Cross of Gold speech and Related Topics

William Jennings Bryan

American lawyer, orator and politician.

Attorney Mary Baird Bryan, the wife of William Jennings Bryan

"UNITED SNAKES OF AMERICA" "IN BRYAN WE TRUST" political satire token of 1896, known as "Bryan Money"

Bryan campaigning for president, October 1896

The United States and its colonial possessions after the Spanish–American War

Conservatives in 1900 ridiculed Bryan's eclectic platform.

William J Bryan in 1906 as Moses with new 10 commandments; Puck 19 sept 1906 by Joseph Keppler. Tablet reads: l-Thou shalt have no other leaders before me. II—Thou shalt not make unto thyself any high Protective Tariff. Ill—Eight hours, and no more, shalt thou labor and do all thy work. IV—Thou shalt not graft. V—Thou shalt not elect thy Senators save by Popular Vote. VI—Thou shalt not grant rebates unto thy neighbor. VII—Thou shalt not make combinations in restraint of trade. VIII—Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's income, but shall make him pay a tax upon it. IX—There shall be no more government by injunction. X—Remember Election Day to vote it early. P.S.— When in doubt, ask Me.

Bryan speaking at the 1908 Democratic National Convention

Bryan attending the 1912 Democratic National Convention

Bryan served as Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson

Cartoon of Secretary of State Bryan reading war news in 1914

Villa Serena, Bryan's home built in 1913 at Miami, Florida

At the Scopes Trial, William Jennings Bryan (seated, left) being questioned by Clarence Darrow (standing, right).

Statue of Bryan on the lawn of the Rhea County courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee

At the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Bryan delivered his "Cross of Gold" speech which attacked the gold standard and the eastern moneyed interests and crusaded for inflationary policies built around the expanded coinage of silver coins.

1896 Democratic National Convention

The scene of William Jennings Bryan's nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate for the 1896 U.S. presidential election.

The convention was held at the Chicago Coliseum

Seating arrangement for delegates at the convention

Former Representative William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska

Former Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri

Former Governor Robert E. Pattison of Pennsylvania

Newspaper Publisher John R. McLean of Ohio

Former Governor Sylvester Pennoyer of Oregon

Former Governor William E. Russell of Massachusetts

Former Representative Joseph C. Sibley of Pennsylvania

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President of the Maine Central Railroad Arthur Sewall of Maine

Former Representative George F. Williams of Massachusetts

State Associate Justice Walter Clark of North Carolina

Representative Nominee J. Hamilton Lewis of Washington (Ineligible, not yet 35 years of age)

Former Representative George W. Fithian of Illinois

Bryan's keynote "Cross of Gold" address, delivered prior to his nomination, lambasted Eastern monied classes for supporting the gold standard at the expense of the average worker.

William McKinley

The 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.

Rutherford B. Hayes was McKinley's mentor during and after the Civil War.

McKinley in 1865, just after the war, photograph by Mathew Brady

'Judge' magazine cover from September 1890, showing McKinley (left) having helped dispatch Speaker Reed's opponent in early-voting Maine, hurrying off with the victor to McKinley's "jerrymandered" Ohio district

Even after his final run for president in 1884, James G. Blaine was still seen as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination. In this 1890 Puck cartoon, he is startling Reed and McKinley (right) as they make their plans for 1892.

McKinley's close friend and adviser, Mark Hanna

Louis Dalrymple cartoon from Puck magazine, June 24, 1896, showing McKinley about to crown himself with the Republican nomination. The "priests" are Hanna (in green) and Representative Charles H. Grosvenor (red); H. H. Kohlsaat is the page holding the robe.

Before the 1896 convention, McKinley tried to avoid coming down on one side or the other of the currency question. William Allen Rogers's cartoon from Harper's Weekly, June 1896, showing McKinley riding the rail of the currency question.

William and Ida McKinley (to her husband's left) pose with members of the "Flower Delegation" from Oil City, Pennsylvania, before the McKinley home. Although women could not vote in most states, they might influence male relatives and were encouraged to visit Canton.

A Man of Mark 1896 Homer Davenport cartoon of McKinley as Hanna's creature, from William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal

Editorial cartoon intervention in Cuba. Columbia (the American people) reaches out to help oppressed Cuba in 1897 while Uncle Sam (the U.S. government) is blind to the crisis and will not use its powerful guns to help. Judge magazine, February 6, 1897.

Annexation of the Republic of Hawaii in 1898

American soldiers scale the walls of Beijing to relieve the siege of the International Legations, August 1900

1900 reelection poster with the theme that McKinley has returned prosperity to America

McKinley, (right of center) flanked by Georgia Governor Allen D. Candler (front row to McKinley's right) and Gen. William Rufus Shafter, reviewing the Atlanta Peace Jubilee parade, December 15, 1898

McKinley ran on his record of prosperity and victory in 1900, winning easy re-election over William Jennings Bryan.

McKinley entering the Temple of Music on September 6, 1901, shortly before the shots were fired

Artist's conception of the shooting of McKinley

The official Presidential portrait of William McKinley, by Harriet Anderson Stubbs Murphy

Chief Justice Melville Fuller swears in William McKinley as president; outgoing President Grover Cleveland at right

William McKinley Monument by Hermon MacNeil in front of the Ohio Statehouse, Columbus

McKinley Monument by Alexander Phimister Proctor in front of Buffalo City Hall, Buffalo

Louisiana Purchase Exposition stamp (1904) honoring McKinley, who had signed a bill authorizing a subsidy for that upcoming event

McKinley Monument in front of Lucas County Courthouse, Toledo

The silverites took control of the 1896 Democratic National Convention and chose William Jennings Bryan for president; he had electrified the delegates with his Cross of Gold speech.

1896 United States presidential election

The 28th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1896.

Bryan's famous "cross of gold" speech gave him the presidential nomination and swung the party to the silver cause

The National "Gold" Democratic Convention

Conservatives said that Bryan (the Populist snake) was taking over (swallowing) the Democratic Party (the mule). Cartoon from "Judge" magazine, 1896.

Bryan's imposing voice and height made a deep impression on many who thronged to hear him.

Bryan traveled 18,000 miles in 3 months, concentrating on the critical states of the Midwest.

The National "Gold" Democratic Party undercut Bryan by dividing the Democratic vote and denouncing his platform.

Map of presidential election results by county

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Map of Republican presidential election results by county

Map of Democratic presidential election results by county

Map of "other" presidential election results by county

Cartogram of presidential election results by county

Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county

Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county

Cartogram of "other" presidential election results by county

Bryan, an attorney and former Congressman, galvanized support with his Cross of Gold speech, which called for a reform of the monetary system and attacked business leaders as the cause of ongoing economic depression.

Economist Edward Kellogg was an early advocate of fiat money.

People's Party (United States)

Left-wing agrarian populist late-19th-century political party in the United States.

Charles W. Macune, one of the leaders of the Farmers' Alliance

People's Party candidate nominating convention held at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15, 1890

1892 People's Party campaign poster promoting James Weaver for President of the United States

In 1896, the 36-year-old William Jennings Bryan was the chosen candidate resulting from the fusion of the Democrats and the People's Party.

People's Party campaign poster from 1904 touting the candidacy of Thomas E. Watson

Meeting later in the year, the 1896 Democratic National Convention nominated William Jennings Bryan for president after Bryan's Cross of Gold speech galvanized the party behind free silver.

Free silver

Major economic policy issue in the United States in the late 19th-century.

"The free silver highwayman at it again" in 1896

Cartoon from Puck showing a silverite farmer and a Democratic donkey whose wagon has been destroyed by the locomotive of sound money

1896 editorial cartoon equating the free silver movement with Frankenstein's monster.

Entitled, "A down-hill movement" by C.J. Taylor in 1896

Free silver was the central issue for Democrats in the presidential elections of 1896 and 1900, under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan, famed for his Cross of Gold speech in favor of free silver.

Under an 1853 act, depositors could no longer have their metal struck into half dollars.

Coinage Act of 1873

General revision of laws relating to the Mint of the United States.

John Jay Knox, photographed by Mathew Brady

Senator John Sherman shepherded the bill through Congress.

The standard silver dollar was abolished by the Coinage Act of 1873.

Medal (by Chief Engraver William Barber) struck for the 1873 Assay Commission. The casket on the reverse honors Philadelphia Mint Assayer Jacob Eckfeldt, who had recently died.

The Trade dollar, intended for use in the Far East, became controversial when circulated in the U.S.

The gold standard triumphant: a caricature from Puck magazine, 1900.

The arrows by the date of this half dollar show that it is one made after the Coinage Act increased its weight to 12.5 grams.

The free silver movement reached its height with the 1896 campaign of former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan, who won the Democratic nomination for president after his Cross of Gold speech, which decried the gold standard, electrified the 1896 Democratic National Convention.

Richard P. Bland

American politician, lawyer, and educator from Missouri.

Illustration from The Chicago Chronicle of the Bland campaign's convention headquarters at the Auditorium Annex

By this time, the full impact of Bryan's Cross of Gold speech began to be felt and understood by the delegates.

Croeseid bimetallic equivalence: 1 gold Croeseid of 8.1 grams was equivalent in value to 10 silver Croeseids of 10.8 grams.

Bimetallism

Monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange between them.

Achaemenid bimetallic equivalence: 1 gold Daric was equivalent in value to 20 silver Sigloi. Under the Achaemenids the exchange rate in weight between gold and silver was 1 to 13.

1896 Republican poster warns against free silver.

Bryan, the eloquent champion of the cause, gave the famous "Cross of Gold" speech at the National Democratic Convention on July 9, 1896, asserting that "The gold standard has slain tens of thousands."

Mark Hanna

American businessman and Republican politician who served as a United States Senator from Ohio as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Before McKinley, Hanna tried to make John Sherman president.

Although McKinley did not run in 1892, the Duke Tobacco Company considered him a presidential possibility that year and issued a card for him.

A photograph taken of Mark Hanna after his election as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

William Jennings Bryan, seen during the 1896 campaign.

Bryan's whistle-stop tour during the 1896 campaign was unprecedented. Here he addresses a crowd in Wellsville, Ohio.

McKinley (center) with a delegation in front of the famous front porch

An 1896 cartoon by Homer Davenport depicting McKinley as being firmly in Hanna's pocket.

In addition to giving speeches from his front porch in 1896, McKinley (lower right) gave orders for the conduct of his campaign from the library of his Canton home.

1896 Puck cover showing Hanna (left) and McKinley's Thanksgiving dinner—carving up the presidency.

A promotional button from Mark Hanna's U.S. Senate campaign.

Although the currency question was not as prominent in 1900 as in 1896 this Judge magazine cover shows it still played its part in the campaign.

Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States (1901-1909)

January 1904 political cartoon depicting Hanna hiding from presidential candidacy

A photo of Senator Hanna taken roughly a year before his death.

Statue of Mark Hanna by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, University Circle, Cleveland

"As they go to the polls" 1900 Homer Davenport cartoon suggesting a cozy relationship among Hanna, McKinley, and the trusts.

Bryan stampeded the convention with what came to be known as the "Cross of Gold speech", decrying the gold standard, which he believed disproportionately hurt the working classes.