William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
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William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
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Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#2Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech was made when audio recording technology was being born, so in a little miracle of technology, we can actually hear the man himself give it today: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/
(The recording is from a later 1925 performance of the speech by Bryan, not from his original performance that famously turned the tide of the 1896 Democratic National Convention. But it's still a fairly unique opportunity to hear a speech from that era in the voice of the man who gave it.)
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#3Very interesting piece, and a fascinating blog in general. Seeing someone document their ongoing struggle to understand the world reminds me how little I've done about that myself.
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#4According to Wikipedia and it's citations, William J. Bryan was satirized as the Cowardly Lion by L. Frank Baum in "The Wizard of Oz".
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#5> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it.
This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that he wanted to be President, and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attract voters to him for having taken their side on it. Bimetallism was a live-wire issue among the rural constituency he wanted to set himself up as the champion of, and it had few other champions due to the oppressive orthodoxy the gold standard held over the thinking of the time, so he chose that as the issue to wrap his arms around.
It worked -- Bryan stood out to rural voters as the one politician who really understood their needs, and his career as "The Great Commoner" was born. But Bryan's adoption of bimetallism came because he recognized its political potency, not because he held strong opinions about the economics of the matter. He cared so little about those that, when questioned about the details by an Omaha newspaper, he replied that "I don't know anything about free silver. The people of Nebraska are for free silver and I am for free silver. I will look up the arguments later."
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#6> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it. This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that he wanted to be President , and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attra…
He also ran for President for three out of four elections between 1896 and 1908 without winning. That's unheard of these days. The last major party losing candidate to run again was Richard Nixon in 1968. Ross Perot also ran, and lost, in 92 and 96.
It's very strange that losing a Presidential general election is seen as the end of a political career when in years past, candidates like Bryan, Stevenson, or Dewey were still seen as viable.
Also, your explanation of Dewey choosing a political stance that was widely held among voters but somewhat taboo among the political class and riding that stance to prominence shows that there's really nothing new or innovative in the wave of populism sweeping Western democracies in recent years.
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#7> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it. This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that he wanted to be President , and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attra…
They say one thing. You say the other.
How do you propose I judge which of you is right?
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#8> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it. This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that he wanted to be President , and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attra…
They say one thing. You say the other. How do you propose I judge which of you is right?
Research? "The people of Nebraska..." quote is quite famous.
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#9> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it. This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that he wanted to be President , and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attra…
He also ran for President for three out of four elections between 1896 and 1908 without winning. That's unheard of these days. The last major party losing candidate to run again was Richard Nixon in 1968. Ross Perot also ran, and lost, in 92 and 96. It's very strange that losing a Presidential general election is seen as the end of a political career when in years past, candidates like Bryan, Stevenson, or Dewey were…
This is likely because the number of viable candidates today is much larger due to population growth and access to media.
In 1904, getting famous was much harder than now, so someone already known to the voters, even as a loser, could have a better chance than a yet-unknown.
Re: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
#10> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it. This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that he wanted to be President , and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attra…
They say one thing. You say the other. How do you propose I judge which of you is right?
You could read a biography of Bryan; he was an important figure of the era, so there's plenty to choose from.
A great short biographical sketch can be found in Richard Hofstadter's classic The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/773961.The_American_Poli...), which is an excellent, compulsively readable book, though Hofstadter had a low opinion of Bryan so this is not the source to turn to if you want to argue with me. The "I will look up the arguments later" quote can be found in Robert Cherney's A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1704339.A_Righteous_Caus...), which I haven't read myself but looks to be a good general-interest book-length biography. A contrarian view on Bryan can be found in Michael Kazin's A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79196.A_Godly_Hero), but the rehabilitation of populism has been a project of Kazin's for decades now, so it will come as no surprise that Kazin has more respect for Bryan than most historians.