Bryan gained his party’s presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech. He was defeated in the general election by the Republican candidate, former Ohio governor William McKinley. The 1896 race is generally seen as a realigning election. The coalition of wealthy, middle-class and urban voters that defeated Bryan kept the Republicans in power until 1932.
About William Jennings Bryan 1896 presidential campaign in brief
In 1896, William Jennings Bryan ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States. Bryan gained his party’s presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech. He was defeated in the general election by the Republican candidate, former Ohio governor William McKinley. The 1896 race is generally seen as a realigning election. The coalition of wealthy, middle-class and urban voters that defeated Bryan kept the Republicans in power for most of the time until 1932. Bryan’s campaign made him a national figure, which he remained until his death in 1925. In post-Civil War America, oratory was highly prized, and Bryan showed aptitude for it from a young age, raised in his father’s house in Salem, Illinois. Bryan was strongly affected by the emerging Social Gospel movement that called on Protestant activists to seek to cure social problems such as poverty. In 1890, he agreed to run for Congress against William J. Connell, a Republican, who had won the congressional seat in local elections. He won election to the House of Representatives in 1890, and was re-elected in 1892, before mounting an unsuccessful US Senate run. In 1887, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he practiced law and entered politics. Bryan quickly became prominent in Lincoln as a lawyer and a public speaker, becoming known as the ‘Boy Orator of the Platte’ He died in 1925, aged 87. He is buried in Lincoln, his wife, Mary Baird, and their daughter, Mary Bryan, who was his principal assistant throughout his career.
The couple had a son, William Bryan, Jr., who was born in 1877. Bryan died in 1979, at the age of 89. He died of complications from a heart condition, which had been caused by a stroke he had suffered in the previous year. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 1879. He also had a heart attack in 1881. He suffered from a stroke in 1883, which left him unable to walk or talk for several months. He later died of a stroke that left him in a wheelchair, which also left him dependent on a ventilator for several years. In 1896, he was a relatively minor figure in the Democratic Party. In anticipation of a presidential campaign, he spent much of 1895 and early 1896 making speeches across the U.S. He spoke some 600 times, to an estimated 5,000,000 listeners. His campaign focused on silver, an issue that failed to appeal to the urban voter, and he was defeated. The left-wing Populist Party endorsed Bryan for president, but found Arthur Sewall unacceptable, substituting Thomas E. Watson of Georgia. The Populists demanded inflation of the currency through issuance of paper currency, allowing easier repayment of debt. After the election, Bryan withdrew by backing a candidate backed by the popular vote by popular vote in many states, including Nebraska, including Thomas Watson, who won the presidency.
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