The author of this little volume, in giving it to the reading public, feels called on for a few words by way of explanation and apology. The book is written because there seems to be a field for it. Within the last few months hundreds of thousands of American citizens have come to see William Jennings Bryan in a new light. As a result, while they no longer believe him a demagogue, some still hesitate to accept him as a statesman. While they have ceased to denounce him as an anarchist, some are s

About the life and services of William Jennings Bryan will be centered the labors of those who, in future time, shall contribute to the pages of history the story of American states-craft and political tendencies of the dying days of the nineteenth century and the opening decade of the twentieth. The historian who has to do with Bryan and his times will deal not only with one of the most momentous and important periods of American history, but with one of the most remarkable and interesting char

William Bryan, the great-grandfather of the presidential nominee, the first of the Bryans known to the present generation, lived in Culpepper county, Va. In his family there were three children. One of these, John Bryan, was the grandfather of William Jennings Bryan. In 1807 John married Nancy Lillard. To this couple ten children were born. One of these was Silas L. Bryan, the father of William Jennings Bryan. He was born in Sperryville, Culpepper county, Va., in 1822. In 1834 he came west, work

Mr. Bryan’s first political speech of importance was made at Seward in the spring of 1888. At that time Lincoln was known to be as strong as the rock of Gibraltar in the Republican faith. On this occasion of his first public appearance as a political orator in Nebraska, he drew men to him by the power of the orator, and held them there in subsequent years by the virtue of the man. His extraordinary popularity with the masses of his followers was universally acknowledged. After his first few spee

For twenty years prior to 1896 the chief tangible point of difference between the Democratic and Republican parties was the tariff question. It was, in truth, a question on which the two great parties had always differed since the days when they were known as Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Democratic party, in true accord with the principles of Thomas Jefferson, has always held that government to be best which interferes least with the liberty of the individual. The purpose of government,

In every national campaign since the time silver was demonetized in 1873 the demand for bimetallism has been a platform plank always of one and frequently of both of the two great political parties. The first unequivocal renunciation of the policy and theory of bimetallism on the part of any important national convention occurred in June, 1900, at Philadelphia. In 1896 the Republican party, in its platform adopted at St. Louis, pledged itself to the promotion of bimetallism by international agre

In the fall of 1896, within the period of one hundred days, William J. Bryan traveled eighteen thousand miles. He delivered over six hundred speeches to crowds aggregating five millions of people. Reduced to figures more readily comprehended, he averaged each day one hundred and eighty miles of railroad travel, interrupted by the stops necessary for the delivery of six speeches to crowds of over eight thousand each and fifty thousand in all. This was his personal service in the “first battle” fo

The half decade between 1895 and 1900 may justly be considered one of the most important in American history. It witnessed the fiercest battle between political parties ever fought over the question of finance,—a contest exceeding in bitterness and the general participation of the people of the United States therein even the great struggle in which Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle were the opposing leaders. And, further, as the outcome of the war with Spain, it saw the birth and growth of an i

When the result of the great presidential contest of 1896 was made known, Mr. Bryan’s political enemies, both in and out of the Democratic party, loudly proclaimed that “Bryanism”—or “Bryanarchy,” as a green-eyed relict of Mr. Cleveland’s second cabinet terms it—was dead and buried. Some said it was “too dead to bury.” And Bryan himself, they gleefully asserted, had died with the death of ideas to which he was wedded. Doubtless many of them believed this. The fierce and determined onslaught of t

Mr. Bryan was notified of his second nomination for the Presidency by the Democratic party at Indianapolis, Ind., on August 8, 1900. The ceremonies took place in the presence of an immense multitude of people, the number being conservatively estimated at fifty thousand, among whom were included many of the most distinguished members of the party. In formally accepting the nomination Mr. Bryan delivered a speech which will not only rank as incomparably the best of his numerous public utterances,

The firm hold which Mr. Bryan has over the confidence, esteem, and love of his followers was strikingly proven in the dark days that followed November, 1896. It is certain that no other public man of his time could have been the candidate of the Democratic party on the Chicago platform, suffered that severe reversal, and yet retained, undisputed and undisturbed, the acknowledged leadership of the party. Whoso learns why it was that Mr. Bryan stood stronger in defeat then he was before has found

A very wholesome theory that a man’s home is his castle and that the sanctuary of private life is one that must be respected has no application in America to a public man. The fact that few public men quarrel with the general idea upon this subject proves that it has its basis in sound judgment and honest desire for greater intimacy rather than in impertinent curiosity. In the case of Mr. Bryan he has never quarreled with this widely held theory. For ten years he has been in the glare of publici