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. In 2007, Gore won a Nobel read more, Considered the greatest English-speaking writer in history and known as Englands national poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has had more theatrical works performed than any other playwright. The 1896 presidential race is generally considered a realigning election, when there is a major shift in voting patterns, upsetting the political balance. [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. 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. Morgan noted, "full organization, [Republican] party harmony, a campaign of education with the printed and spoken word would more than counteract" Bryan's speechmaking. Free silver was very popular among Nebraskans, though many powerful Democrats opposed it. While the farmers of the south and west continued to support Bryan's proposed economic policies, many found McKinley's to be effective enough. At first, he rode in public cars, and made his own travel arrangements, looking up train schedules and even carrying his own bags from train station to hotel. His enemies regarded him as an ambitious demagogue, but his supporters viewed him as a champion of liberal causes. "[101] Many Populists saw the election of Bryan, whose positions on many issues were not far from theirs, as the quickest path to the reforms they sought; a majority of delegates to the convention in St. Louis favored him. Jill Lepore. Many of the elements of the speech had appeared in prior Bryan addresses. To those who cling to the gold standard, he declared in closing: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.. 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. Many of the silver men had not attended a national convention before, and were unfamiliar with its procedures. Bryan campaigned heavily on a platform of free silver in 1896, and continued that trend into the election of 1900. In 1904, Taft took on the role of secretary of war in the administration read more, William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) launched his career by taking charge of his fathers struggling newspaper the San Francisco Examiner in 1887. Roosevelt was extremely popular as president, and many thought he might reconsider and run as 1908 neared. 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. They also lost the next 2 elections, in spite of their strong backing in the popular classes. He was followed by Senator William Vilas of Wisconsin and former Massachusetts Governor William D. Russell. [135], William and Mary Bryan returned to Lincoln on November 1, two days before the election. These included Vice President Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, Senator Joseph C. Blackburn of Kentucky, Indiana Governor Claude Matthews, and Bryan. His program of prosperity through free silver struck an emotional chord with the American people in a way that McKinley's protective tariff did not. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Bryan, a former Democratic congressman from Nebraska, gained his party's presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech. His father, Silas Bryan, was a Jacksonian Democrat, judge, lawyer, and local party activist. [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. This advocacy brought him contributions from silver mine owners in his successful re-election bid in 1892. Although Bryan claimed that many employers had intimidated their workers into voting Republican, Williams points out that the Democrats benefited from the disenfranchisement of southern African Americans. At the center of these efforts was a campaign to end the teaching of evolution in public schools. why did william jennings bryan lose the election of 1896? The vice presidential squabble, Williams argues, worried voters who feared that instability would follow a Bryan victory, and drove them towards McKinley. Crowds assembled hours or days ahead of Bryan's arrival. The presidential election in 1896, a contest between the Republican candidate, William McKinley (1843-1901), and the Democrat candidate, William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), was contested over McKinley's pledge to maintain the gold standard for the nation's currency, in contrast to Bryan's promise to increase the supply of money by expanding the . McKinley won with 7.1 million votes to Bryan's 6.5 million, 51% to 47%. The biggest announcement in the run-up to the 1908 presidential election came in 1904 when, on the evening of his election, Pres. His 'Cross of Gold' speech, given to conclude the debate on the party platform, immediately transformed him into a favorite for the nomination, and he won it the next day. [104] The National Silver Party, mostly former Republicans, met at the same time as the Populists; both conventions were in St. Louis. Advocates of free silver (or bimetallism) wanted the government to accept all silver bullion presented to it and to return it, struck into coin, at the historic value ratio between gold and silver of 16 to 1. I will not aid them to press down upon the bleeding brow of labor this crown of thorns."[26]. Bryan, who was still in Congress, spoke eloquently against the repeal, but Cleveland forced it through. 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. Southern newspapers stayed with Bryan; they were unwilling to endorse McKinley, the choice of most African Americans, though few of them could vote in the South. Bryan was born on March 19, 1860 in the small town of Salem, Illinois. The increasing economic struggles of poor farmers during the 1870s and 1880s led to the Populist movement. These results made the Midwest the crucial battlefield that would decide the presidency. [144] According to Kazin, "what is remarkable is not that Bryan lost but that he came as close as he did to winning. The left-wing Populist Party (which had hoped to nominate the only silver-supporting candidate) endorsed Bryan for president, but found Sewall unacceptable, substituting Thomas E. Watson of Georgia. "I was a Democrat before the Convention and am a Democrat stillvery still. The smell of victory seemed to hang in the air. It is the substance we are after, and we have it with William J. He slept much of the evening of election day, to be wakened by his wife with telegrams showing the election was most likely lost. 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. Bryans inability to differentiate between social Darwinism and the scientific theory of evolution galvanized his more fundamentalist, religious supporters but earned him the disdain of many others who shared his progressive politics. Populists claim to speak for ordinary people, taking an "us versus them" stance. The 1896 Democratic National Convention repudiated the Cleveland administration and nominated Bryan on the fifth presidential ballot. The day after his Cross of Gold speech, Bryan won the Democratic presidential nomination; he also won the support of the Populist and National Silver parties. The Cleveland Democrats were temporarily weak, and the Southern-Mountain coalition was ready to hand. 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. A Missourian, Ezra Peters, wrote to Illinois Senator John M. Palmer, "Coins [sic] Financial School is raising h in this neck of the woods. [138] Palmer received less than 1% of the vote, but his vote total in Kentucky was greater than McKinley's margin of victory there. William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan, winning 292 electoral votes to Bryan's 155. [129] Republican newspapers and spokesmen claimed that Bryan's campaign was expensively financed by the silver interests. Even in the South, Bryan attracted 59% of the rural vote, but only 44% of the urban vote, taking 57% of the southern vote overall. 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. 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. [99], Even before their convention in late July, the Populists faced dissent in their ranks. 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. [151] The poet Vachel Lindsay, 16years old in 1896, passionately followed Bryan's first campaign, and wrote of him many years later: Where is that boy, that Heaven-born Bryan,That Homer Bryan, who sang from the West?Gone to join the shadows with Altgeld the Eagle,Where the kings and the slaves and the troubadours rest.[152]. Despite his electoral losses, Bryan continued to exert considerable influence through his fervently religious speeches as well as a weekly magazine, the Commoner. Bryan quipped, "I seem to have plenty of friends now, but I remember well when they were very few. [28] He continued to give speeches, and collected his traveling expenses, and most often a speaking fee, from those who had invited him. 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. [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. His campaign focused on silver, an issue that failed to appeal to the urban voter, and he was defeated in what is generally seen as a realigning election. Governor Altgeld had held Illinois, which was subject to the "unit rule" whereby the entirety of a state's vote was cast as a majority of that state's delegation directed. He won election to the House of Representatives in 1890, and was re-elected in 1892, before mounting an unsuccessful US Senate run. Gold Democrats had success in the Northeast, and little elsewhere. According to his biographer Michael Kazin, "Bryan felt he was serving his part in a grander conflict that began with Christ and showed no sign of approaching its end. If those in favor of honest money don't do something to offset its influence the country is going to the dogs. However, the President ruled this out; his Cabinet members also refused to run. But the emergence of a brash, young politician, William Jennings Bryan, soon turned the. The dark horse is in his stall, feasting on the oats of hope and political straws. The billionaire businessman ran as a Republican and scored an upset victory over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 read more, John McCain first entered the public spotlight as a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. Bryan affirmed that the people could be counted on to prevent the rise of a tyrant, and noted, "What we need is an Andrew Jackson to stand, as Jackson stood, against the encroachments of organized wealth. The song was "Sift Sand, Sal", the source does not explain the relevance of this to Bryan. In 1887, Bryan moved to the fast-growing state of Nebraska, where he settled in Lincoln and established a thriving law practice. Eugene V. Debs Why did most southern states pass laws to disenfranchise black voters in the 1890s To eliminate the possibility of future political alliances between poor whites and blacks Which reform did the Populists call for on their party platform of 1892 Public ownership of railroads and telegraphs This was not the case: the mining industry was seeing poor times, and had little money to donate to Bryan. It was not until 10:45am, three-quarters of an hour late, that Chairman White called the convention to order. 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