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WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, THE GREAT COMMONER, PART I

© John S. Cooper

William Jennings Bryan was the youngest man ever to be nominated for president by a major party. He was also the only man to be the runner-up in a presidential election three times. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for four years, and as Secretary of State for two years. Yet his effect on his party and his country far exceeded anything that might be indicated by his six short years of service.

Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois on March 19, 1860. His father was a local politician, and both his parents were intensely religious. His own religious fervor had its roots in his devoutly religious upbringing.

Bryan "read" law in the office of Lyman Trumbull, Abraham Lincoln's friend and a U.S. Senator, and attended law school at the same time. He was married shortly after beginning his law practice. His wife, Mary Elizabeth Baird Bryan, also became a lawyer and was a strong influence on Bryan throughout his career.

On a routine trip to Iowa to inspect land owned by his father-in-law, Bryan stayed with a law school friend in Lincoln, Nebraska. He decided to settle there, and opened a law firm with his friend in 1887. Less than three years later, he was elected to Congress from Nebraska. Although a Democrat, he was elected from a district that had been considered safely Republican. In 1892, he was re-elected but by a much smaller margin due to gerrymandering of his district by the Republican-controlled legislature. In 1894, he declined to run for re-election, running instead for the U.S. Senate. In spite of his usual active campaigning, he lost.

Bryan's oratory was impressive during his first campaign for Congress, and got better with each race. By the time of the 1896 Democratic Convention, his oratory and efforts on behalf of free coinage of silver had made him well known. Bryan had become one of the leaders of the movement supporting the free coinage of silver. Silver had been discontinued as a coined metal in 1873. With hard times, including panics and recessions, after the Civil War, many farmers and debtors saw the return of silver coinage as a means of increasing the money supply and easing their troubles. One slogan was "16 to 1" referring to the ratio of silver to gold coinage that existed from 1837 until silver coinage was discontinued in 1873.

When the 1896 convention began, the pro-silver forces controlled it. Bryan was selected as one of the silver speakers, and made a memorable speech full of rousing phrases, which stirred the convention. His most famous phrase was his final remarks, "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

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