Cross of Gold speech, classic of American political oratory delivered on July 8, 1896, by William Jennings Bryan in closing the debate on the party platform at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago during the campaign for the presidential election of 1896. Despite his electoral losses, Bryan continued to exert considerable influence through his fervently religious speeches as well as a weekly magazine, the Commoner. Department of State: Office of the Historian. [51], Once seated, Bryan went to the Platform Committee meeting at the Palmer House, displacing the Nebraska gold delegate on the committee. Bryan spent most of October there160 of his final 250 train stops were in the Midwest. The effect was deflationary. He was a fine actor, with a justly famous voice, but was not a charlatan. As Bryan had called New York in an ill-considered statement to the press before leaving Lincoln. Although defeated in the election, Bryan's campaign made him a national figure, which he remained until his death in 1925. The economic Panic of 1893 had left the nation in a deep recession, which still persisted in early 1896. The train bearing The Idler pulled in after a short journey from the last stop, and after he was greeted by local dignitaries, Bryan would give a brief speech addressing silver and the need for the people to retake the government. Bryan was strongly affected by the emerging Social Gospel movement that called on Protestant activists to seek to cure social problems such as poverty. [88][89] Newspapers that supported other parties in western silver states, such as the Populist Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colorado, and Utah's Republican The Salt Lake Tribune, quickly endorsed Bryan. Bland maintained his lead on the second and third ballots, but on the fourth, with the convention in a huge uproar, Bryan took the lead. The Scopes monkey trial in Dayton, Tennessee, played out under the national spotlight, with journalists, religious leaders and onlookers crowding the courtroom. "[110][111][112] August 12 was an extremely hot day in New York, especially for the crowd jammed into the Garden; when Missouri Governor William J. The Populists proposed both greater government control over the economy (with some calling for government ownership of railroads) and giving the people power over government through the secret ballot, direct election of United States Senators (who were, until 1913, elected by state legislatures), and replacement of the Electoral College with direct election of the president and vice president by popular vote. United States presidential election of 1896, American presidential election held on November 3, 1896, in which Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat - Populist William Jennings Bryan. When early-voting Maine and Vermont went strongly Republican in September, this meant that McKinley would most likely win the Northeast. [57][71] According to The Boston Globe, Bryan "had locked himself within the four walls at the Clifton House, down town, and there blushes unseen. As the presidential election year of 1896 began, things were looking rosy for the Republicans. The increasing economic struggles of poor farmers during the 1870s and 1880s led to the Populist movement. Active in Democratic Party politics, Sewall was one of the few eastern party leaders to support silver, was wealthy and could help finance the campaign; he also balanced the ticket geographically. Didn't want to split pro-silver vote Populists 1892 Sherman's act required the government to pay out gold in exchange for silver and paper currency, and through the early months of 1893 gold flowed out of the Treasury. [53] Once White started the proceedings, he turned over the gavel to Senator Jones, who read the proposed platform to great applause from silver delegates, and hissing from gold men. See, Last edited on 24 November 2022, at 01:09, United States presidential nominating convention, William McKinley 1896 presidential campaign, National Archives and Records Administration, Official Proceedings of the 1896 Democratic National Convention, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Jennings_Bryan_1896_presidential_campaign&oldid=1123490165, This page was last edited on 24 November 2022, at 01:09. Bryan's biographer, Paolo Coletta, suggests that Bryan may have played a part in inciting the silver men's departure; he was in close contact with Silver Republicans such as Teller and South Dakota Senator Richard Pettigrew. Although defeated in the election, Bryan's campaign made him a national figure, which he remained until his death in 1925. United States presidential election of 1900, American presidential election held on November 6, 1900, in which Republican incumbent Pres. The 1896 race is generally seen as a realigning election. In March 1898, two years into William McKinley's first term as president, he gave Spainwhich was in the midst of a brutal campaign of repression in . He was admitted to the Illinois bar and began practicing law in Jacksonville, marrying Mary Elizabeth Baird in 1884; the couple went on to have three children. Someone who presented ten dollars in silver bullion would receive back almost twice that in silver coin. He was slim, tall, pale, raven-haired, beaked of nose. How could a boy in appearance, one not yet admitted to the convention, without a single state behind him, dare claim the nomination? Many of the elements of the speech had appeared in prior Bryan addresses. Bryan later asked the Platform Committee chairman, Arkansas Senator James K. Jones why he was given such a crucial role as closing the platform debate; Senator Jones responded that he had three reasons: Bryan's long service in the silver cause, the Nebraskan was the only major speaker not to have addressed the convention, and that Jones had a sore throat. Bryan Club" and "Keep Your Eye on Nebraska. [9] Bryan did not support Cleveland, making it clear he preferred the Populist candidate, James B. Weaver, though he indicated that as a loyal Democrat, he would vote the party ticket. Mary Bryan had joined her husband in late September; on The Idler, the Bryans were able to eat and sleep in relative comfort. However, the economy was booming under the leadership of McKinley. These results made the Midwest the crucial battlefield that would decide the presidency. The electoral vote was not as close: 271 for McKinley to 176 for Bryan. Members of the Committee on Resolutions (also called the Platform Committee) intended to elect California Senator Stephen M. White as chairman; they found that he had already been co-opted as permanent chairman of the convention. The only areas of the nation where Bryan took a greater percentage of the urban than the rural vote were New England and the Rocky Mountain states; in neither case did this affect the outcome, as Bryan took only 27% of New England's vote overall, while taking 88% of the Rocky Mountain city vote to 81% of the vote there outside the cities. He won election to the House of Representatives in 1890, and was re-elected in 1892, before mounting an unsuccessful US Senate run. In 1896, Bryan captivated the audience at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a passionate oration urging his countrymen to stand up for the common man against big business interests and support free silver. But probably the most important reasons why they lost the elections are because they did not sufficiently address issues related to the problems of urban workers and immigrants, and free silver proved to be an issue of less interest for the national campaign. This was not the case: the mining industry was seeing poor times, and had little money to donate to Bryan. Through the almost three decades before his death in 1925, he was ever present on political platform and speaking circuit, fighting first for silver, and then for other causes. [132] Early Republican polls had shown Bryan ahead in crucial Midwestern states, including McKinley's Ohio. Their enthusiasm at the unrehearsed rear platform appearances and in the formal speeches was spontaneous and contagious. [41], Bryan's Nebraska delegation left Lincoln by train on July 5. Much of the blizzard of paper the Republican campaign was able to pay for concentrated on this area/ By September, this had its effect as silver sentiment began to fade. As Hill was determined to take the platform fight to the full convention, the committee discussed who should speak in the debate, and allocated 75minutes to each side. [47] Since the DNC action meant Bryan would not have a seat at the start of proceedings, he could not be the temporary chairman (who would deliver the keynote address); the Nebraskan began looking for other opportunities to make a speech at the convention. If the USA had been on a bimetallic standard between 1875 and 1890, the economy could have expanded far more than it did, restricted as it was in its monetary straight jacket. The Cleveland Democrats were temporarily weak, and the Southern-Mountain coalition was ready to hand. I was thinking of finding a book for him for Christmas that could help his research. On the fifth ballot, other states joined the Bryan bandwagon, making him the Democratic candidate for president.[76][77]. He won the prize in his junior year, and also secured the affection of Mary Baird, a student at a nearby women's academy. [80] Bryan and Sewall gained their nominations without the ballots of the gold men, most of whom refused to vote. Neither candidate had much money to spend on his campaign. [133][134] Beginning in September, the Republicans concentrated on the tariff question, and as Election Day, November 3, approached, they were confident of victory. In June 1896, Bryan's old teacher, former senator Trumbull died; on the day of his funeral, Bryan's mother also died, suddenly in Salem. The election of 1896 is seen as the beginning of a new era in American politics, or a "realignment" election. The campaign, as it proved, was badly organized: This was Jones' first national campaign, and the party structure in many states was either only newly in the control of silver forces, or in gold states wanted no part of the national ticket. On September 27, The New York Times published a letter by an "eminent alienist" who, based on an analysis of the candidate's speeches, concluded that Bryan was mad. Rumors that Europeans were about to redeem a large sum for gold caused desperate selling on the stock market, the start of the Panic of 1893. [38] Illinois Governor Altgeld, a leader of the silver movement, was ineligible because he was not a natural-born U.S. citizen as required for the presidency in the Constitution. In post-Civil War America, oratory was highly prized, and Bryan showed aptitude for it from a young age, raised in his father's house in Salem. As a result, disillusioned farmers and others formed a new far-left party, which came to be known as the Populist Party. Both had openly declared their candidacies, and were the only Democrats to have organizations seeking to obtain pledged delegates. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. [73] As Missouri Senator George Vest nominated Bland, his oratory was drowned out by the gallery, "Bryan, Bryan, W.J. South Carolina Senator Benjamin Tillman, a silver supporter, wanted an hour to address the convention, and to close the debate. He maintained contact with silver partisans in other parties, hopeful of gathering them in after a nomination. The galleries were quickly packed, but the delegates, slowed by fatigue from the first two days and the long journey from the downtown hotels, were slower to arrive. The vice presidential squabble, Williams argues, worried voters who feared that instability would follow a Bryan victory, and drove them towards McKinley. There was little advantage to the Democratic Party in nominating a candidate from Nebraska, a state small in population that had never voted for a Democrat. William Jennings Bryan was born in rural Salem, Illinois, in 1860. In 1925, high school biology teacher John Scopes went on trial in Tennessee as a test of the first state law banning the teaching of evolution. voting restrictions what political restrictions did southern states place on african americans? In 1986, he began his long tenure as the U.S. read more, William Seward (1801-1872) was a politician who served as governor of New York, as a U.S. senator and as secretary of state during the Civil War (1861-65). [119] Among the foremost supporters of Bryan was publisher William Randolph Hearst who both contributed to Bryan's campaign and slanted his newspapers' coverage in his favor. By early October, the DNC, at the urging of Populist officials who felt Bryan was being worn out, procured the services of North Carolina journalist Josephus Daniels to make travel arrangements, and also obtained a private railroad car, The Idlera name Bryan thought somewhat inappropriate due to the strenuous nature of the tour. [58] He began: I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities; but this is not a contest between persons. "[70], When order was restored after Bryan's speech, the convention passed the platform, voting down the minority report and a resolution in support of the Cleveland administration; it then recessed for a few hours until 8:00pm, when nominating speeches were to be made. The leading candidates were former Missouri congressman Richard P. Bland and former Iowa governor Horace Boies. [104] The National Silver Party, mostly former Republicans, met at the same time as the Populists; both conventions were in St. Louis. [122] He did not campaign on Sundays, but on most other days spoke between 20 and 30 times. [17] In this, they were led by Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld, who had opposed Cleveland over the Pullman strike. Others dubbed Bryan a "Popocrat". why did william jennings bryan lose the election of 1896? Writers such as Edgar Lee Masters, Hamlin Garland and his fellow Nebraskan, Willa Cather, like Bryan came from the prairies; they wrote of their admiration for him and his first battle. At every stop, he made contacts that he later cultivated. Many were disappointed; the Democratic candidate read a two-hour speech from a manuscript, wishing to look statesmanlike, and fearing that if he spoke without a script, the press would misrepresent his words. Palmer was a 79-year-old former Union general, Buckner a 73-year-old former Confederate of that rank; the ticket was the oldest in combined age in American history, and Palmer the second-oldest presidential candidate (behind Peter Cooper of the Greenback Party; Bryan was the youngest). [f] McKinley even won the urban vote in Nebraska. [115], Bryan's plan for victory was to undertake a strenuous train tour, bringing his message to the people. Coletta noted the problems faced by Bryan in obtaining the nomination, and how his groundwork helped overcome them: The maneuver that paid Bryan highest dividends was his fifteen months of missionary work in behalf of silver and cultivation of the Chicago delegates. After the fourth ballot, the Illinois delegation caucused and Altgeld was one of only two remaining Bland supporters, thus giving Bryan all of the state's 48 votes and bringing him near the two-thirds mark and the nomination. [87] Large numbers of traditionally Democratic newspapers refused to support Bryan, including the New York World, whose circulation of 800,000 was the nation's largest, and major dailies in cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, and Brooklyn. Why was the 1896 election devastating for Populist movement? [74], The balloting for the presidential nomination was held on July 10, the day after the speech; a two-thirds majority was needed to nominate. Bryan believed he could use the coalition-building techniques he had applied in gaining election to Congress, uniting pro-silver forces behind him to gain the Democratic nomination and the presidency. The central issue was the country's money supply. [46], Just before the convention, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) made initial determinations of which delegations were to be seatedonce convened, delegates would make the final determination after the convention's Credentials Committee reported. He was utterly confident that he would succeed, believing "the logic of the situation," as he later put it, dictated his selection. [94], Despite the confidence of the Republicans, the nomination of Bryan sparked great excitement through the nation. Rather than continue the free silver battle, he dedicated himself to opposing American imperialism, which he saw as immoral and undemocratic. He ran for president a second time in 1900 and a third time in 1908, each time losing. [118] Starved of money, the Democrats had fewer speakers and fewer publications to issue. Jill Lepore. Source (Popular Vote): .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Leip, David. [32] Once delegates were selected, Bryan wrote to party officials and obtained a list; he sent copies of his speeches, clippings from the World-Herald, and his photograph to each delegate.[28]. [121], During this tour, Bryan spoke almost exclusively on the silver question, and attempted to mold the speeches to reflect local issues and interests. By August, many firms had gone bankrupt, and a special session of Congress convened, called by Cleveland to repeal the silver purchase act. After Bryan helped rally support behind Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election, Wilson chose the now-elder Democratic statesman as his secretary of state. By the 1930s, he had built the nations largest media empire, including more than two dozen newspapers in major cities nationwide, read more, Populism is a style of politics used to mobilize mass movements against ruling powers. While speaking in McKinley's hometown of Canton, Ohio, Bryan yielded to impulse and called upon his rival at his home with Congressman Bland; the Republican candidate and his wife, somewhat startled, received the two men hospitably in a scene Williams calls, "surely bizarre. "[109], Bryan set the formal acceptance of his nomination for August 12 at New York's Madison Square Garden; he left Lincoln five days earlier by rail, and spoke 38times along the way, sometimes from the trackside in his nightgown. He knew personally more delegates than did any other candidate and he was on the ground to supervise his strategy. He set his sights on higher office, believing he could be elected president in 1896 even though he remained a relatively minor figure in the Democratic Party. Ever since the election of 1800, American presidential contests had, on some level, been a referendum on whether the country should be governed by agrarian interests (rural indebted farmers-the countryside-"main street") or industrial interests (business-the city-"wall street"). In anticipation of a presidential campaign, he spent much of 1895 and early 1896 making speeches across the United States; his compelling oratory increased his popularity in his party. Nevertheless, Gold Democrats began plans to hold their own convention, which took place in September. Only Bryan was left to speak, and no one at the convention had yet effectively championed the silver cause. However, many delegates disliked Sewall because of his wealth and ownership of a large business, and believed that nominating someone else would keep Populist issues alive in the campaign. [29], Bryan faced a number of disadvantages in seeking the Democratic nomination: he was little-known among Americans who did not follow politics closely, he had no money to pour into his campaign, he lacked public office, and had incurred the enmity of Cleveland and his administration through his stance on silver and other issues. It was not until 10:45am, three-quarters of an hour late, that Chairman White called the convention to order. The election of 1896 was just as much a partisan battle over the future of American economic policy as the 2012 election. With little money, poor organization, and a hostile press, Bryan was his campaign's most important asset, and he wanted to reach the voters by traveling to them. Arthur F. Mullen, a resident of O'Neill, Nebraska, described the summer and fall of 1896: O'Neill buzzed with political disputation from dawn till next dawn. Abandoned by many gold-supporting party leaders and newspapers after the Chicago convention, Bryan undertook an extensive tour by rail to bring his campaign to the people. [95], The Populist strategy for 1896 was to nominate the candidate most supportive of silver. [22][23] In the 17months between his departure from Congress and the Democratic National Convention in July 1896, Bryan travelled widely through the South and West, speaking on silver. If those in favor of honest money don't do something to offset its influence the country is going to the dogs. Taken prisoner after his plane was shot down, he suffered five and a half years of torture and confinement before his release in 1973. There is no legal or constitutional requirement that the loser of a U.S. presidential election must concede. Author: William Jennings Bryan Publisher: Haskell House Pub Limited ISBN: Size: 56.95 MB Format: PDF, ePub, Docs View: 4174 Get Book Disclaimer: This site does not store any files on its server.We only index and link to content provided by other sites. The nation was regionally split, with the industrial East and Midwest for McKinley, and with Bryan carrying the Solid South and the silver strongholds of the Rocky Mountain states. [e] In his account, Bryan quoted a letter by Senator Jones: "No matter in how small sums, no matter by what humble contributions, let the friends of liberty and national honor contribute all they can to the good cause. At the outset of the 1890s, with drought destroying the livelihoods of many American farmers, the Peoples Party (also known as the Populist Party) was growing as a force in U.S. politics by appealing to small farmers, shopkeepers and other less wealthy voters. An ardent read more, A native of Tennessee, Al Gore served as vice president of the United States under President Bill Clinton from 1992 to 2000, after a long tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. A large banner outside the Clifton House proclaimed the presence of Nebraska's delegation headquarters, but did not mention Bryan's campaign, which was run from Nebraska's rooms. In late 1894, pro-silver Democrats began to organize in the hope of taking control of the party from Cleveland and other Gold Democrats and nominating a silver candidate in 1896. Illinois Senator John M. Palmer was eager to be the presidential candidate, and the convention nominated him with Kentucky's Simon Bolivar Buckner as his running mate. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! As the economic downturn continued, free silver advocates blamed its continuation on the repeal of the silver purchase act, and the issue of silver became more prominent. [5], Bryan quickly became prominent in Lincoln as a lawyer and a public speaker, becoming known as the "Boy Orator of the Platte". The Republicans, at the request of their nominee for president, former Ohio governor William McKinley, included a plank in their party platform supporting the gold standard. On July 26, 1925, five days after the verdict was issued, Bryan died in his sleep after suffering a stroke. All Rights Reserved. Stone, chair of the notification committee, essayed a lengthy speech, he was drowned out by the crowd, which wanted to hear "the Boy Orator of the Platte". Historian James A. Barnes deemed the DNC's vote immaterial; once the convention met on July 7, it quickly elected a silver man, Virginia Senator John Daniel, as temporary chairman and appointed a committee to review credentials friendly to the silver cause. [10], In May 1894, Bryan announced he would not seek re-election to the House of Representatives, feeling the incessant need to raise money to campaign in a marginal district was inhibiting his political career. Instead, he sought the Senate seat that the Nebraska legislature would fill in January 1895. Book Description Mr. Bryan's unfinished memoirs, which close with an account of the Baltimore convention of 1912, make up less than half the . And the Southern-Mountain coalition was ready to hand five days after the verdict was issued, 's. At the convention had yet effectively championed the silver cause, tall, pale, raven-haired beaked... Requirement that the Nebraska legislature would fill in January 1895 ] in this they! Election year of 1896 likely win the Northeast days after the verdict was issued, died! Of a U.S. presidential election must concede back almost twice that in silver.! 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