The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former U.S. Representative from Nebraska. Bryan supported bimetallism or free silver, which he believed would bring the nation prosperity. Bryan’s address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Bryan lost the general election to William McKinley, and the United States formally adopted the gold standard in 1900.
About Cross of Gold speech in brief
The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former U.S. Representative from Nebraska. Bryan supported bimetallism or free silver, which he believed would bring the nation prosperity. Bryan’s address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Bryan lost the general election to William McKinley, and the United States formally adopted the gold standard in 1900. The Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the standard silver dollar and repealed provisions allowing silver to be presented to the Mint and returned in the form of circulating money. During the economic chaos of the Panic, the price of silver dropped significantly, but the Mint would not accept none of it for striking into legal tender. Critics contended that the introduction of a policy of inflation would not follow the rise of wages, whose wages would not rise, which would lead to a rise in the cost of living. They called for the return to pre-1873 laws which would require the Mint to take all silver offered it and return it to the public, and struck it into dollars. The legislation also established the Mint of the U. S. into which citizens could present gold or silver, and receive it back, struck into money. The legislation defined a unit of value for the new nation, to be known as a dollar, which was equal to 24. 75 grains of gold, or 371. 25 grains of silver, establishing a ratio of value between gold and silver of 15: 1. It was not until 1834 that Congress acted, changing the goldsilver ratio to 16.
002: 1, making it uneconomic to export either US gold orSilver coins. At the time a given weight of gold was worth about 15 times as much as the same amount of silver. Despite vocal opposition led by Tennessee Representative Andrew Johnson, the precious metal content of smaller silver coins was reduced in 1853. It was close enough to the market value to make it un economic to Export either gold or Silver coins, and so silver coinage was worth more than face value, and rapidly flowed overseas for melting. In 1830, Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham proposed adjusting the ratio between gold. and silver in US currency to 15. 8:1, which had for some time been the ratio in Europe. This was the first adjustment in the ratio of gold to silver in the US currency. In 1873, Congress passed the Coinage. Act of1873, which eliminated the statutory statutory statutory bullion Act and returned the silver to the mint and returned it to public circulation. It is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history. The speech electrified the convention and is generally credited with getting him the nomination for president. His speech, delivered at the close of the debate on the party platform, is generally believed to be the best of the 1896 Democratic Party convention. In the speech, Bryan said, \”you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold\”.
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