The Democratic platform favored the unlimited coinage of silver at the traditional ration of 16 ounces to 1 ounce of gold. After blaming the Democrats for the Panic of 1893, Republicans offered the American people the promise of a strong and prosperous industrial nation. The republican platform proposed a high tariff to protect industry and upheld the gold standard against unlimited coinage of silver. In the election of 1896, William McKinley went up against William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was hurt by a rise in wheat prices (made farmers desperate) and employers telling their workers the factories would be shut down if Bryan was elected. There were both short term and long term consequences. It marked the end of the statement and stagnation that had characterized politics in the Gilded Age. The defeat of Bryan and the Populist free-silver movement initiated an era of Republican dominance of the presidency and of both houses of Congress. The election was a victory for big business, urban centers, conservative economics, and moderate, middle-class dominance in American politics.