McKinley and Hannah certainly understood what Chen Jianqiu was referring to by the bill.

It was mainly the western coastal states represented by California that pushed for the bill.

As representatives of politicians in the east, the two of them are not interested in the Chinese issue.

After all, in their view, even if the number of Chinese in the United States doubles, it will not be able to shake their interests and the ruling foundation of the Republican Party.

But repealing a bill that has already passed is not a simple matter, and it takes good reasons to convince the members of Congress.

These parliamentarians come from all parts of the country and represent many different groups.

They all think very differently.

It's very, very hard to get them to agree.

Even if the president and the ruling party want to push something, they are often deflated in Congress, let alone the bill back then.

However, the price offered is obviously much more sincere than that of some people who open their mouths to ask for the Minister of Finance.

McKinley, after much deliberation, said:

"Mr. Chen, I know what you mean, I promised you that if I can become president, I will definitely start to promote this matter, but I really can't give you any guarantees."

Chen Jianqiu smiled and said:

"You don't have to worry about this, I just hope that when my people and I choose to stand with you, you don't disappoint those who support you."

McKinley solemnly stood up from the futon and stretched out his hand to Chen Jianqiu.

But Chen Jianqiu, who was on the other side, did not shake his hand immediately, but turned around and took out a small round pottery bottle and three brown pottery bowls from the many lattices behind him.

Chen Jianqiu put the two bowls on the tea table, and then opened the stopper on the small clay bottle.

A strong aroma wafted from the mouth of the bottle.

Chen Jianqiu took the clay bottle and poured wine into the two bowls.

The wine was slightly cloudy and went past the bottom of the bowl.

Chen Jianqiu handed one of the bowls to McKinley's hand, handed one to Hannah, and held up the last bowl himself:

"Well, is this a ritual of your Orient?" The old man Hannah on the side leaned up and sniffed, "This wine looks good." ”

The old man was actually a drinker, and this wine was not quite like anything he had seen before.

"No, strictly speaking, all three of us have to cut our fingers and put some blood in. What, let's go according to that spec? ”

Chen Jianqiu glanced at the old man, turned around and prepared to get a dagger from the grid.

"No, no, no, I'll drink, I'll drink." Hannah craned his neck and drained the bowl of wine.

And McKinley didn't hesitate, took a sip of the wine, and put the bowl on the table.

Chen Jianqiu's bowl was already empty before the two of them finished drinking.

This time, he shook McKinley's hand:

"Now, we're on the same front."

After gaining Chen's support, McKinley and Hannah are confident in their election.

They set up a second election office on Baker Street in New York, began to recruit further troops, and intensively carried out preparations for the election.

This office is not far from Chen's home base in New York.

As agreed, Chen Jianqiu would not be here, but Hanna pulled a special phone line from the election office to 350 Baker Street.

The election office began recruiting.

First of all, on the side of the gold lord.

The day after the election office was established, Mr. Chen, the chairman of Sanjiang Bank and the new pride of Wall Street, announced in a high-profile manner that he would pay $200,000 to support McKinley.

Plus Morgan's previous fundraising.

Businessmen began to wonder if the two high-ranking men were making another political investment.

Sometimes, the way smart people make money is simple.

They don't have to know everything, they just have to follow the smarter ones and do what they've done again.

Hannah traveled back and forth between the leading figures in the business world, explaining to them McKinley's possible future position of government, which was to uphold the gold standard while protecting the interests of the major businessmen.

Speaking of which, plus there are two big guys in front of Zhuyu, what is there to hesitate about.

A group of people began to give generously to fill McKinley's election coffers.

Others simply joined their election team.

For example, James S. A. Gehry, a millionaire in the cotton manufacturing industry, was fooled into talking about loans at Sanjiang Bank;

Russell S. A. Elger, a good friend of Chen's acquaintance in Colorado and the largest timber merchant in the West, also paid $200,000 to join in after talking to Hannah;

Hannah quickly raised more election money than he could have imagined, and even though he was a millionaire himself, he did not expect that the election funds at his disposal were already worth millions of dollars.

Money can make a devil grind, especially in the United States.

As long as the money is enough, the ghost here will not only push and grind for you, but also be responsible for the one-stop business of packaging and sales in the back.

Hannah began to follow the plan he had agreed with Chen Jianqiu on the phone, and began to wave a checkbook to clean up those in the party who might be McKinley's opponents.

If you are not reasonable, then slap him in the face with a check.

Anyone who can be bribed by a check is not worthy of being a Republican presidential candidate.

Only those who can't be bought have the value of fighting with them.

But unfortunately, after going around several states, Hanna found that none of the Republicans were willing to come out to run.

Putat and Quay's "anti-bone alliance" moves a little slower than Hannah.

They had intended to encourage people in the states who were at odds with McKinley to come forward and compete with him for the position of party candidate.

But when they began to visit them one by one, they found that those people either chose not to come out this time, or simply turned against the water, directly telling them that they would unswervingly support McKinley.

Because only McKinley can lead the Republican Party out of the predicament and run for the presidency.

Two leading Republicans in New York and Pennsylvania were depressed.

They couldn't imagine how many resources Hanna had spent to put these people in order.

After dealing with these potential party opponents, McKinley will face the challenge of the "silver coin faction" in the Republican Party.

In this regard, Chen Jianqiu's policy for them is even more straightforward.

Either change your mind or get out.

Accept resignation from the party, and welcome those who have the same attitude to retire together, do not drag mud and water, grinding and chirping.

The so-called "party" is a group of people who share the same ideas and the same goal.

If you don't understand, get out of here as soon as possible.

This kind of hard-line attitude has made those who shout for quitting the party all day long beat drums in their hearts, and in the end, those who really quit the party have become a minority.

McKinley and Hannah's team followed the established guidelines.

When the time came to June 1896, when the Republican National Convention was held in St. Louis, Governor McKinley became the Republican candidate, which was a sure thing.

He won a resounding party vote in the end.

Compared with the Republican Party's unification, their main opponent, the Democratic Party, has encountered much more trouble.

The current president, Grover Cleveland, did not choose to seek his second consecutive term, first, because he was hit by the financial crisis during his tenure and many policies were criticized; Second, he himself is emaciated and plans to retire.

So, this opens up opportunities for the rest of the party.

Former Congressman William Jennings Bryan was pushed to the forefront.

Growing up in Illinois, he worked as a lawyer, was very eloquent, and his speech was very contagious.

This man was an unwavering supporter of the "gold and silver standard" system.

He was nominated by the Democratic Party for his famous "Golden Cross" speech at the Democratic Party's national convention, in which he denounced the gold standard as the exploitation of the common people by capitalists and the wealthy.

Subsequently, he was nominated by the Plebeian Party.

The latter has gained ground in a number of states over the past few years, including California, where Hawley is governor.

They joined forces with the Democrats to fight against the menacing Republican Party.

Just as the 36-year-old Democratic presidential candidate was confidently preparing to attack the presidency, there was a split within the Democratic Party.

A group of conservatives in the Bourbon Democratic Party, dissatisfied with the status quo of the Democratic Party, founded the National Democratic Party and nominated Senator John J. Bush to nominate Senator John Brown. John M. Palmer as their candidate.

As the curtain comes down on the bipartisan national convention and the dust settles on the eventual candidates.

The 1896 presidential election began.

At first, Brian used his eloquence to begin touring the country.

The young candidate traveled 18,000 miles through 27 states.

His ebullient and passionate way of speaking has brought him a large following.

His attacks on the rich and his tariff policy enabled him to gain the support of many workers and peasants.

Brian described his election as a crusade of workers against the rich, and he was their spokesman!

For such a concept, Chen Jianqiu, who is far away in New York, is a little scoffed.

In his view, the former lawyer's understanding of workers and peasants was too superficial.

Any antagonistic approach that does not talk about class is a castle in the air and nonsense.

Under the present conditions, only a return to economic prosperity and an overall increase in social welfare can bring about a substantial improvement in the living standards of those workers and peasants.

But this has something to do with him Chen Jianqiu.

So, he didn't say anything, but asked Hanna to run the election according to the plan in place.

It's different from the old campaigns.

In the traditional election campaign, states with a decisive outcome would only need a little time and money for window dressing.

This time, however, the existence of the western states that had just been incorporated into the Union made it difficult to determine whether they voted for or against in advance.

So, according to Chen Jianqiu's meaning.

Every state fights.

First of all, they hired a PR team with extremely rich experience.

They printed more than 100 million documents throughout the West.

Most of these short articles are speeches by McKinley or other party spokesmen.

They printed and distributed the materials to households, farmers, and newspapers.

Hanna and the election team laid out an exhaustive schedule and began casting a wide net.

Eventually, even the smallest magazine in the country received special plates for reprinting.

In the newspaper, which sold more than 1.65 million copies, three and a half pages a week devoted to McKinley's campaign, to his life and his policies.

They even made a whole car of cartoons, advertisements, and campaign pins and began to distribute them.

On the western railroads, there are trains smeared with Republican campaign slogans, such as "Don't vote in this year's election, vote for McKinley", so that people can look up and not look down.

Complementing the printed matter, the campaign employs up to 1,400 staff members who have penetrated every electrified state, including Wyoming, and every district.

"Bombard them with information, repeat, repeat, repeat!" Chen Jianqiu said on the phone.

He knew it wasn't a clever move, but it was extremely effective.

Anyway, the financial resources allow.

As summer turns to autumn, the intensity of the election campaign becomes more and more intense, and both sides show their abilities and are very lively.

The campaign enthusiasm within the Republican Party has been completely ignited, and some party members who had been cold bystanders have also enthusiastically joined in.

Even a large group of volunteers from the highest echelons of the party came to assist the hired personnel and personally went into battle to help McKinley in the election.

Theodore Roosevelt, for example, used his prestige in the Dakota to begin canvassing votes for the Republican Party.

He was joined in doing so by his close friend, Circuit Justice William Howard Taft.

The election has turned into a crusader struggle, and the entire Republican Party has been mobilized.

By October, the Republican-controlled newspapers began to work in unison.

They began attacking the loopholes in Bryan's policies, telling workers that if they chose Bryan, it would mean a reduction in employment, which meant more workers would lose their jobs.

Under the overwhelming offensive of the newspapers, there was another split within the Democratic Party.

As Chen Jianqiu said before, it is not only the Republican Party that will face currency problems, but also the Democratic Party.

Many Democrats who supported the "gold standard" chose to betray their party and side with the Republican Party, because they deeply felt that Brian's approach would lead the United States into the abyss.

At the same time, the middle class of the Democratic Party is more afraid of anarchy.

Even Brian's base plate, the workers, were influenced by the newspapers to believe that inflation in the silver dollar would lead to an increase in prices faster than improved wages.

Brian became a little hard to support this.

The western states, which had been holding the handles in their hands, were clearly beginning to fall towards McKinley.

The final straw that finally crushed Bryan and the Democrats was the unequivocal endorsement by Chinese politicians in New Mexico and nearby states that they would support McKinley and the Republican Party.

Although the total number of Chinese is still small, it is enough to have a huge impact on local and surrounding voters.

The final vote took place in November.

Brian was defeated.

He was far behind McKinley in both the popular vote and the electoral vote, and the candidate who split from the Democratic Party only won single-digit electoral votes.

In this election, the Democratic Party lost completely.

Brian had to face the fact that he had failed.

William McKinley, on the other hand, will be the next president of the United States.

(End of chapter)