Peck contains one of the most illuminating accounts of the rising in the West, together with the campaign of 1896. H. Croly, _Marcus A. Hanna_ (1912), is one of the few critical biographies of leaders who have lived since the Civil War. W.J. Bryan, _The First Battle_ (1897), is indispensable; C.S. Olcott, _William McKinley_ (2 vols., 1916), is uncritical and eulogistic, but makes important material available; C.A. Beard, _Contemporary American History_ (1914), contains a good chapter; W.H. Harvey, _Coin's Financial School_ (1894), is mentioned in the text; Carl Becker's clever essay in _Turner Essays in American History_ (1910), throws light on Kansas psychology; S.J. Buck, _Agrarian Crusade_ (1920), is excellent. Consult also D.R. Dewey, _National Problems_ (1907); J.A. Woodburn, _Political Parties and Party Problems_ (1914); _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, X, 269; and F.E. Haynes, _Third Party Movements_ (1916). The files of _The Nation_, and the New York _Tribune_ and _Sun_ well portray eastern opinion. The references to the rise of the populist movement under Chap. XII are also of service. * * * * * [1] I have drawn at this point upon Peck, _Twenty Years of the Republic_, 453-456. [2] Peck, 451-453. [3] For brief accounts of Tillman, see Leupp, _National Miniatures_, 117; N.Y. _Times_, July 4, 1918; N.Y. _Evening Post_, July 3, 1918. [4] Cf. Whitlock, _Forty Years of It_, 64 ff.; Altgeld, _Live Questions_ and _The Cost of Something for Nothing_. [5] In connection with the following pages, consult Croly, _Marcus A. Hanna_, one of the few satisfactory biographies of this period. [6] As finally adopted, the gold plank asserted: "We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obligations of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth." Several leaders claimed to have been the real author of the gold plank. It seems more nearly true that many men came to the convention prepared to insist on a definite statement and that each thought himself the originator of the party policy. CHAPTER XVII REPUBLICAN DOMINATION AND WAR WITH SPAIN