BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS

William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) was a great populist orator who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. presidency three times. He was born and brought up in Illinois. Following graduation from law school he practiced law in Jacksonville, Illinois, from 1883 to 1887, but his heart was never in his work. In 1887 he moved his family to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he ran for Congress in 1890. Bryan won his Congressional seat as a Democrat by 7,713 votes, a substantial margin in a strongly Republican district.

During his first term in the House of Representatives, Bryan attracted wide attention when he gave a masterful three-hour speech in defense of the "free silver cause." In the late 19th century the United States was in the throes of depression. Unemployment and farm failures were common. The country was divided over the hard money vs. the so-called question of bimetallism. Advocates of free silver were mainly southern and western farmers. They argued that the gold standard resulted in an unfavorable economic bias against the common man. Free silver partisans believed they were being exploited. They favored the circulation of silver currency and other inflationary policies that would cheapen the value of money in order to ease personal and business debts. Bryan's simplistic solution for the depressed economy that followed the Panic of 1893 was the unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio to gold of 16 to 1. He claimed lawmakers had to decide between a policy supported by financiers and wealthy industrialists and the justified demands of the downtrodden masses.

Bryan's two Congressional terms and his growing reputation as a dynamic public speaker helped make his name as "the boy orator from the Platte." His national renown did not help him back home in Nebraska, however, and he failed in his bid to become a U.S. senator in 1894. Bryan spent the next two years as an editor of the Omaha World-Herald and conducted a vigorous public campaign in favor of the free silver cause.

At the 1896 Democratic presidential convention in Chicago 36 year-old Bryan dazzled the assembled delegates, newspaper reporters, and the public with a famous address known today as the "Cross of Gold" speech. Delivering a carefully planned and rehearsed text as if it were a spontaneous outpouring, he said, "We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned; we have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded; we have begged, and they have mocked us when our calamity came. We beg no longer, we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them." Bryan went on to declare the farms could survive without the cities, but cities could not survive without the farms. He summed up his defiance of gold standard supporters: "Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold."

The next day Bryan was nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. He also received the nomination of the Populist Party and the National Silver Party and was supported by those Republicans who favored free silver. The Republican candidate was the affable and well-financed William McKinley (1897–1901). Bryan embarked on a campaign that covered more than 18,000 miles in 27 states. For some of the spectators his oratory bordered on demagoguery, but to many of his listeners Bryan was a hero. He inspired listeners with his wonderful voice and dramatic delivery. However, Bryan ultimately failed to convert eastern workers to the free silver cause. Industrialists convinced their employees that Bryan was a radical, even a revolutionary. McKinley narrowly won the popular vote (51 percent to 46 percent) but dominated in the electoral college (271 to 176 votes), which is the deciding vehicle in an election.

The 1896 campaign was the high point of Bryan's political career. Though he ran for president in 1900 and in 1908, he was unsuccessful. He did succeed in seeing many of his central ideas enacted into law. This included the popular election of senators, the income tax, the creation of the Department of Labor, prohibition, and women's right to vote. In 1912 President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) appointed Bryan to be his Secretary of State. Bryan had earlier helped Wilson win the Democratic nomination and the presidency. Bryan was a pacifist at heart, and he was effective in spearheading several treaties designed to forestall the coming war in Europe. He resigned when Wilson used stronger language than Bryan thought acceptable after Germany sank the British liner Lusitania and 128 U.S. citizens were killed. He nevertheless loyally supported the United States when war was finally declared and the country entered World War I (1914–1918).

Following the war Bryan championed Prohibition and served as the president of the National Dry Federation in 1918. He was known for serving grape juice rather than wine at diplomatic functions while he was Secretary of State. Bryan continued to advocate Prohibition until it was ratified in 1919 when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed.

Bryan's last great crusade was against the Darwinian theory of evolution. He was a prosecutor of John T. Scopes in what has become known as the "Monkey Trial." The case brought Bryan head-to-head with renowned Chicago lawyer Clarence Darrow. The trial was great theater and attracted worldwide notoriety as a duel between fundamentalism and the theory of the evolutionary origin of man. Scopes was eventually found guilty, but the trial took a great toll on Bryan. He died in 1925, five days after its conclusion.

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS

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