Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech: Mesmerizing the Masses
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. The issue was
whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. (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.
Senators, Bryan rose to speak. 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. His dramatic speaking style and rhetoric
roused the crowd to frenzy. The response, wrote one reporter, “came like one great burst of
artillery.” Men and women screamed and waved their hats and canes. “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 full
text of William Jenning Bryan’s famous “Cross of Gold” speech appears below. The audio
portion is an excerpt. [Note on the recording: In 1896 recording technology was in its
infancy, and recording a political convention would have been impossible. But in the early
20th century, the fame of Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech led him to repeat it numerous times
on the Chautauqua lecture circuit where he was an enormously popular speaker.
During the July 7th presidential debates, Bryan maneuvered to be the last to speak in the platform
debate on July 9. He claimed to speak “in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty—the cause
of humanity.” Bryan blamed the gold standard for impoverishing Americans, and identified
agriculture as the foundation of American wealth. He called for reform of the monetary system, an
end to the gold standard, and promised government relief efforts for farmers and others hurt by the
economic depression. Bryan ended his rousing oration with religious imagery:
“Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial
interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand 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.”
Farmers
Federal land policy attracted settlers and land speculators. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided land,
originally 160 acres, at no cost if the settler agreed to cultivate the land for at least five years. As settlers
moved into arid areas farther west, however, the 160-acre plots proved insufficient, so the size of land grants
increased.
As farmers settled more western land from 1870 to 1900, the nation's agricultural production doubled.
Several factors increased productivity. New farm machinery included the steel plow, which could slice
through the heavy soil of the plains, and the twine-binder, which gathered bundles of wheat and tied them
with string. New varieties of grain, such as drought-resistant sorghum, enlarged harvests. Barbed wire,
patented in 1874, enabled farmers to protect their property from roaming livestock. Finally, the railroads
made it possible for Western farm produce to be sold in Eastern cities.
However, pioneers who established farms in the plains—in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska,
and the Dakotas—faced difficult and isolated lives. They also lost much of their independence. By the late
19th century, farmers had grown increasingly dependent on large businesses. Railroads transported their
crops, banks loaned them money, manufacturers sold them farm machinery, and unstable international
markets for wheat and corn determined their income. Overproduction, meanwhile, drove prices down.
Farmers were frustrated by sagging prices, rising debt, high interest rates, and such railroad practices, as fixed
prices or discrimination among customers. Farmers no longer felt in charge of their own fates.
To try to address some of their problems, farmers joined together in 1867 and founded the National Grange
of the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, which established cooperative stores and urged laws to curb
railroad abuses. In a number of states, including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California, the
Grangers supported the passage of laws that regulated railroad rates and practices (see Granger Movement).
In 1887 Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, which sought to deal with some of these problems.
The law required railroad companies that transported passengers or goods to establish reasonable rates, to
publish those rates, and to adhere to them. It also banned unfair practices, such as rebates to favored
customers. Finally, it created a new agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), to supervise railroad
operations. The new law, however, did little to curb railroad power. Railroads gained control of the ICC,
evaded the law, and won repeal of the Granger laws that regulated rates; farmers’ protests grew.
The Granger Movement
The Granger movement was a coalition of U.S. farmers, particularly in the Middle West, that
fought monopolistic grain transport practices during the decade following the American Civil
War.
The Granger movement began with a single individual, Oliver Hudson Kelley. Kelley was an
employee of the Department of Agriculture in 1866 when he made a tour of the South.
Shocked by the ignorance there of sound agricultural practices, Kelley in 1867 began an
organization—the Patrons of Husbandry—he hoped would bring farmers together for
educational discussions and social purposes.
The organization involved secret ritual and was divided into local units called “Granges.” At first only
Kelley’s home state of Minnesota seemed responsive to the Granger movement, but by 1870 nine states
had Granges. By the mid-1870s nearly every state had at least one Grange, and national membership
reached close to 800,000. What drew most farmers to the Granger movement was the need for unified
action against the monopolistic railroads and grain elevators (often owned by the railroads) that
charged exorbitant rates for handling and transporting farmers’ crops and other agricultural products.
The movement picked up adherents as it became increasingly political after 1870.