Jacksonville, IL Speech 3, 1896-10-26

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Monday, October 26, 1896 at 2:00pm
Town Square, Jacksonville, IL

Source: READY FOR CHICAGO, Mr. Bryan, After Nearly Two Days Rest, Starts for the Big City., Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Tuesday, October 27, 1896; The Evening News, Tuesday, October 27, 1896

"It is always pleasing to meet a large number of people in any part of the country, but it is especially gratifying to find so many willing to turn out on this occasion when I come back to this city, which was for many years my home. It is gratifying again to meet the friends I used to know and to learn by their presence and their words that the acquaintance then formed is continued and that the good will that they so often manifested then is still evident. I come back as the representative of a great principle, as the champion of a great cause, as the candidate of those who believe that the American people are able to attend to their own business. (Great cheering.) If there is anyone in Morgan county who believes that 70,000,000 of people must bow the knee to foreign nations and bend their necks to a foreign yoke, I cannot expect those people to vote for me this year, because I do not believe that we should submit ourselves to foreign dictation. The national parties declared the money question to be the paramount issue of the campaign, and those bolting Democrats who went over to help the Republicans without having the courage to call themselves Republicans also declared that the money question was the paramount issue. And yet our opponents, when they find themselves divided on this question, when they find themselves unable to meet the argument in favor of bimetallism, when they find themselves unable to convince the American people that our finances are safest when in the hands of syndicates, I say our opponents, failing in the first fight that they made, now turn to the people of this country and say that the election of the Chicago ticket is a menace to our form of government. We are prepared to meet our enemies on any battlefield, but we want them to distinctly understand that no matter how badly they have been defeated in argument, that they have got to face this money question for one week more before the American people."