William O'Connell Bradley - Gubernatorial Election of 1895

Gubernatorial Election of 1895

Bradley declared his candidacy early for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1895, and no real challenger emerged prior to the Republicans' nominating convention. Consequently, Bradley was nominated in a relatively harmonious convention. The major issue of the campaign was whether the country should maintain a monetary system based on the gold standard or allow the coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, commonly called the free silver position. At their convention, the Republicans adopted a platform that was unequivocally in favor of the gold standard.

Democrats were divided on the monetary issue. Their eventual nominee, Parker Watkins Hardin, was known to be a free silver supporter, but he pledged to abide by whatever platform the convention adopted. That platform was ambiguous with regard to the gold and silver question; it praised President Grover Cleveland and his treasury secretary, native Kentuckian John G. Carlisle, both gold supporters, and endorsed the national Democratic platform of 1892. Most believed this meant the platform favored gold, although silverites like Ollie M. James contended that the 1892 platform favored silver. Consequently, most Democrats left the convention not knowing where their nominee would stand on the money question.

The campaign opened in Louisville on August 19, 1895. In his first address, Hardin came out squarely for free silver, ensuring the division of his party for the rest of the campaign. Bradley reprised much of his argument from the 1887 campaign against Buckner. He charged mismanagement of state government by Democrats, citing Tate's defalcation as evidence. He also stressed Hardin's association with Tate; Hardin had been the state's attorney general when Tate absconded, and the two were known to be friends. He denounced free silver and again called for a high protective tariff. He blamed Democratic President Cleveland for the national depression.

In the third debate, held in Hopkinsville, Hardin countered Bradley's offensive against him on the money issue by charging that the election of a Republican would lead to "Negro domination" of the state. This put Bradley in a dilemma. If he refused to acknowledge blacks' influence on the party, he would lose their votes; if he acknowledged it, he would lose many white voters. Bradley attempted to ignore the racial question in Hopkinsville and during the next two debates, instead intensifying his criticism of Hardin on the money question and his association with Tate. In the sixth joint debate, held August 30 at Eminence, some members of the audience began to heckle Bradley, who was hoarse from previous debates. After attempting to restart his opening statement four times, Bradley left the platform, and the next day announced he would not participate in any further joint debates as a result of the incident. Many believed Bradley was looking for a reason to end the debates in order to dodge the racial question, and the incident at Eminence gave him the opportunity. Some black Republicans resented Bradley's attempt to dodge the racial question and encouraged fellow blacks not to support Bradley but vote for Populist Thomas S. Pettit instead.

In the general election, Bradley carried the vote of many Gold Democrats. He also drew a number of votes from those who sympathized with the views of the American Protective Association, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic organization. Some estimates placed the organization's membership at 14,000 in Louisville alone; it also had strength in the urban centers of Paducah, Lexington, Ashland, Covington, and Frankfort. Democrats were also hurt by economic factors, including the national economic problems and a severe drought in the state. Bradley was elected the first Republican governor of Kentucky, defeating Hardin by a vote of 172,436 to 163,524. Pettit, the Populist candidate, drew 16,911 votes, most of them from Democrats in western Kentucky. Turnout in the election was 85%. More votes than potential voters were registered in 18 counties, nine of which went for Bradley and nine for Hardin.