William Jennings Bryan, The First Battle: A Story of the
Campaign of 1896
(Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1896), 340-342 and Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition),
Omaha, NE, 20 August, 1896.
"Mr. Chairman, ladies and Gentlemen: I think I can go further even than the chairman
of this impromptu meeting. He says that to be the President of the Untied States is to be greater
than to be a Roman, or a king. But few can be President, and I rejoice that I live n a land where to
be a citizen is greater than to be a king. I rejoice that I live in a land where those who exercise
authority derive that authority from the consent of the governed and do not rule by the right
divine.
In this land, whether we live along the Hudson, or on the Western prairies, we stand
upon a common plane and we participate in a government which represents us all. We may belong to
different parties, but I trust I may be able to express the- desire of each of you, as well as of
myself, when I say that we ought to belong at all times to that party which, in our judgment, will
enable us best to serve- our country.
Parties are instruments, not ends. They are the means we use to secure that which we
believe to be best for us, for our families, and for our fellows. Issues arise from time to time,
and it is the duty of every citizen who loves his country, and who appreciates the responsibilities
which rest upon him, to study each issue as it arises.
EACH SHOULD INVESTIGATE.
I am not here tonight to make you a political speech. I am in your midst to rest. But
I cannot withstand the temptation at this time to beg that you will study, if you have not done so
before, that issue which in this campaign is paramount. I know that among our neighbors in the East
there are many who have regarded our position upon the money question as entirely wrong, and they
speak of the silver sentiment as a sort of disease.
I want to beg of you, my friends, to believe that we, who advocate the restoration of
the money of the Constitution, are not seeking that policy because we believe that it is going to
give us an advantage over somebody else. We have studied the question as best we could, and we
honestly believe that there can be no permanent, no general prosperity in this country until we stop
the conspiracy of those who would make gold the only standard of the world and make all other things
depend upon that alone. We believe that while the struggle for gold goes on other things must become
cheap; that as we increase the demand for that one thing, gold, we must decrease the price of all
those things which are exchanged for gold, and we believe that this falling of prices, compelled by
legislation, is destructive of the energies, the industries and the hope of the toiling masses of
the United States and of the world. I beg of you, when you are considering this question, to
remember that this is a great nation, and that it is made up of 70,000,000 people, each the equal of
the other.
TOILER HAS MUCH AT STAKE.
I have visited some of your beautiful villas along the Hudson. I have been charmed
with their beauty, but when you study this question, remember that those, who, instead of occupying
these magnificent places, must toil all day under the summer sun, have just as much interest in the
money question as anybody else. Remember, that this question cannot be viewed from the standpoint of
any class of people.
It reaches every man, woman and child in the land, and you should make your view broad
enough to comprehend them all, because I believe I speak the truth when I say that the prosperity of
the well-to-do rests upon the prosperity of those who toil, and that you cannot have a financial
policy which brings distress to those who create wealth, without, in the end, reaching those who
rest upon these toilers. And, more than that, you cannot have a policy which brings prosperity to
the masses without the prosperity proving of benefit to all mankind.
I beg that in your consideration of this question, you will study the interests of
all, and not merely the interests of those who may be permanently benefited by the rise in the value
of the dollar, and, when you have made up your mind, I desire each of you to feel that you have the
right to express your own view. The ballot was not given in order that one man should vote for many,
or that one man should compel others to vote with him, or purchase their votes.
It was given in order that each man might make his ballot represent a free man's will,
and, when each one, studying as he will and voting as he likes, expresses himself we take a
majority, and then we all support the one who is elected and hold up his hands while he administers
for us the government, whether we agree with his views or not."