Duluth, MN Speech 3, 1896-10-14

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Tuesday, October 13, 1896 at 9:25pm
Depot, Duluth, MN

Source: WELCOME AT DULUTH, Mr. Bryan Given a Most Hearty Reception at the Home of C. A. Towne., Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Wednesday, October 14, 1896

"It gives me great pleasure to defend our cause anywhere, but it gives me especial pleasure to defend that cause among the people who, like the people of Minnesota, have laid aside differences on minor questions, and joined in a supreme effort to wrest this government from the hands of those who would make the people hewers of wood and drawers of water. (Applause.)

...I beg you to remember the responsibilities which rest upon you in an hour like this and leave no effort undone to give a majority in the house and a majority in the senate, as well as a president, all in favor of free coinage at 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth. (A voice, "And you won't veto it, will you?")

I will not, but I want you to have two-thirds if possible in both houses; that is if any change should come over me and I should veto it, I want you to have enough to pass it over my veto. (Cheers.) But, my friends, you need have no concern about my vetoing any measure which is in harmony with the platform on which I stand. I have been taught to believe that platforms are guides to those elected. Not merely the means by which one may be elected. You may rest assured that I believe in what is in that platform and that no power on earth can prevent my carrying out that platform, so far as my ability may go." (Great cheering.)

EQUIPPED TO SIGN THE BILL

"I desire to thank the laboring men of this city for having completed the equipment so that I am now prepared to sign that bill whenever it reaches me, without depending on anybody else for pen or inkstand or ink. The golden pen with the silver holder, the silver inkstand and the ink presented tonight shall be preserved, and if, by the suffrages of my countrymen, I am placed in the highest office within the gift of the people of all this world, these things shall be used for the purpose for which they are intended, and I shall be glad when the deed is done that I am indebted not to the financiers, not to the trusts, not to corporations, not to syndicates, but to the laboring men for the equipment." (Cheers.)