary of the 

 statistics of Church progress during the year shows 

 a gratifying gain in most respects. The number of 

 dioceses is 58: missionary jurisdictions in the 

 United States. 21 ; missionary jurisdictions in for- 

 eign lands. 7 : clergy (bishops", 83 : priests and dea- 

 cons. 4.640). 4.723 : parishes and missions, i'>. 

 candidates for holy orders. 063 : ordinations, dea- 

 cons, 189; priests. 165: baptisms, 64,168 ; confirma- 

 tions. 45.154: communicants. 641,145: marriages, 

 17.779: burials. 33.300: Sunday-school teachers, 

 45.230: Sunday-school pupils, 421.523: total of 

 contributions, $12,685,880.01. 



The most noteworthy progress of the year was the 

 important step taken by the missionary jurisdiction 

 of northern Texas in organizing as a dioci 



Missions. The Missionary Council met in Cin- 

 cinnati, Oct. 27. and continued in session during 

 three days, taking all necessary action in regard to 

 the missionary work of the Church. The number 

 of parishes and missions that contributed to the 

 work of the society during the fiscal year was 3.705. 

 199 more than in the year preceding. The Lenten 

 offering from Sunday schools, amounting to $70.- 

 333.05. was an increase of $2,861.14, and was made 

 by 2.747 schools, the largest number that ever par- 

 ticipated. 



