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The Gold Top Hat
At the time of the gold and silver campaign, in 1896, I was for
McKinley. I organized a first voters' club of a hundred young men out there in the
country. We all rode on horseback and all wore yellow caps and yellow capes. I was elected
captain of the outfit. Father loaned me his old wedding silk hat, I got some gilt paint
and I gilded it. It added very much to my adornment as I rode at the head of that gallant
army of a hundred young Republicans.
Arthur J. Tuttle, Leslie
Arthur's Gold Top Hat
The hat, now a part of the permanent collections of the Michigan Historical Museum, was
a donation from the family of Federal Judge Arthur J. Tuttle. The hat had originally been
worn by his father, Ogden Valorous Tuttle, at the elder Tuttle's wedding in 1878. Arthur
wore the gilded version to lead a group of young Leslie Republicans in their support of
McKinley and the gold standard.
The 1896 presidential campaign pitted William McKinley (R) against William Jennings
Bryan (D). McKinley supported the gold standard. Bryan and the silverites supported a gold
and silver basis for U.S. currency. McKinley won the election by more than a half million
votes.
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