Mattoon, IL Speech, 1896-07-13

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Monday, July 13, 1896
Depot, Mattoon, IL

Source: ONLY A "HIRED MAN.", Mr. Bryan Tells of the Real Functions of a President, Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Tuesday, July 14, 1896

"I have been taught to believe that a public servant was but a public man chosen for a certain term and to do a certain public work. You can't always tell whether a man will make a good hired man or not. Sometimes he makes a good hired man and sometimes he does not. We have a splendid platform adopted at Chicago and I believe that any man who will carry out that platform will be a good hired man for the people of the United States. (Cheers.) This will be a campaign in which there will be a great deal of feeling, more feeling than at any time since the war in a campaign in which you or I have indulged. There will be certain feelings on both sides. You will find there are those who will say that the platform adopted at Chicago will be ruinous to the country. On our side you will find those who claim the restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the present ratio of 16 to 1 can be accomplished without awaiting for any other nation on earth. (Cheers.)

Those who will be pecuniarly benefited by the rising dollar are in favor of raising the value of the dollar. But those others, who are the people, do not want the value of the dollar to rise when it depresses the value of human toil. When those who are benefited by the rise of the dollar ask you what kind of money you want, tell them you want good money. You want a dollar that will be just, not one that will take from the labor-producing classes of the world." (Cheers.)