The Populists and the National Silver party also nominated Bryan for President, but each made its own separate nomination for Vice-President.

Even the Prohibitionists split on the issue, and a seceding faction organized the National party and inserted a free silver plank in their platform.
In the canvass which followed, calumny and misrepresentation were for once discarded in favor of genuine discussion.

This new attitude was largely due to organizations for spreading information quite apart from regular party management.

In this way, many able pamphlets were issued and widely circulated.

The Republicans had ample campaign funds; but though the Democrats were poorly supplied, this deficiency did not abate the energy of Bryan's campaign.