<P> The Democratic Party in Eastern and Midwestern cities had a strong German Catholic base that was alienated by free silver and inflationist panaceas . They showed little enthusiasm for Bryan, although many were worried that a Republican victory would bring prohibition into play . The Irish Catholics disliked Bryan's revivalistic rhetoric and worried about prohibition as well . However their leaders decided to stick with Bryan, since the departure of so many Bourbon businessmen from the party left the Irish increasingly in control . </P> <P> The Bryan campaign appealed first of all to farmers . It told urban workers that their return to prosperity was possible only if the farmers prospered first . Bryan made the point bluntly in the "Cross of Gold" speech, delivered in Chicago just 25 years after that city had indeed burned down: </P> <P> Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again; but destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country . </P> <P> Juxtaposing "our farms" and "your cities" did not go over well in cities; they voted 59% for McKinley . Among the industrial cities, Bryan carried only two (Troy, New York, and Fort Wayne, Indiana). </P>

Candidate for president in 1896 for the populists and democrats