Bryan, William Jennings

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, standing three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States. He also served in the United States House of Representatives and as the United States Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. Because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people, he was often called "The Great Commoner".^[1]

Born and raised in Illinois, Bryan moved to Nebraska in the 1880s. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1890 elections, serving two terms before his defeat in the 1894 Senate elections. At the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Bryan delivered his "Cross of Gold speech" which attacked the gold standard and the eastern moneyed interests — Bryan was a supporter of the free silver movement (effectively, expansionary monetary policy). In a repudiation of incumbent President Grover Cleveland and his conservative Bourbon Democrats, the Democratic convention nominated Bryan for president, making Bryan the youngest major party presidential nominee in U.S. history. He was 36 years old at the time, one year older than the minimum age limit of 35. A supporter of bimetallism, Bryan was also nominated by the Populist Partyand the Silver Republican Party. In the intensely fought 1896 presidential election, Republican nominee William McKinley emerged triumphant. With over 500 speeches in 1896, Bryan invented the national stumping tour in an era when other presidential candidates stayed home.

Bryan retained control of the Democratic Party and won the presidential nomination again in 1900. In the aftermath of the Spanish–American War, Bryan became a fierce opponent of American imperialism, and much of the campaign centered on that issue. In the election, McKinley again defeated Bryan, winning several Western states that Bryan had won in 1896. Bryan's influence in the party weakened after the 1900 election, and the Democrats nominated the conservative Alton B. Parker in the 1904 presidential election. Bryan won his party's nomination in the 1908 presidential election, but he was defeated by William Howard Taft.

After the Democrats won the presidency in the 1912 election, Wilson rewarded Bryan's support with the important cabinet position of Secretary of State. After the Lusitaniawas torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915, Wilson made strong demands on Germany that Bryan disagreed with, as he hoped to avoid entering World War I. Bryan resigned from office in 1915, and the United States entered the war two years later. Bryan remained active in public life, supporting Wilson's re-election and advocating for the enactment of Prohibition. He opposed Darwinism on religious and humanitarian grounds, most famously at the Scopes Trial in 1925 in Tennessee. He also became a promoter of Florida real estate, contributing to the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Five days after the conclusion of the Scopes case, which he won, Bryan died in his sleep.

Background and early career: 1861–1896[]

Bryan's birthplace in Salem

Attorney Mary Baird Bryan, the wife of William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois, on March 19, 1860, to Silas Lillard Bryan and Mariah Elizabeth (Jennings) Bryan.^[2][2] Bryan's mother was of English heritage. Mariah Bryan joined the Salem Baptists in 1872. Bryan attended Methodist services on Sunday morning with his father, and in the afternoon, Baptist services with his mother. At this point, William began spending his Sunday afternoons at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. At age 14, Bryan attended a revival, was baptized, and joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In later life, Bryan said the day of his baptism was the most important day in his life, but at the time it caused little change in his daily routine. In 1906, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church joined the larger Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

His father, Silas Bryan, of Scots-Irish and English ancestry,^[3] was an avid Jacksonian Democrat. Silas won election to the Illinois State Senate, but was defeated for re-election in 1860. He won election as a state circuit judge, and in 1866 moved his family to a 520-acre (210.4 ha) farm north of Salem,^[4] living in a ten-room house that was the envy of Marion County.^[5]

Until age ten, Bryan was home-schooled, as many children were. The Bible and McGuffey Readers shaped his views that gambling and liquor were evil, sinful, and iniquitous. To attend Whipple Academy, which was attached to Illinois College, Bryan was sent to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1874.

A young Bryan

Following high school, he entered Illinois College, graduating as valedictorian in 1881. During his time at Illinois College, Bryan was a member of the Sigma Pi literary society. He studied law at Union Law College in Chicago (which later became Northwestern University School of Law). While preparing for the bar exam, he taught high school and met Mary Elizabeth Baird,^[6] a cousin of William Sherman Jennings; the latter was also his own first-cousin. Bryan and Mary Elizabeth Baird married on October 1, 1884,^[7] and they settled in Jacksonville, which at the time had a population of two thousand.

Mary also became a lawyer, and collaborated with Bryan on all his speeches and writings. He practiced law in Jacksonville from 1883 to 1887, then moved to the boom city of Lincoln, Nebraska. In Lincoln, he was raised a Master Mason in Lincoln Lodge 19, A.F. & A.M.^[8] Bryan also met James Dahlman in Lincoln, and they became lifelong friends. As chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, Dahlman would help carry Nebraska for Bryan in two presidential campaigns. Even when Dahlman became closely associated with Omaha's vice elements, including the breweries, as the city's eight-term mayor, he and Bryan maintained a collegial relationship.^[9]

In the Democratic landslide of 1890, Bryan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska's First Congressional District. The growing prohibitionist movement had entered the election of 1890 with its own slate of candidates. In the three-way race in the First Congressional District, Bryan received 6,713 more votes than his nearest opponent. This was a plurality of the vote and was 8,000 votes short of a majority. Bryan was elected, only the second Democrat to be elected to Congress in the history of Nebraska.^[10] In 1892, Bryan was re-elected by a 140-vote majority in a two-person race. He ran for the Senate in 1894, but a Republican landslide led to the Nebraska state legislature's choice of a Republican for the Senate seat (at that time, state legislatures elected their representatives to the US Senate).

First campaign for the White House: 1896[]

Main article: William Jennings Bryan presidential campaign, 1896

A Republican satire on Bryan's "Cross of Gold"speech

Bryan had an innate talent in oratory. He gave speeches, organized meetings, and adopted resounding resolutions that eventually culminated in the founding of the American Bimetallic League, which then evolved into the National Bimetallic Union, and finally the National Silver Committee.^[11] At the time many farmers' groups believed that by increasing the amount of currency in circulation, commodities would receive higher prices. They were opposed by banks and bond holders who feared the effects of inflation. The ultimate goal of the league was to garner support on a national level for the reinstatement of the coinage of silver.^[12] With his support, Charles H. Jones of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was placed on the platform committee and Bryan's "sixteen-to-one" plank for free silver was adopted and silently added to the platform for the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, in order to avoid controversy.^[13]As a minority member of the resolutions committee, Bryan was able to push the Democratic Party from its laissez-faire and small-government roots toward its modern, liberal character. Through these measures, the public and influential Democrats became convinced of his capacity to lead and bring change, resulting in his being mentioned as a possible chairman for the Chicago convention.^[14]

In 1893, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act had resulted in the collapse of the silver market. Bryan delivered speeches across the country for free silver from 1894 to 1896, building a grass-roots reputation as a powerful champion of the cause.

At the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Bryan lambasted Eastern moneyed classes for supporting the gold standard at the expense of the average worker. His "Cross of Gold" speech, delivered on July 9, 1896,^[15] instantly made him the sensational new face in the Democratic Party. That same year he became the first presidential candidate to campaign in a car (a donated Mueller) in Decatur, Illinois.^[16]