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Before Woodrow Wilson
became the standard bearer for the Democratic Party, that honor
belonged to William Jennings Bryan, known both as "the Great Commoner"
and the "Boy Orator of the Platte." Bryanís support of Wilson at
the 1912 Democratic Convention broke a deadlock after 46 ballots and
gave Wilson the presidential nomination.
Born in Salem, Illinois in 1860, Bryan was imbued with both a
fierce Protestant faith and a strong allegiance to the Democrats.
Seeing no future in Illinois after his graduation from Union Law
School in 1883, he moved to Nebraska. In 1890, Bryan ran for
Congress as a Democrat and was elected.
Bryanís skill as a speaker soon secured him the leadership of the
"free-silver" Democrats as well, advocates of the free coinage of
silver as a way to relieve crippling farm debt. Bryan's scathing
denunciation of attempts by the "great cities" to impose a gold
standard - his
"Cross of Gold" speech at the
Democratic convention in 1896 - is considered one of the greatest
political speeches in American history. "You will not press down on
the brow of labor this crown of thorns," he thundered to the wildly
cheering crowd. "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of
gold." It gained Bryan the presidential nomination. He was only 36.
Bryan lost to
William McKinley then ran for
president and lost twice more, in 1900 to McKinley again and in 1908
to Theodore Roosevelt's candidate,
William H. TaftBy the
1912 election,
Bryan was essentially the Democratic Party's "king
maker;" though he himself would not be nominated, his endorsement
guaranteed a candidate's success. Of the large field of nominees,
Bryan ultimately gave his blessing to Woodrow Wilson, the
progressive governor of New Jersey. Wilson was elected president and
returned the favor by naming him Secretary of State. But Bryan's
fierce commitment to American neutrality was even greater than
Wilson's. When Wilson adopted a hard line against German submarine
warfare - a position that led to America's entry into the
European war - Bryan resigned in protest.
Bryan is remembered less for his lifelong, eloquent defense of
the common man and more as the lawyer for the prosecution in the
1925 trial of John Scopes, a Tennessee schoolteacher accused of
teaching evolution. In the course of the
"Monkey Trial", defense lawyer
Clarence Darrow put Bryan on the stand ridiculing Bryan's belief in
the literal truth of the Bible. Bryan won the case, but died less
than a week later.
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