Old leaders have been cast aside when they refused to give expression to the sentiments of those whom they would lead, and new leaders have sprung up to give direction to this cause of freedom. The warmest ties of love and acquaintance and association have been disregarded. Our silver Democrats went forth from victory unto victory, until they are assembled now, not to discuss, not to debate, but to enter up the judgment rendered by the plain people of this country.īut in this contest, brother has been arrayed against brother, and father against son. Three months later, at Memphis, an organization was perfected, and the silver Democrats went forth openly and boldly and courageously proclaiming their belief and declaring that if successful they would crystallize in a platform the declaration which they had made and then began the conflict with a zeal approaching the zeal which inspired the crusaders who followed Peter the Hermit. On the 4th of March, 1895, a few Democrats, most of them members of Congress, issued an address to the Democrats of the nation asserting that the money question was the paramount issue of the hour asserting also the right of a majority of the Democratic Party to control the position of the party on this paramount issue concluding with the request that all believers in free coinage of silver in the Democratic Party should organize and take charge of and control the policy of the Democratic Party. Never before in the history of American politics has a great issue been fought out as this issue has been by the voters themselves. Never before in the history of this country has there been witnessed such a contest as that through which we have passed. The individual is but an atom he is born, he acts, he dies but principles are eternal and this has been a contest of principle. I shall object to bringing this question down to a level of persons. When this debate is concluded, a motion will be made to lay upon the table the resolution offered in commendation of the administration and also the resolution in condemnation of the administration. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty-the cause of humanity. The humblest citizen in all the land when clad in the armor of a righteous cause is stronger than all the whole hosts of error that they can bring. I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were but a measuring of ability but this is not a contest among persons. Try updating to the latest version of your browser. Your browser is unable to play the audio element. The full text of William Jenning Bryan’s famous “Cross of Gold” speech appears below. “Some,” wrote another reporter, “like demented things, divested themselves of their coats and flung them high in the air.” The next day the convention nominated Bryan for President on the fifth ballot. The response, wrote one reporter, “came like one great burst of artillery.” Men and women screamed and waved their hats and canes. His dramatic speaking style and rhetoric roused the crowd to a frenzy. The thirty-six-year-old former Congressman from Nebraska aspired to be the Democratic nominee for president, and he had been skillfully, but quietly, building support for himself among the delegates. (This inflationary measure would have increased the amount of money in circulation and aided cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.) After speeches on the subject by several U.S. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Supplies of silver decreased during the 1960s and in 1970 the Treasury stopped using silver and sold its surplus stock.Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech: Mesmerizing the Masses Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed legislation securing guaranteed US Treasury purchases of silver for use in coins. Following the 1900 election, a Republican Congress passed the Gold Standard Act, which made gold the sole standard of currency. Eastern bankers were blamed for a depressed silver market, and the Democratic Party adopted the demand for unlimited free silver in the presidential campaign of 1896. In 1890 the Sherman Silver Purchase Act doubled the agreed issue of silver, but following a stockmarket crisis in 1893 the Act was repealed. A protest movement resulted, and in 1878 the silver dollar became legal tender, the US Treasury agreeing to purchase silver to turn into coins. Silver miners wished to see unlimited production, but in 1873 Congress refused to include the silver dollar in its list of authorized coins. Following the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s, large deposits of silver were discovered in the West. A movement in the 19th century in the USA for an unlimited silver coinage.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |