issue but also about the income tax and about the monopoly power that he saw all around and the corruption in politics and the trusts, all of those things together, he was accused by the republicans of practicing a form of demagoguery or of class warfare, of opening the door of class warfare by even mentioning these things and bringing them up. so brian was trying to lead, from what he saw, he was trying to lead americans to see that the class in power was not necessarily looking out for their own interests. that was his main argument, but he had to frame it in a way that it didn't become class warfare. americans didn't want class warfare. they'd seen a series of strikes in the last 20 years that looked an awfully lot like class

warfare or something that they feared from europe, communist organizations and conflict. so that fear of class warfare is very vital to the period of the 1890s when bryan's campaigning. it turns out that the strike of 1877, for example, with the militia and federal government bringing out gatlin guns and mowing down american workers who were striking, that didn't sit well with american people. so bryan was walking this thin line trying to raise the issue but not be accused of class warfare. >> william jennings bryan was born in salem, illinois, and moved to nebraska as an adult where he practiced law, ran for congress, served two terms, and became the democratic presidential nomination in 1896. he moved to this home in 1902 with his wife, mary. bob, who is with the nebraska historical society, is down below. my question is, how did they use the home back in 1902 when they

first moved here? >> it's an interesting combination of uses. the second floor right up above where you are sitting was the family bedrooms and sleeping chambers. the first floor was meant primarily for entertaining. you can see the wide spaces, the open spaces where they would entertain their friends and the lower level was more of a family area including the dining room and, of course, the office in which we'd seen earlier. >> as you researched the uses of this home and visitors of the home, who would have been here? >> well, there were a number of prominent guests. woodrow wilson being one of them. but a number of social acquaintances as well as political figures would have been visitors to the house. >> we talked earlier about the name of the home, fairview, because it gave you a sense of the nebraska landscape and now it's the home of medical center. >> that's correct.

bryan said that the house was one of the beautiful vistas of farm country he had ever seen. they acquired the land east of lincoln, and chose this site for their new home in 1901. >> what is his legacy, will thomas, here in lincoln, nebraska? >> well, i think he's one of the most famous sons. i think his name is widely recognized by both nebraskans and nationwide. i think nebraskans are proud that we have generated people of his stature, even though he did not win the presidency. it was an important aspect in nebraska's political life to have such a character. >> this home is a historic landmark, his legacy, will thomas? >> i think he does bring the

democratic party into nebraska's history. there were democrats here before the campaigns, but he elevates the democratic party in its stature in nebraska. here obviously he's a major figure in nebraska history, but the local legacy, of course, is this home and the hospital. which bears his name. >> jon is joining us from san francisco as we look at the life and political career of william jennings bryan. go ahead, please. >> caller: bryan publicly defended the ku klux klan in the 1924 democratic national convention. did he also privately embrace the practice of lynching in the south? >> he did not defend the klan in 1924. i'm not defending him. the debate in the 1924 democratic convention in new york city was about whether to denounce the klan by name or not.

he believed that democrats should win over the klan rather than denounce them. he certainly had supporters who were in the klan, but it's unfair to say he was a supporter of the klan. he was not. he was a racist against african-americans. we consider him that now. he did not support violence against them. he denounced lynching, but he was a white supremacist. i want to clarify his racial views are not so simple as to say he was a klansman or in favor of lynching people without a trial. he supported the views of most white southerners and most white northerners at the time as well, which was that they thought european americans were superior to other people. and so in that sense he was certainly not a modern figure. >> yeah, i think he's -- he's

certainly a democratic political figure in the sense from that period in the sense that he broadly believes in white supremacy. he's appealing to votes in the democratic south really on those terms as well. >> what would he think of the democratic party today, which counts so much of african-americans as a core constituency for this election? >> he would have been surprised. he would have been surprised. you know, for him he was a democrat with a small d as well as a large d. for him the majority of people in the country were white and he was mostly concerned with their welfare. it's fair to say. he didn't know very many black people. in 1896 there was a group of what were called silver republicans, african-americans in omaha that did support him in that campaign. he had african-americans to fairview at different occasions to visit. but politically he wanted to stay as far from that issue as he could. in fact, in the 1908 campaign

the great black intellectual and activists, one of the founders of the naacp wanted to support bryan and did support bryan against william howard taft, but bryan would not meet with him. did not want to acknowledge his support because he was afraid he would lose parts of the white south if he did. >> our next caller is from memphis, tennessee. chuck is on the phone. good evening. glad to hear from you. >> caller: good evening. this series has been fascinating, and your guests are very interesting. this topic is great. i would be interested. i heard from one time the wizard of oz was about the election of 1896 where william jennings bryan was depicted as the cowardly lion. i'd be interested in your guests thoughts on that. >> have either of you heard that? >> that's one of the great myths of american history. unfortunately, i used to give

lectures about this, it's a wonderful way to teach students about the election of 1896. different figures in the first oz book corresponding to figures in that campaign. unfortunately, if you're looking to l. frank bomb's autobiography, it doesn't bear out. he was a window dresser. he dressed windows in department stores, and for him the artifice of the design of his department store windows was one way he saw american society developing. for him the wizard of oz was a figure of sort of commercial artifice in that sense. really, he would have been, i think, surprised by the alagorical meanings that people found in his first story, even though it's an entertaining way to look at it. unfortunately it's probably not true. >> in 1999 we sat down with karl rove where he talked about the

mckinley campaign of 1896 and he tried to take lessons from that campaign for george w. bush in 2000. can you touch on that? >> one of the thins that the 1896 campaign did was establish the republican party. party in presidential elections at least and most congressional elections, too, up until the 1930s as the majority party. there was no majority party in america in the gilded age from 1868 roughly and 1872 to roughly 1896. karl rove wanted to do was to produce a new republican majority based on what he would have seen as the most forward-looking elements of business community and also a pretty het genius group of middle class american voters. one of the ways rove wanted to do that was by including hispanic voters. a very large group in the population and growing. similarly mckinley tried to appeal to european immigrants at the time, which was a very large

expanding group in the population. he was able to in 1896 and 1900 to win over the german voters. most became republicans for various reasons, and so rove saw not just mckinley but mark hanna, the presaryo of mckinley's career and presidential campaigns producing this new republican majority. it didn't happen. george w. bush was not as successful a president as william mckinley. >> we're coming to you from lincoln, nebraska, where bryan served two terms in the house of representatives and ran for the presidency on three separate occasions beginning at 1896 at the age of 36. frank joins us from salem, illinois, the birthplace of william jennings bryan. >> the birthplace is open to the

public on -- if you call it that. my question is, how much influence did w.j. have in getting his brother nominated in 1924 to be the vice presidential candidate? >> in 1924 then governor of nebraska. what was his first name again? it's terrible i'm forgetting his first name. charles bryan, younger brother of william jennings bryan, was the vice presidential candidate for the democrats coming out of that tul mull chous convention in 1924. it was more because of his name than because william jennings bryan, his older brother pushed him. at the time he was a divisive figure in the party because of the klan debate and other reasons.

but the bryan name was still sort of, the democrats hoped, would enable them to win a lot of rural votes, especially in the midwest, which they're afraid progressive rural votes. they're afraid we go to robert defala who is running an independent campaign. charles bryan in 1924, his nomination was an attempt by the democrats to keep some of the progressive farm vote on their side. for the most part, it did not succeed. >> terry is joining us from easton, pennsylvania, as we look more from the study of william jennings bryan. go ahead, terry. >> caller: gentlemen, very interesting talk. you've stated that william jennings bryan was a fundamentalist and a progressive, and i believe states like kansas and nebraska, which had large fundamentalist

populations were also very aggressive. today they are extremely conservative. what happened that caused this change? >> you want to take it? go ahead. >> will thomas, what did happen? >> that's a great question. i think the progressivism that bryan espoused had a great deal to do with the economic conditions of his day and the prosperity that came forward in american life changed that in the 20th century in ways that bryan couldn't have predicted. in terms of today's conservativism, bryan foreshadows some of that in his commitment to faith in public life. but his faith, as michael's pointed out, was based around the social gospel movement and applied christianity, helping those in the cities, helping

those in need and that branch of christian thought and experience did not grow in the same way as the fundamentalist movement. >> chris is joining us -- did you want to follow-up? >> just one quick question before we go to austin. what will said is quite right. another thing to think about, too, is both liberalism and conservatism changed their views and postures towards very active christianity in public life. liberals generally, especially white liberals, were soured on it and became more identified with big cities and more pluralistic and more secular kind of religious landscape whereas conservatives who were not particularly evangelical became much more identified with the christian right in 1970s and going after it.

the issues were different, too. abortion and gay marriage were not issues for bryan. >> "a godly hero" and the iron way, railroads, the civil war and the making of modern america, the work of will thomas from university of nebraska here at lincoln. chris, you've been patient. thanks for waiting from austin, texas. go ahead. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. bryan was a populist in both ways, in economics and in social issues. on economics that meant progressivism, social issues meant conservativism. there was a similar movement in europe, the advent of christian democracy going on as well. it seems there's no really outlet for a position like that within today's two major parties, but i was wondering, you know, i think that there's actually a big constituency for that, if there was an outlet for it. i was wondering to get your take on what you think the

possibilities of a bryan-type position would have today in american politics. >> thanks for the call and the question. >> every politician today, whatever their ideological position, has to at least appear to be a religious person whether they go to church or not. so in that sense everybody who has a chance to become president is a religious person. so far at least a christian. but i think, though, that most people on the liberal side of politics mistrust people who talk too much about their religion in politics and most people on the conservative side want that religious talk to be focused primarily, i think, on issues of the body, you might say. issues of personal piety, of

personal responsibility, of abortion, of same-sex marriage, of this kind of thing. stem cells and so forth. so the kind of social christianity that, as you say, many christian democrats in europe stood for and certainly bryan stood for, i don't see that, really, as a real possibility at least in the near future. one actually figure who is important to realize is we have a national holiday named after him who is martin luther king jr. he was very left wing in economics, but obviously he was an evangelical minister at the same time. you know, we, in some ways, there's a lot of differences between bryan and king, their race among others, but we have a national holiday named after somebody who did try to put together what you might call a kind of conservative, not quite fundamentalist, but a conservative sense of biblical

truth and a very left wing belief about economic issues. >> on a separate note the connection between william jennings bryan and arbor day, what is it? >> this goes to nebraska again. his mentor in democratic politics in nebraska was a man who was a leading figure that was never elected in his own right but became the father of arbor day. it was a way to bring morton -- as a way to bring more business, really, to this part of the plains. >> larry is joining us from everett, washington. good evening. >> caller: my question was about the australian ballot or the secret ballot or the lack of one in 1896 and 1900 and 1908. did bryan ever talk about the need for a secret ballot, and would he -- if he won at that time, would it affect the outcome?

what efforts did they make sure they put in the right ballot for mckinley and things like that? is that true, and did bryan ever talk about it? >> thanks for the call. who would like to take that? >> i'll take it. bryan did talk about the secret ballot, and it was a subject of some discussion in 1894 and 1896. it came up in context like the potential corruption of companies that would bring in voters to vote for elections or require voters to vote in a certain way, that is, their employees. these accusations were made especially in nebraska with regard to the burlington railroad. that it had, in fact, released all men from its western jobsites and brought them into omaha or lincoln and told them which way to vote. and so that kind of activity led politicians like brian and others to object and to call for the kind of secret ballot that

would allow individuals to vote for who they wanted without the pressure of corporate interests in the election.

>> kbu now we're known as home of the trial. i did not know william jennings bryan, but i did meet clarence dale at a tea held for him by the women of dayton. and we're glad that it happened there. as i was told, it was kind of started for chattanooga, and chattanooga really didn't want it, so they decided to bring it to dayton. and it has brought much economy to the city of dayton. >> well, nancy, thank you for calling, and thank you for sharing your firsthand account to that famous trial. thoughts from either of you? >> yeah, you know, actually, you talk about tourism, there's a

very good museum in the basement of the courthouse in dayton, tennessee, about the trial and about the reception of it around the world. and you can also visit the courtroom itself, and i've sat in the judge's chair. the famous cross-examination, darrow cross-examining bryan was actually not held in the courtroom itself. it was held on the lawn outside. if you think about it, almost 3,000 people were probably in attendance, listening to and watching this cross-examination. this is a kind of trial -- we don't have that kind of trial today, but it was, as she said, a carnival. and it did help the economy of dayton a good deal.

it was an economy which needed help at the time. >> let's talk about the legacy of william jennings bryan, especially when it came to women's rights and prohibition and the federal income tax and the popular election of u.s. senators. will thomas. >> well, i think bryan's legacy and michael beautifully handles this in his book, the legacy itself is damaged by the end of the scopes trial. in particular, h.l. minkins'

obituary which depicts bryan as a bumbling backcountry kind of misguided figure in 1924 and 1925 in that period. so his legacy is tarnished, really, at the end of his career by this. michael's book, i think, recovers bryan's legacy beautifully. all of the reforms that he championed, women's rights, in particular, the right to vote, the suffrage, which was an active issue in the 1870s, 1880s, 1890s. and bryan was at the forefront of it. other issues as well that you just mentioned were ones that he was deeply involved in from the beginning. >> i think -- i emphasize this in the book, i think one of the legacies of bryan which is important which is in many ways, you don't get bryan, you don't get roosevelt. he was the main figure into remaking the democratic party in a party we think about today for those that don't like the big-government party. for those that don't like it, the more liberal party. he does in 1908 forge for the first time a strong relationship between organized labor, then the american federation of labor and the democratic party, a relationship that for the most part has remained for the last century between that movement and that party. you know, he wasn't obviously the only figure who did this, but i think he was the key figure in the depression of the

1890s in helping to make the democratic party into the kind of party we think of it as today, that is wanting the government to be stronger to serve the interests of working people, of people who are down on their luck. so in some ways, that is a very important legacy which he doesn't often get credit for. >> this is a what-if question. briefly, had he been elected president, what kind of a president would he have been? >> i don't think a very good one, actually. i think his skill was as an orator, rally people to support those ideas, but he probably would not have been a very good administrator. he wasn't a very good secretary of state. as president, he would have been a divisive figure, and it would have been difficult for him to work with the opposition party and congress. >> mark is joining us, dallas. go ahead, please. >> caller: yes. in 1900, who -- did a senator, joseph blackburn, run against william jennings bryan for the nomination, and did he tie with him? can you tell me about that? >> caller: blackburn got a few votes. but 1900, most democrats rallied around bryan. it was not really a close contest. it was pretty much decided by

the time they got to the convention, which was unusual at that time because usually conventions back in that day were pretty contemptuous affairs. it really was decided at the convention. in 1900, by the time they got to kansas city where the convention was held, it was pretty clear that the nomination would go to bryan again. >> two other famous speeches at democratic conventions. in 1984, mario cuomo delivers the keynote. that propels him to the national stage. and in 2004, state senator barack obama delivers the keynote address, and many say that propelled him to the presidency. are there parallels to william jennings bryan? >> well, obama, in essence, is a parallel, certainly. though as will said, he was better known in 1896 than i think two americans than obama was in 2004, which might seem surprising because of all the media we have. but bryan was giving speeches all around the country before 1896 to prosilvercrats. hubert humphrey gave a famous speech for civil rights in 1948, democratic convention, in which

sort of put the u.s. -- put the democratic party on record as being for civil rights had never been before. we had no other parallel in american political history where someone gives a great speech and then at the same convention gets the nomination. >> what about today? are there parallels to other modern politicians? >> well, i think obama's speech is similar. it vaults him to national prominence. michael's right. bryan had already achieved much of that. but the sense of party unity that both of them brought and to those speeches and the kind of sincerity and speaking across a broad range of the public and really speaking outside of their party as well. both of them are able to do that in those settings. they're different in other ways, but there is a similarity. >> william thomas is the chair of the history department here

at the university of nebraska in lincoln. and michael cason who teaches history at georgetown university. you put the book "a godly hero" together when? >> i started doing research on it around 1996, about 100 years after, and it was published in 2006. >> we thank you. our thanks to the staff here at the william jennings bryan home who have opened their doors to the c-span cameras and to the staff and administration at the bryan lgh medical center which makes up the campus that we are at, part of the bryan home often called fairview. we want to leave you with more of the words of william jennings bryan as we continue our look at his life and career. check it out online. the contenders series. in the words of william jennings bryan, what made an ideal