William Jennings Bryan first entered Congress in 1890, winning a seat in the House of Representatives for Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District. With this, Bryan became only the second Democratic Congressman in the state’s history. After narrowly winning re-election two years later, he left for an unsuccessful Senate run.
By the time of the 1896 Democratic convention, the Democratic Party was split.
In the aftermath of the Panic of 1893, President Grover Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act which mandated a minimum government purchase of silver. This caused a rift between conservative Bourbon, pro-gold Democrats and the party’s grassroots, with Bryan supporting the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16:1 to gold to increase money supply amid the depression.
Bryan, who had already garnered a reputation for his public speaking earning him the nickname “The Boy Orator of the Platte”, was set to make a keynote speech at the conference.
In what has been described as “perhaps the most memorable address ever delivered before a political convention”, Bryan made a barnburner of a declaration in defence of free silver, culminating with the line: “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
Bryan was met with a rapturous response, being paraded on the shoulders of the elated delegates for half an hour. With the speech, Bryan had “immortalized himself”, noted the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
His pro-silver party plank passed 628-301.
So it was that this dark horse candidate managed to snatch the Democratic nomination. At age 36, he remains the youngest presidential hopeful ever nominated by a major party.
Notably, the nomination of progressive Bryan led to the Populists, who had a strong performance the previous election, backing the Democrats.
That said, he faced an uphill battle as many wealthy interests expressed opposition to Bryan. Democrat newspapers such as the New York World, the nation’s largest, refused to endorse him whilst Gold Democrats created their own party, supported by Cleveland and the New York Times in their only third party endorsement to date.
Nonetheless, William Jennings Bryan embarked on what can be seen as the first modern-day presidential election campaign. In three months, he travelled 18,000 miles, reaching five million citizens. He delivered over 600 speeches – once making 36 in a single day.
In the election, Democrats won across the Deep South and Mountain states, including those won by the Populists in 1892. Bryan won 22/45 states, picking up Kansas and Nebraska for the Democrats for the first time, but lost by a wide Electoral College margin.
Still the leading figure in the party, William Jennings Bryan was unanimously renominated by his party in 1900, this time with former Vice President Adlai Stevenson as his running mate.
By then, economic prosperity had weakened support for free silver. Instead, Democrats made anti-imperialism the focus of their campaign in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. William Jennings Bryan opposed what he saw as colonialism, fighting for independence for Cuba and the Philippines, and being endorsed by the influential American Anti-Imperialist League.
He again took the country, making stump speeches across the nation – as did Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt.
This time around, Bryan lost in a landslide, winning just 17 states and winning 155 Electoral Votes to President McKinley’s 292. Bryan also lost his own home state of Nebraska.
Even afterwards, the progressive still have a grave influence over the party, including through his The Commoner publication.
After the scale of conservative Democrat Alton Parker’s defeat in 1904 and losses for the Mayoralty and Governorship of New York by William Randolph Hearst, Bryan was the obvious choice in 1908. After being met with an 87-minute demonstration by his supporters, he won his party’s nomination with 892½ delegates at the convention.
William Jennings Bryan, for a third time, embarked on a vigorous cross-country campaign, utilising the slogan “Shall the People Rule?”. His advocation of pro-worker policies such as an eight-hour day earned him the first presidential endorsement by the American Federation of Labor. He too argued for fairer and more transparent campaign finance and the recognition of New Mexico and Arizona.
His campaign was undermined by his support for railway nationalisation. Remarking such was “necessary where competition is impossible”, such a move led to allegations of socialism.
The Republicans too played up Bryan’s previous failed presidential runs. One adage went: “Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan anytime”; ironically, he would not run again.
Opponent William Howard Taft defeated Bryan 2:1 in the Electoral College whilst Bryan garnered only two large cities, both in the South. It was his worst performance to date.
With this, his time as Democratic leader ended. He was one of only two men in US history to win electoral votes in three elections and never become president whilst his total 493 ECVs is the highest for a non-president.
He played a major part in getting Woodrow Wilson nominated in 1912 and, after his win, was made Secretary of State in his Cabinet.
In this role, he negotiated peace treaties with 30 nations and committed the US to neutrality during World War One. He resigned his post after Wilson sent a threatening letter to Germany, but not Britain, for wartime violations.
In 1924, he actively campaigned for his brother Charles, who ran unsuccessfully for Vice President.
Even after his days as a presidential hopeful were over, many of the policies he had championed he saw come into effect. As well as influencing Wilson’s New Freedom initiatives, he saw constitutional amendments for income taxes, the direct election of senators, women’s suffrage, amongst other causes he championed.
A man of deep religious faith, he believed in Prohibition and, in his final days, clashed with another iconic orator, Clarence Darrow, in opposition to evolutionary teachings in the Monkey Scopes trial of 1925. He died days later.
Of his death, historian Paul Boyer remarked: “Bryan’s death represented the end of an era. This man who had loomed so large in the American political and cultural landscape for thirty years had now passed from the scene.”
[1,000 words]
GRIFFIN KAYE.
