org/history. watch american artifacts on c-span3. now the contenders, our 14-week series of those who ran for president and lost but changed history. we feature william jennings brian, a three-time presidential candidate. this 90-minute program recorded at brian's home in lincoln, nebraska. each sunday at this time through labor day weekend, watch "the contendsers" here on american history tv on c-span3. good evening, welcome to the third installment of c-span's "the contender" series. we look at the life, legacy, and times of william jennings bryant. a three-time presidential nominee from nebraska. what better way to introduce him

than hearing from him. to hear the portion of the speech he delivered in 1896, referred to as the cross of gold speech. it was the first run for the white house at age 36. >> all war is not a war of conflict. we're fighting in defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. we have petitions and our petitions have been sworn. we have been mistreated and our treaties disregarded. we have days when our calamity came. we petition no more, we defy them. we go forth confident that we shall win. >> in the words of william jennings bryant. coming to you from his home in

the state capitol in nebraska. it is commonly referred to as fairview, because at the turn of the century it gave you a fairview of the land. they moved in 1902, and now part of the l.g.h. medical center. we're coming to you from the first floor, his parlor. he did much of his writing, entertaining here and we want to welcome our two guests. we have the history pretwo prof. thank you, gentlemen, for being with us. to set this up speech. the man that delivered it, the setting in chicago, the impact it had. >> the country was very decided in 1996, a great depression. the democrats were split really down the middle.

grover cleveland was very unpopular, as presidents usually are during great depressions and bryant comes into chicago as sort of a dark horse candidate for the presidency, but everyone knows he's a wonderful orator and is helping debtors, helping people in trouble economically and he gives this speech which people go wild when they hear is, partly because he had a wonderful voice. the tape you played was 1896, technology didn't exist to record a speech live in 1896. it doesn't sound like a 36-year-old man in that. he was robust, vigorous, amazing voice that could be heard without amplification by 10,000 people at a time. he kept this up so he would give a speech at a time in a convention where he knew the majority of delegates were for

him, but at the same time, no riveting speech had been good for the cause at that time, so he had found his moment. he used it to great effect. >> we will hear more from the cross of gold speech and you indicated, his words recorded in 1923, but there is a race where he was challenging william mckinley, relatively unknown. served only two terms, ran for the senate, won the popular vote, but lost because of legislation in nebraska and gave it to the republican candidate. the 1895/96 for william jennings bryant. >> a major strike, a railroad strike in 1894 that tore the country apart and revealed how unstable the economy was and how deep the depression might become. and william jennings bryant ran as a democrat in a populous and

in 1894 for the united states senate and ran against a railroad attorney named john thursdayton. gained a lot of attention for the senate campaign in 1894. i would liken it to the lincoln douglas debate. he a series of debates and those gave him great visible among the political class, and so he emerged as a national figure at that time, and the country was desperate for leadership, all the parties were divided. the republicans were divided, and the populous were on the scene. the republican has won the presidential contest in nebraska in 1892, but the second place vote getter was the populous, and the democrat, cleveland, was far behind, so the democratic party was in deep trouble in this part of the midwest. >> william jennings bryant, one of the top presidential

candidates that lost the election but changed politics. we're in lincoln, nebraska. here are more of the words from williams jennings bryant from his cross of gold speech. >> they tell us the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. we reply great cities rest on our broad and fertile prairies, burn down your cities and leave our farms and your cities will spring up as if by magic. destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city of the country. we cannot stop until the battle is fought. we cannot have the nation help us. instead of having a gold standard, because england has, we will restore by mettlism and let england have by mettlism because the united states has. if they dare to come out in the open fields and attend the gold

standard, the good thing, we will fight them to the utter most, standing behind us, producing masses of this nation and the world supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer the demand for gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the bow of labor this crown of thorns. do not crucify mankind up on a trough of gold. >> michael, how long was the speech in 1896? why was it referred to as a crop of gold? >> about 45 minutes long. and cross of gold was a powerful metaphor and william jennings bryant, a very serious evanggel call question, who who wanted to keep them on a gold standard,

wanted to keep interest rates high, reflikt the supply of money. for bryant and many who supported him, this was a way of keeping american who's were poor, poorer, keep americans in debt deeper in debt. a way of keeping the british economy, the supreme economy in the world. this economy based on the gold standard, so it sounds like a have at the kalish eau, but really an issue of haves to have-nots, that's the way bryant saw it. to crucify gold would be, of course, connected to pontius pilate crucifying christ. in the same way, bryant and populist minded democrats and republicans thought that the american economy was being run for the interest of those who already had property or had money, those who already had banks so it's really a class

divide in america at that time. now we have a lot of anger about the economy. the anger wasn't focused the same way it is then. every dollar people had in their pockets could be redeemed for a dollar in the federal treasury, versus gold. that could be redeemed in silver as well. a lot more dollars could have been minted and coined, because there is more silver in circulation than there was gold. really a call for cheaper money, lower interest rates, and greater economic opportunity for a small business person, a farmer, a worker who wanted to be a small business person or farmer. >> you talk about his charisma and what he wasn't at that time. he essentially became a celebrity. >> yes, rewas recei. >> he was receiving as many as 2,000 letters during the campaign. >> yes. >> he campaigned the office as

opposed to william mckinley who had the front porch strategy in ohio. can you explain? >> mckinley had a lot of money in the campaign. able to get checks from johnny rockefeller, other bigger industrialists. no restrictions whatsoever on donations back in 1896. bryant, because he was running as a candidate of small farmers and workers couldn't get that kind of money. he to go out and campaign himself. he couldn't depend on a large machine to do that for him. a wonderful speaker, loved to speak. for him, this was a positive thing. he made -- he traveled 18,000 miles on trains and had his own jet, the way candidates do now, his own railroad car for most of the campaign year and spoke as many as 6,000 times in that campaign, many times a day, for example. so for him, this was an

opportunity to become known and also, the only chance he had to reach americans directly. >> also the first campaigner to use the railroad in this way. to really campaign both across the country. steven douglas had done something similarly, trying to take a campaign swing through the south and the north, revitalize the democratic party, for the most part, after 1860, american presidential candidates sat on their front porch and other people campaigned for them and bryant went out there, and campaigned in every whistle stop town in illino and ohio and virginia and pennsylvania, new york. traveled all over america, bringing his campaign to the people. >> we want to hear from you on c-span. if you live in an eastern or central time zone, 202-737-0020

in pacific and mountain time zone. we're in lincoln, nebraska, home referred to as fairview. william jennings bryant and his wife moved here i1902. he ran for the house of representatives. born in salem, illinois. walk us through the early years and how did he end up in nebraska? >> he was born in 1860, into a world being transformed. the railroad growth, the civil war that followed, 1860-1865. too young to serve in the civil war, and that actually came back to again and again in his public life. he not served in the military and so many men in politics in his period of political activity had served in the military, so he did not have that opportunity. as a young man, instead he ran for the bar, went into practice

as a lawyer in lincoln, nebraska, in the 1880s. started his own law firm, a partnership with dolph talbot and practiced basic law in a growing err ban environment in the prairie. and that's when he became active in politics. >> if i could just add, at the time and in many ways still, going to law school was always a good training to go into politics, you always wanted to go into politics, his father, a judge in jill illinois, and his farther helped write the illinois state constitution in the late 1850s, so really politics was in his blood i think, and he never thought it would be anything else. he became a lawyer because he wanted to get in politics. he moved through nebraska, the democratic party weak here, and he took the opportunity for a

young man to rise quickly within the democratic party. >> let me go back to the way he was able to capture the imagination of the country. three times getting the nomination, ever happened where you received the nomination and lost all three times? >> the person you profiled the first time, the nomination and, of course, a little bit different 100 years ago. a lot more voters, a lot more media, more money involved. unlike clay, who had a small country, america wasn't just a country by the early 20th century. this was a modern campaign, all three of them. >> you write in your book that 14 million americans voted in that election in 1896, and 75% to 85% of eligible voters cast

their ballots. >> some women too. women had the vote in colorado. they voted in colorado, a couple other western states, which he won actually. but, yes, 80% and that was actually -- the highest percentage of eligible voters in any election for men, who had never had that highest percentage of voters again. >> and the senate in 1894. >> sure, he started out campaigning to get both populous and democratic nomination, both parts -- the populous were, of course, insurgent movement in american politics, rapidly rising, they had secured the house in nebraska. and the irony of his 1894 senate campaign is that the republicans win the legislature and the democrats -- democratic candidates win the governorship, and this reverse is what had

been the case before. bryant campaigned and there were few debates. one in lincoln, one in omaha. 7,000 people turned out for the debate in lincoln in october 1894 and 15,000 turned out for the debate in omaha. this was a great event to come to this political campaign and be part of the for the public. bryant started out talking largely in the campaign about the income tax. this was an important issue, the democrats had passed the first income tax since the civil war in 1894, and bryant had been part of that. a 2% flat tax on everyone making more than 4,000 a year. so even the rich. he started his debate with john thurston on that issue. and then he went to the union pacific railroad and its monopoly power, and the silver issue, down on the list in 1894.

not as significant as it would become in 1896. >> can we talk about the income tax real quickly? >> yes. >> the supreme court rules that the income tax was unconstitutional. pretty radical thing to do for the highest court in the land to say congress passed the law, the president signed that law, and it's not constitutional. that helped to inflame things on bryant's side in his campaign. >> if you could fast forward, the irony, in 1913, the signing of the ñr17th amendment which stated what? >> that the direct election of senators, you know -- bryant is, of course, expecting to get elected and hoping get elected. the republican majority elects john thursdayton to be the senator from nebraska, another irony, thursdayton becomes the republican national committee chair in 1896, bryant runs for

president and gets the nomination and the man he ran against in nebraska in 1894 is the republican committee chair for mckinley. >> we'll go downstairs and look at his study in a moment. does this home reflect william jennings wry ant? >> in many ways. a great home, and at the time considered a mansion. well furnished many he made a lot of money speaking, so in that sense, it was a prize. a prize for his career, but he worked here. worked here with his wife, mary. very closely. they worked together at the double desk. important thing to mention, he and his wife were partners in his career, which you often see of political wives now, we don't think of that being the case in the earlate 19th century but it

was. >> thank you very much for sharing your time and insight on c-span "the contender series." >> thank you for having me. >> how does he use that home, and how often is he in the study writing? >> he would have used the study probably daily when he was in lincoln, the study was the hart of the home. >> walk in if you would and show us what the desk looked like and also some of the other artifacts on top of the desk? >> this is the partner's desk that he and his wife shared. they would exchange conversation, compose writings, send letters, and help formulate some of the positions that he would have wanted to take for the day. >> on the top of the desk, a copy of the commoner. what was that?

why was it significant in his life? i know that he and sarah signed a copy in front of it. >> the first tufurnishings surv.

these furnishings have been collected to represent what was originally in the room based on very fine 1908 photographs of the space. >> if he was seated this that chair adjacent to you, would he feel comfortable? feel like his study at the turn of the kreebtry? >> it would be very much like his desk at the turn of the century, even the cluttered desk and open bible. >> thank you very much for opening up this home to c-span cameras. we'll check in with youñr throughout the program. james is joining us.

go ahead, james. >> caller: i would like to tell us about thomas mast. >> thomas mast. >> thomas mast was a great cartoonist responsible among other things, the most popular image we have of santa claus. he was ai german immigrant. created manges of the democrat donkey and republican elephant. by the time bryant raised in 1896, not sure if bryant was still alive or not. mast is best known for really vitriolic and very effective images of boss tweed, the very corrupt tammany hall in. and his images of boss tweed looking like a seedy devil you might say, really helped to bring tweet down, and the

democratic candidate at the time are important. prosecutors, later on democratic candidates for president in 1876 who prosecuted tweed and able to bring down the tweed as it came to be known. >> go ahead, california, please. >> caller: my question originates from the american president series during the grover cleveland episode, an historian was asked what groven cleveland thought of wimp yam jennings bryant, and said that froefen cleveland hated william jennings bryant and cut off and wasn't able to finish. and i was curious what did he hate him for? and is that, in fact, true? thank you. >> well, i'll start, michael, and you can follow up. he didn't like -- groven cleveland, hard money democratic

preside president. he didn't like bryant's position on the sill issue. he didn't like the income tax that bryant had helped pass. it was the silver issue and breaking with the cleveland administration repeal of the sherman silver purchase act that got the ire of grover cleveland. >> cleveland was representative of the old democratic party. the democratic party of commercial interests from the east, especially new york, where cleveland was himself from buffalo. people believed thomas jefferson, andrew jackson, that the government shouldn't do very much in the economy. during the 1890s, grover cleveland says that the people should support the government, but the government should not support the people. and this is different from what bryant believed.

bryant was what we call today a liberal. he believed the government should be strong enough to help people who couldn't help themselves and redress the balance between corporate power andñr the power workers and sma farmers. and so -- cleveland had broken this strike with several troops, and the attorney general at the time. cleveland's attorney general was a railroad attorney at the same time, breaking the strike by railroad workers. so for bryant, cleveland was -- in the 1890s, representative of all he din like about his party, didn't like mesh politics. >> in order to get a better sense, i want to get your reaction of his words. he said we lack politicians who are willing to lead a charge against secular charges whose power is mightier and steadily

deployed more than a century ago. >> bryant was a champion of those who needed help. he was a man of great con vicks and one of the things he was trying to do that was most difficult was to take on the economic powerful class that had emerged in american politics, in the american economy, a way that didn't look like class warfare. that was what was so hard for bryant to be able to do, to not appear to be a demagogue, to do it sincerely, to speak to the people without tearing down, but attempting to build up. that was a very hard case to make. and he did it beautifully, but it was a very difficult attempt to try and reveal the inadequacies of american society at the time without looking like someone who is just tearing down

the american i deal. >> those are your words. are there parallels to someone today in american politics that would resemble a william jennings bryant? >> i'm not sure. there are people who want to be william jennings bryant. sarah palin in some ways tried to be in some ways 1896. an angry populous, people who believe a small media elite is after the majority of americans. but, you know, bryant was representative of a movement i think. an antimondopoly movement that believed corporate america was taking the country in a revolutionary direction. we have for better or worse, come to grips or made our peace with big business, and we can't imagine a society in which big business is not there. that was not true for bryant. >> i think just where we are here in brian, we

looked at the desk where he worked with mary bryant side by side. most businesses were like that in the 1870s, 1860s, 1850s, they were partnerships. that period before 1896, a period of enormous industrial growth. colossal corporations emerging in american society. the pennsylvania railroad employed more people than the united states post office. these were corporations with enormous resources, enormous wealth and enormous power, and most people had experienced a very different america. one of a small partnership that change was arrested. bryant was speaking to that massive transition in american society, american life. >> money and politics, very early campaigning in this country. i want to let you listen in to the 1900 campaign in which william jennings bryant talked

about the issue of transparency, who was giving to whom. on the second of his three campaigns to the white house. >> an election is a public affair. it is held for the benefit of the public and is believed to be a police for people to elect their officials and give direction to policies adopted. no sound reason for secrecy in regard to campaign methods and publicity within itself to a purifying influence in politics. we have increased the fav on theism of corporations. people want to know those working the campaigns that they can better decide the great corporations as to make it possible for it to protect the rights of the people. >> from the 1908