There are two ideas of government. Without question, William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech was one of the most important and impactful speech in all of politics. They have tried to strain it to mean that which it does not mean. Bettmann/Corbis hide caption They say we passed an unconstitutional law. It was delivered at the 1896 Democratic National Convention. The miners who go 1,000 feet into the earth or climb 2,000 feet upon the cliffs and bring forth from their hiding places the precious metals to be poured in the channels of trade are as much businessmen as the few financial magnates who in a backroom corner the money of the world. Upon the side of the idle holders of idle capital, or upon the side of the struggling masses? 1. 12, 1895–1904: Populism, Imperialism, and Reform (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1968), 100–105. I shall object to bringing this question down to a level of persons. William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American orator and politician from Nebraska.Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections. The attorney in a country town is as much a businessman as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis. In 1921 (25 years after the original speech), he recorded portions of the speech for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana. If the gold standard, and I might call your attention to the fact that some of the very people who are in this convention today and who tell you that we ought to declare in favor of international bimetallism and thereby declare that the gold standard is wrong and that the principles of bimetallism are better—these very people four months ago were open and avowed advocates of the gold standard and telling us that we could not legislate two metals together even with all the world. When I neared my seat, somebody near me raised a shout, and the next thing I was picked up … A supporter of farmers, “free silver,” and against imperialism, Bryan was a fixture in politics in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Three months ago, when it was confidently asserted that those who believed in the gold standard would frame our platforms and nominate our candidates, even the advocates of the gold standard did not think that we could elect a President; but they had good reasons for the suspicion, because there is scarcely a state here today asking for the gold standard that is not within the absolute control of the Republican Party. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois on March 19, 1860. The man who is employed for wages is as much a businessman as his employer. Those who are opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. The election of Mckinley and an improved economy … We have simply called attention to what you know. my friends, we say not one word against those who live upon the Atlantic Coast; but those hardy pioneers who braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the desert to blossom as the rose—those pioneers away out there, rearing their children near to nature’s heart, where they can mingle their voices with the voices of the birds—out there where they have erected schoolhouses for the education of their children and churches where they praise their Creator, and the cemeteries where sleep the ashes of their dead—are as deserving of the consideration of this party as any people in this country. …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 upon a cross of gold. . We defy them! The response, wrote one reporter, “came like one great burst of artillery.” Men and women screamed and waved their hats and canes. He says that he wants this country to try to secure an international agreement. Bryan … Never before in the history of American politics has a great issue been fought out as this issue has been by the voters themselves. trailer
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We believe it. If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have it? Three months later, at Memphis, an organization was perfected, and the silver Democrats went forth openly and boldly and courageously proclaiming their belief and declaring that if successful they would crystallize in a platform the declaration which they had made; and then began the conflict with a zeal approaching the zeal which inspired the crusaders who followed Peter the Hermit. free coinage of silver at silver-gold ratio of 16 to 1. issue in Bryan's Cross of Gold speech. I say it was not a question of persons; it was a question of principle; and it is not with gladness, my friends, that we find ourselves brought into conflict with those who are now arrayed on the other side. Why, if they tell us that the gold standard is a good thing, we point to their platform and tell them that their platform pledges the party to get rid of a gold standard and substitute bimetallism. Shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to 70 million, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers? Delivered to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, Illinois. The speech had such enduring popularity that Bryan delivered it to attentive audiences many times in … In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or “free silver”, which he believed would bring the nation prosperity. When I find a man who is not willing to pay his share of the burden of the government which protects him, I find a man who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like ours. Bryan’s speech, which electrified the delegates to the Convention, and won him his party’s Presidential nomination . Recorded in 1921, the speech was originally delivered before the democratic convention in 1896 and highlights the politician's not only populist stance, but his strong position on the issue of the "Gold … We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government. Our war is not a war of conquest. If they ask us why we did not embody all these things in our platform which we believe, we reply to them that when we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other necessary reforms will be possible, and that until that is done there is no reform that can be accomplished. They have tried for thirty years—thirty years—to secure an international agreement, and those are waiting for it most patiently who don’t want it at all. Without the acts of Bryan would this nation even be afloat still? Why? 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