The Voice of the People

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Shannon Rollings

Professor J. Faulkner

History 2020 - Tuesday Night

5 September 2006

The Voice of the People

Mr. William Jennings Bryan presented an astonishing speech entitled "Cross of Gold" in regards to the Democratic opinion of the gold standard. The speech was made on July 9, 1896 at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Bryan attempted to reach every Democratic voter and average western citizen with this speech to convince them that bimetallism was the only good solution to the economic problems of the era. Bryan represented the common citizen who knew the hardships and burdens caused by taking refuge in the west. He spoke against the eastern states with there great prosperity in comparison to the humble western living standards claiming this was why the representative from that area were supporting the gold standard. Bryan examined many different aspects of the debate between bimetallism and the gold standard and was very persuasive with his mannerism and delivery of his point of view.

The most important point in this speech was that Bryan felt that holders of fixed investments resided primarily on the East coast and wanted to keep the gold standard enforced to be within compliance of international proceedings. The wealthy supported the gold standard, and the poor supported bimetallism. Bryan claimed that government could enforce bimetallism and allow the other countries to follow the United States in their efforts instead of the United States always being one step behind the other countries.

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Another controversy addressed by Bryan was the right to coin money. He felt it was a function of the government while Republicans felt it was a function of the bank. Government did not want to be involved in regulating currency and relied on the banking system to do so if they felt it was a necessity.

Bryan does fail to examine why the gold standard along with international cooperation may be a good thing for the country at that time. He did bring up many important issues and even responded to critics claiming the income tax law to be unconstitutional. Bryan also responds to Governor Russell reassuring him that there would