William Jennings Bryan: “Cross of Gold” Speech

Context

The events that led to Bryan's oration grew out of the history of the Democratic Party during the 1890s. In 1892 the party had elected Grover Cleveland to a second term as president. After just a few weeks in office, Cleveland faced an economic crisis. The Panic of 1893 (depressions were called “panics” at the time) occurred, with bank failures, mass unemployment, and the bankruptcies of many businesses. This downturn exposed fault lines within the Democratic ranks. Cleveland and eastern party members believed that the solution lay in allegiance to the “gold standard,” meaning that the government should issue dollars based on the amount of gold bullion the nation held in its treasury. Because the world supply of gold was limited, the amount of dollars and credit in circulation would be restricted as well. Only in that way, Cleveland argued, could the nation regain its economic health.

Democrats in the West and South, however, countered that the problem lay elsewhere. These agricultural regions faced declining prices for staple crops such as wheat and cotton, which they produced. Farmers in these areas also had debts for land and equipment that they found more difficult to pay. As a result, these agrarians argued that the government should put more money into circulation, thereby raising prices and making debts easier to pay. They proposed to accomplish these ends through what was then known as “free silver,” a shorthand phrase for the free and unlimited coinage of silver into money at a fixed ratio with gold.

Silver had been part of the American financial system until 1873, when the U.S. Treasury moved to an exclusively gold basis. People who supported the use of silver called this change the “Crime of 1873.” Economics dictated the shift to gold: The market price of silver had fallen because of extensive mining, and the government would have lost money by producing silver dollars. More important, the lesser value of silver dollars would have caused the hoarding of gold dollars because of the higher value of the gold-backed currency. There would also have been problems with inflation.

Despite these arguments, advocates of silver saw that metal as the answer to the nation's financial woes. The People's Party, which had run well in elections in the South and West in 1892, made free silver one of its key planks. Democrats in those regions shared these convictions and wanted their party to abandon the hard-money, gold-standard views of President Cleveland. These differences were papered over during the 1892 campaign. When the Panic of 1893 hit, however, the Democrats fractured over which course to take in dealing with the hard times.

President Cleveland decided that a single piece of legislation had brought on the depression. In 1890 Congress had enacted the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which mandated that the government purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver each month. Cleveland charged that this measure unsettled business confidence because of the subsidy it provided to silver miners, and, in turn, undermined confidence in the gold standard. Cleveland called Congress to a special session in August 1893 to repeal the Sherman law.

The ensuing debate revealed the deep divisions among the Democrats. Among the leaders of the opposition to the president's policy was a thirty-three-year-old Nebraska congressman, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan joined other Democrats from the South and West in denouncing what Cleveland wanted to do. His speech on August 16, 1893, won wide acclaim. With the help of the Republicans, however, the president succeeded in repealing the Sherman Act. The outcome left the Democratic Party in disarray.

The party's troubles worsened during 1894. Congress and Cleveland continued their disagreements while economic discontent mounted throughout the country. Unemployed workers marched toward Washington, D.C., to record their protests against the lack of work and opportunity. Jacob S. Coxey was the most famous of these protestors, leading his “Coxey's Army” to the nation's capital. In Chicago a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, a maker of railroad sleeper cars, grew into a nationwide walkout that the Cleveland administration broke by using federal troops. Popular unhappiness with the Democrats mounted as the 1894 congressional elections neared.

At the polls in 1894, voters rejected Democratic candidates. In the largest transfer of congressional strength up to that time, Republicans gained 113 seats in the House of Representatives and made smaller gains in the Senate. The Cleveland administration had been greatly reduced. Now, free-silver Democrats resolved to control the nomination of a presidential candidate in 1896.

In an age that valued skill as an orator, Bryan was a talented public speaker. He had a clear, musical voice that could be heard at the back of a hall—an important quality in the age before the use of amplification and microphones. Moreover, he had the capacity to articulate the ideas of his constituents in pleasing tones that carried conviction and sincerity. Bryan knew that if he could have a chance to address an audience of pro-silver Democrats, he could make a speech that would energize the crowd. During 1895 and 1896, he tested lines in his standard speeches to his fellow Democrats, perfecting the argument that he would advance in Chicago.

Because of his youth, Bryan knew that he had to proceed with caution in seeking the nomination in 1896. He adopted a strategy of becoming the second choice of many delegates at the convention. When the front-runners faltered, as he was sure they would, Bryan would make his move. The two leading candidates, Richard Parks Bland of Missouri and Horace Boies of Iowa, did not inspire much enthusiasm among faithful Democrats. Bryan planned to have himself become the party's top choice as the ballots at the convention went forward.

Bryan sought an opportunity to make the speech of his life. The debate over the issue of silver in the party's platform provided the chance he was seeking. Bryan arranged to speak last on the program and persuaded the other free-silver orator, Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina, to go first in making the case for silver. There would be three pro-gold speakers: David B. Hill of New York, William F. Vilas of Wisconsin, and William E. Russell of Massachusetts. When the debate started, Tillman went first. His speech, which attacked the northern Democratic delegates and went on too long, fell flat. The three gold-standard advocates then made their critical comments; the crowd, most of whom supported silver, listened patiently but without enthusiasm. Bryan then gave his speech.