Marquette, MI Speech, 1896-10-14

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Wednesday, October 14, 1896 at 9:45pm
Depot, Marquette, MI

Source: SPEAKS TO MINERS, Mr. Bryan addresses the Men Who Toil Deep Under the Earth’s Crust., Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Thursday, October 15, 1896

"Our opponents tell us that the success of our cause would mean great danger to this country. We reply to them that twenty years of experience in their cause has been of incalculable harm to our country. (Cheers.) They tell us that the free coinage of silver will bring trouble; we tell them that the gold standard has brought trouble. [[Illegible]] place the experience of our people against the prophecies which they make. They tell us that the free coinage of silver may not be free from dangers, that it may not be a perfect system. [[Illegible]] tell them all we try to do is to [[illegible]] something better than we have [[illegible]] and it does not take a very great [[illegible]] to be better than the one we [[illegible]]. (Great cheering.)

In a sense, our campaign is a defensive one: in another sense it is an aggressive campaign. It is defensive because we are defending our homes and [[illegible]] from an enemy as dangerous as ever attacked the welfare of the people. It is an aggressive warfare in that we demand affirmative legislation: it is aggressive, in that we are after something and know what we are after and how we are going to get it."