Bryan, William Jennings (1860–1925)

KNOWN AS THE “Boy Orator of the Platte” for his booming speaking voice and eloquent speeches, Bryan dominated the Democratic Party for a generation. Born in Salem, Illinois, the son of a Baptist minister, Bryan received his undergraduate education and law degree in Illinois. After his marriage to aspiring lawyer Mary Baird, the couple moved to Nebraska. In 1890, he ran as a Democrat for the House seat representing both Omaha and Lincoln, which he won by nearly 7,000 votes. 11 was during that campaign that Bryan witnessed the effectiveness of the Populists, who called for a bimetallism (a monetary standard based on the use of two metals, which at the time would have been gold and silver), direct election of U.S. Senators, and government ownership of the railroads—the popular economic villain of the era. In 1892, his district reapportioned without the Democratic strongholds of Omaha; but he worked hard to draw Populist support for his candidacy, which resulted in a narrow victory.

Bryan's star rose when as journalist for the Omaha World-Herald and a spokesman for the silver cause, he traveled the nation giving speeches and listening to the people. As a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896, he served on the platform committee. The pro-silver faction dominated the proceedings, and they asked Bryan to give the final speech on behalf of the silver cause. He electrified the crowd with one of the most famous speeches in American political history entitled “The Cross of Gold.” Bryan used biblical imagery, class warfare, historical allusions, humor, and satire to great effect. The convention listened enraptured when he closed his speech, “You shall not press [Page 66]down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!” After a moment of stunned silence, the crowd shouted, “No crown of thorns!” “No cross of gold!” Bryan soon won the nomination on the fifth ballot. He was 36 years old. In the campaign of 1896, Bryan traveled 18,000 miles, and gave 600 speeches on a budget of $300,000. He constantly urged the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16:1. He also argued in defense of tariff reduction, the income tax, and other Populist measures. His Republican opponent, William McKinley, stayed home and his allies raised millions of dollars for his campaign. McKinley defended the gold standard, a high protective tariff, and promised a full dinner pail—a metaphor for prosperity in the land of plenty. About 95 percent of the eligible voters cast ballots, but despite Bryan's best efforts, McKinley won the election by a comfortable margin in the Electoral College. Money, the portrayal of Bryan as a radical, and a gold strike doomed his campaign.

William Jennings Bryan, center, holding hat, speaking to crowd at the Santa Fe Fair, c. 1913. Fhough defeated sevral times, Bryan remained active in politics and advocated fundamentalist religion.

Undeterred, Bryan continued an active political life. When the Spanish-America War began in 1898, he served in a Nebraska regiment, but spent the war in Florida. After the war, the burning issue of the day was imperialism. The imperialists wanted to take possession of the former Spanish colonies; the anti-imperialists opposed the imperialist impulse as a violation of the nations's best traditions of anti-colonialism. In addition, Bryan tried to resurrect free silver, and the reduction of the tariff, but the Republicans desire to return to Manifest Destiny and appeals to patriotism again led to defeat for Bryan.

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