Niagara Falls Speech, 1896-08-28

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Friday, August 28, 1896 at 9:15pm
Cataract House, Niagara Falls, NY

Source: AMONG NEW YORK’S FARMERS, W. J. Bryan Addresses Them on the Money Question at a Monster Picnic, Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Saturday, August 29, 1896

"I belong to that generation known as the aftermath. I have grown up since the war. From the time or since I entered upon manhood's estate there has been no war in which I could devote my services to my country, but in a nation like this it does not need a war to develop patriotism. (Applause.) It requires as much of moral courage and as much of lofty patriotism to stand for what you believe to be right in time of peace as it does to follow the fife and drum in time of war. It requires as much manhood to go to the ballot box and there deposit a ballot which registers a free man's will as it does to march in solid phalanx.

Let me beg of you that you study the questions involved in this campaign and when you have made up your mind as to what is right, do your duty as you see it and trust the consequences of the future to the keeping of him who rewards in his own time every well-performed duty." (Great applause.)