Knoxville, TN Speech, 1896-09-16

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Wednesday, September 16, 1896
Courthouse, Knoxville, TN

Source: PARTY INCONSISTENCY., Mr. Bryan Walks Rough Shod Over Head of Goldbugs., Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Thursday, September 17, 1896

"I come to you as a representative of a principle paramount in this campaign. It is the right of 70,000,000 people to have just the kind of financial system that they want whether any other foreign nations help to have it or are willing for us to have it. (Great applause.) Against the maintenance of a gold standard for one year or forever, the Democratic party has arrayed itself. We are opposed to a gold standard. We have declared an honorable opposition to it. We have commenced a war of extermination against it, a war that will not cease while there is any party or any considerable number of men who are attempting to force this foreign yoke upon [[illegible]] people. (Applause.)

My friends, when you find a party that tells you what it wants and tells you how it is going to get it and what in the judgment of those who advocate it the effect of that policy will be, you have the right to conclude that they are honestly believing in the justice of the cause which they represent. When you find the people talking about an honest dollar and then deal dishonestly with the people with whom they come in contact, you have a right to believe that they are not entirely devoted to the cause of the people whom they are not willing to take into their confidence. We assert that when they attempt to build a financial system upon a money which they cannot produce that they are building up an insecure structure upon an invisible foundation and are insulting the intelligence of those who mean what they say and say what they mean." (Applause.)