margaret: i think all of you have given us a lot to think about. there are more questions that i know all of you want to see what we have all been talking about up here. and to see the exhibit. i want to thank everyone for coming, and the three of you for sharing your stories. thank you. bob: thank you all. peter: thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> to join the conversation like us on facebook at c-spanhistory. all weekend long, american history tv is joining our time warner cable partners to showcase the history of lincoln,

nebraska. to learn more about the city's in our 2015 tour visit 2015/cities tour. this is american history tv on c-span 3. >> i can conceive of a national destiny which meets the responsibilities of today and measures up to the possibilities of tomorrow. behold a republic rested in the mountain of internal truth, a republic of taxes and proclaiming to the world the self-evident proposition that all men are created equal, that they're endowed with inalienable rights that government is to secure these rights and that government derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

>> the way james bryant is one of nebraska's most famous and prominent politicians and he's probably most famous that he was nominated by a major party three times but he lost at election all three times. but i move to lincoln in 1987. bryan was in central illinois and stopped to collect some debts. he said i'm going to stop in lincoln from the law school in chicago. and he saw where lincoln and the state of nebraska were just booming, some of the fastest growing areas in the country at the time. he saw weak democratic parties. he saw some opportunities there. but he started construction of this house in 1901 because he

had went out into the country on a buggy and they fell in love with the hill that the house was built on. so they bought 10 acres. the bryans moved in 1902 and then construction was finished in 1903. 11,000 square feet. mrs. bryan, it was estimated that she spent as much as $17,000. the main level of the home was used for political events, entertaining etc. they would host a number of even world leaders would come here but all kinds of political leaders. i guess the most prominent woodrow wilson trying to get support for the nomination of the 1912 commission which he did give bryan support.

but there were a lot of people international and national leaders that would come, stop by and see bryan at this home. right now we're in the lower level where the main activity of the family took place. we're in the office right now and this is where bryan and mary had their office an did their work. and she was a very active partner in this -- his career. very accomplished lady. va elect dick -- valedictorian. studied german so she could read the european up ins to see what they were saying about bryan. and this desk is a replica of the desk in his study. you can see the two chairs. bryan sat in one chair.

mary sat in the other. reflected the team that they were. a couple of tell phones over there that i would point out that at the time there were two independent telephone companies in lincoln. if you just subscribed to one you couldn't just talk to someone who just subscribed to the other. so they subscribed to both, of course. here's an example of a political newsletter that they published for close to 20 years which is similar to the standard or the nation or "the national review," had a huge circumstance flation the country probably adjusted for population changes probably bigger than any of the magazines i mentioned. and he got a chance to tell his political views in that circulation. he's also famous for for being one of the greatest orators in the country at the time. the most famous is by far the speech that he gave in 1896

democratic convention, famous costa gold speech which really turned that nomination over to him. >> if they say it's good but that we cannot have it with other nation's helpers we are pride to have a gold standard because england has. we will restore by medalism and then have england have bimedalism because the united states has. if they dare come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them for the uppermost having behind as the producing masses of this nation and the world supported by the commercial interest, the laboring interest and the people ever where we will answer their demand by gold standard by

saying you shall not press down upon the vow of labor this crown of thorn. you should not crucify men up on a cross of gold. >> bryan had this huge voice that you could hear all over the hall because in those days, of course, there weren't any mike phones and loud speakers etc. he was in a huge hall. most speakers couldn't be heard by a lot of people. but bryan had this booming voice so they could hear him and he gave this rousing speech, the final line being thou shall not crucify men on a crown of gold. the main issue was the monetarily policy and whether we should have the gold standard or have it on the money supply. after that speech, people got so excited that they carried him

out on their shoulders and low and behold he was nominated at the age of 36. the >> the impact he had, very few people realize the impact he had on the democratic party and policy in general. when he came on the scene, the democrats were the more conservative party. he was a liberal in his politics conservative in his religion, but liberal in his politics. he was the predecessor to franklin roosevelt, his new deal , and president johnson and the great society. and in the wall street journal did a feature comparing obama to brian and the philosophy of government. >> throughout the weekend,

american history tv will feature lincoln, nebraska. the staff traveled there to find out about its rich history. find out about lincoln at www.c-span.org. >> american history tv is featuring the original series, first ladies -- influence and image. c-span produced the series in cooperation with the white house historical cooperation -- questions from the audience along with insight, we tell the stories of these ladies. this is about 1.5 hours. ♪