The Story of America: William Jennings Bryan and the “Cross of Gold” [Ep. 39]

On this episode of Our American Stories, as industrial America surged forward in the late 19th century, millions of farmers and working Americans felt left behind by falling crop prices, mounting debt, and economic upheaval. Into that unrest stepped William Jennings Bryan, a fiery young politician from Nebraska whose famous “Cross of Gold” speech in Chicago transformed him into the leading voice of the downtrodden and forgotten.

In this installment of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of America series, Dr. Wilfred McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the tale of the fierce national debate over money, democracy, and economic power that would reshape America at the dawn of the 20th century.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
Up next another installment of our Story of Us, Story
of America series with Hillsdale College professor and author of
the terrific book Land of Hope, doctor Bill McLay. After
America defeated Spain and the rather lopsided Spanish American War,
questions began to be asked about our place abroad, but

(00:31):
questions swirled domestically as well. After all, the Industrial Revolution
had brought about tremendous changes, some good and some not
so good, but tremendous. Nonetheless, Let's get into the story.
Take it away, Bill.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
The two decades after the Spanish American War are best
known for the reform movements that occurred in reaction to
the Industrial Revolution, the urbanization that occurred, tenthilization, immigration, and
that great concentration of wealth and power resulting in all
of these changes. But the reformers were not solely concentrated

(01:15):
on the many problems that plagued America's cities. The impetus
for reform also sprang from the nation's small towns, for
our national farmlands and our farmers, a group of Americans
known best for their self reliance. Though They were under
intense pressure, not just from declining and depressed crop prices,

(01:35):
but railroads, bankers, creditors, grain elevator operators, and a multitude
of middlemen who made it ever more complicated for them
to get their crops to market. In short, farm life
itself was not as simple as it used to be,
and it would never be again. From a growing coalition

(01:59):
of farmers unorganized at first, was birth the protest movement
of sorts, the People's Party, or as they were also known,
the Populists. They threw their support behind a former two
term congressman from Nebraska named William Jennings Brian. William Jennings

(02:21):
Brian was a mere thirty six years old, but a
talented public speaker with a special talent for moving audience
and doing so with the same gifts that great evangelists
throughout history have possessed, deploying rhetoric with deep Christian and
Biblical overtones and themes, often rousing audiences to tears and

(02:45):
great cheers, and always the moral center of his speeches
was about the poor, the downtrodden farmers facing hard times,
but he also focused on the working classes, the merchants,
small town main street, business owners struggling to make ends meet.
And then there was the issue of silver. Gold was

(03:12):
the standard of value for all of our currents, with
the value of a dollar directly correlated to a specific
weight of gold. Any attempts to do the same thing
with silver were not just controversial, but met with fierce
resistance by most bankers and most business owners too. The fear,
of course, was simple, that the currency would be thereby devalue.

(03:37):
Brian saw an opportunity attacking that resistance to alternatives to
gold as greed and stinginess. His speech at the eighteen
ninety six Democratic Convention in Chicago was a sharp critique,
one delivered with a pastor's fire and sense of moral urgency.

(04:05):
I come to speak to you in defense of a
cause as holy as the cause of liberty, the cause
of humanity. When this debate is continued, a motion will
be made to lay upon the table the resolution offered
in commendation of the administration, and also the resolution in

(04:26):
condemnation of the Administration. I shall object to bringing this
question down to a level of persons. 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. Never before in the history of this.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Country has there been witness such a context has that's
who would be have just passed. Never before in the
history of American politics has a great issue been bought
out as this issue has been by the voters of
a great party.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Brian then goes on expanding on the very definition of
businessman and business interests.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
When you come before us and tell us that we're
about to disturb your business interests, we require that you
have disturbed our business interests by your course. We say
to you that you have made the definition of a
businessman too limited in its application. The man who is

(05:37):
employed for wages is as much a businessman as his employer.
The attorney in the country town is as much a
businessman as the corporation's council in a great metropolis. The
merchant at the cross roads store is as much a
businessman as a merchant of New York. The farmer who

(05:59):
goes in the morning and foils all days, who begins
in the spring and boils all summer, and who, by
the application of brain and muscles and the natural resources
of the country, creates wealth, is as much a business
man as the man who goes u from the board
of trade and gets up from the price of brain,

(06:21):
the miner who goes down a thousand feet into the earth,
or crimes two thousands feet it from the cliffs and
brings forth from their hiding places of practice medals to
be poured into channels of trade. Or as much businessman
as the few financial magnets who in the back room

(06:42):
corner the money of the world. We come to speak
for the broader class.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Our businessman prime was finished. There are two ideas of government.
There are those who believe that if you just legislate
to make the well to do prosperous, that their prosperity

(07:08):
will leak through on those below. The democratic idea has
been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous,
their prosperity will find its way up and through every
class that rests upon it. You come to us and
tell us that the great cities are in favor of

(07:29):
the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities
rest upon these broad and fertile prairies.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Burn down your cities and leave off farms, and your
cities will spring up again, as if by magic. But
destroy our farms, and the will go in the streets
of every city of the country.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
And here is how Brian closed this powerful speech. If
they dare to come out in the open field and
defend the gold standard is a good thing, we shall find.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Them having behind us the producing masses of decisions, and
the world supported by the commercial interest, the laboring isness,
and the call of everywhere. We will answer the demand
for the gold standard by saying to them.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
You shall not press down upon the brow of labor
this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind on
a cross of gold. Well, as Brian spoke these words,
he also raised his arms to his side, projecting an
image of himself as the crucified Christ, and the crowd

(08:57):
aided up, going absolutely wid His speech and showmanship may
have played the convention crowd, but Brian's Republican opponent, William McKinley,
was able to portray him as a political activist of
the wildest sort, one with the spirit of a communist.

(09:22):
The tactic would win McKinley the election over the Nebraska populist,
but by a slim margin fifty one to forty eight percent.
Most historians regard the eighteen ninety six election as a
win for the urban and industrial forces of the nation
over agricultural and rural values. But there was something greater

(09:45):
going on. A movement had been borne, birthed by radical
protests with ordinary working people, farmers and merchants and workers
of all kinds. How far that movement had come, capturing
a major party and coming close to beating the Republican
candidate was almost as significant as how fast it all

(10:06):
had happened. It turns out that Brian won more votes
six point five million than any candidate in American history
except for McKinley's performance that year seven point one million.
The fact was there was little reason to believe this
Reform Party was some kind of glib But to gain
enough traction to win the presidency, the reform torch would

(10:30):
have to be taken up by the progressive move which
included a more middle class and professional dimension.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
The Story of America series with doctor Bill McLay here
on our American Stories