William Jennings Bryan and the
“Cross of Gold”
Speech
By Ron Hunka
Library of Congress
On July 9, 1896, at the Democratic
National Convention in Chicago, William
Jennings Bryan, a former two-term congressman from Nebraska and recentlydefeated senate candidate, rose to deliver
an oration to address the great monetary
crisis dividing the nation. Bryan’s “Cross
of Gold” speech would prove to be one of
the most memorable addresses in American political history.
In the last quarter of the 19th century,
there were two major schools of thought
about American monetary policy, each
bitterly opposed to the other. Advocates
of one were known as “silverites,” who
favored a currency redeemable in silver
or gold, a position called “bimetallism.”
Silverites championed “free silver,” that
is the free, unlimited coinage of silver. In
addition, they advocated the circulation
of “cheap” or devalued money. In this
way, they hoped to be able to pay off their
debts. (Silver had been used as money,
along with gold, prior to its demonetization in the Mint Act of 1873. The Act was
derisively known among free silver advocates as the “Crime of 1873.”)
Advocates of the second school were
designated “goldbugs.” To ensure the dollar’s stability, they believed that a sound
currency must be based on gold and that
silver should be demonetized. (A Republican Congress had essentially put the
William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech
from the 1896 Democratic National Convention.
nation on a gold standard in the 1873 Act.
This meant that the value of the nation’s
monetary unit, the dollar, was fixed to a
defined measure of gold.)
Adherents of the silverite position
were mainly members of the Democratic party, the Populists — a political
party that existed from 1891 to 1908, and
other smaller parties. They were mainly
farmers and laborers. The goldbugs were
principally Republicans, who were predominantly bankers and businessmen.
However, President Grover Cleveland, a
Democrat, along with a significant block
of his party, supported the monetary policies of the goldbugs. Such persons were
often called “Bourbon Democrats,” a
name sometimes mistakenly attributed to
their drinking proclivities.
The Sherman Silver
Purchase Act of 1890
As a concession t