Bryan is perhaps best known for a speech he made at the 1896 Democratic National Convention, which ended:
... we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.
He was advocating a more-inflationary monetary policy, which was favored by agrarian interests. You can read more about that, via this link.
That convention nominated Bryan, but he was defeated in the 1896 general election by William McKinley. Bryan lost a rematch to McKinley four years later, and lost again, this time to William Howard Taft, in 1908.
In the next Democratic administration, that of Woodrow Wilson, Bryan was appointed secretary of state, in 1913. He resigned in 1915, believing that Wilson, although he had not yet brought America into the World War, had been too belligerent in his protests against German attacks on shipping in the Atlantic.
A minor part of Bryan's fame is tied into his participation, shortly before his death in 1925, in the prosecution of teacher John Scopes in the so-called "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution in a public school.
No comments:
Post a Comment