William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan was born on March 19, 1860, in Salem, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is a state of the United States that borders Lake Michigan and the states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa; its capital is Springfield and its largest city is Chicago. It was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as the 21st state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 12,812,508.Open the full entry. He attended public school in Salem until the age of 15 and then entered Whipple Academy in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he was active in debate and oratory.⁠[1][2]

He graduated from Illinois College in 1881 (A.M., 1884) and from the Union College of Law in Chicago in 1883, the year he was admitted to the Illinois bar and began practicing in Jacksonville. In 1887 he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to practice with A. R. Talbot, soon became active in the Democratic Party and was a delegate to its 1888 state convention.⁠[1][3][2]

In 1890 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the second Democrat to win a Nebraska seat, and he represented Nebraska in the House from 1891 to 1895, serving two terms and championing Populist causes. After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1894, he became editor of the Omaha World-Herald.⁠[3][4][1]

At the 1896 Democratic National Convention he led the free-silver forces and delivered the “Cross of Gold” speech advocating a silver standard, which won him the Democratic presidential nomination; he was also supported by the Populist Party. In the 1896 election William McKinleyWilliam McKinleyWilliam McKinley (1843–1901) was an American Republican politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Governor of Ohio before becoming the 25th President of the United States (1897–1901), leading the country through the Spanish-American War; he was assassinated in 1901.Open the full entry received 271 electoral votes to his 176, with 224 needed to win.⁠[2][3][1][5]

After the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898 he organized the Third Nebraska Volunteer Infantry and served as its colonel. The Democrats nominated him for president again in 1900; in that election William McKinley received 292 electoral votes to his 155.⁠[3][4][1][6]

He founded The Commoner in Lincoln and wrote its editorials from 1901 to 1908. In 1901 he and his wife, Mary Baird Bryan, began building Fairview, a house in Lincoln financed with proceeds from his publications at a cost of more than $10,000; it was completed in 1902, and the family moved in in October 1903.⁠[3][2][7][8]

In 1908 the Democrats nominated him for president for the third time. In that election William Howard TaftWilliam Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft (1857–1930) was an American lawyer, judge and politician who served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and as the 10th chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930, the only person to have held both offices.Open the full entry received 321 electoral votes to his 162, with 242 needed to win.⁠[1][3][9]

In 1912 he led the movement that made Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was an American scholar and politician who served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey and was the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, leading the country through World War I and proposing the League of Nations.Open the full entry the Democratic presidential candidate. After the election Wilson appointed him the 41st U.S. Secretary of State, and he took office on March 5, 1913.⁠[2][1]

His chief achievement in office was negotiating peace treaties with 30 signatories, who pledged to refrain from hostilities while disputes went to arbitration, the so-called “cooling off” treaties. In 1914 he negotiated the Bryan–Chamorro Treaty, ratified by the Senate in 1916, which gave the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry the right to build an isthmian canal across Nicaragua and to establish naval bases at the Gulf of Fonseca and the Corn Islands.⁠[1][3]

During World War I he disagreed with Wilson over neutral rights, arguing that the submarine had changed international law and that U.S. citizens should be barred from traveling into war zones, while Wilson held to traditional concepts of neutrality. After a German submarine sank the Lusitania in May 1915, killing 128 U.S. citizens, Wilson protested to Germany; Bryan wanted a similar protest sent to Britain over its violations of neutral rights, and Wilson refused. When Wilson sent a second note demanding an end to German submarine warfare, Bryan resigned on June 8, 1915, and his appointment ended on June 9.⁠[1][3]

In 1922 he gave Fairview and part of the surrounding land to the Nebraska Methodist Conference for the Bryan Memorial Hospital. Soon afterward the family moved to FloridaFloridaFlorida is a U.S. state occupying mainly the Florida peninsula, with its capital at Tallahassee; its most populous city is Jacksonville. It entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state, and had a population of 21,538,187 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry because of Mary’s declining health, and he spent his last years in Miami.⁠[7][2]

From July 10 to 21, 1925, the teacher John T. Scopes was tried in Dayton, TennesseeTennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state in the southeast-central United States, with its capital at Nashville. It was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 6,910,840 residents.Open the full entry, for violating the Butler Act, which barred the teaching of evolution; Bryan served as special prosecutor against a defense team led by Clarence DarrowClarence DarrowClarence Darrow (1857–1938) was an American lawyer, public speaker and writer who practiced for nearly six decades and took on labor and criminal cases including the Pullman Strike prosecutions, the Leopold and Loeb case, the Scopes trial and the Sweet trials.Open the full entry. On July 20, 1925, with the proceedings moved to the courthouse lawn, Darrow called Bryan to testify as an expert on the Bible and examined him for about 90 minutes. On July 21 the jury found Scopes guilty, and the judge imposed a $100 fine.⁠[10][11][12]

He died in his sleep in Dayton on July 26, 1925, six days after the trial ended. He is buried in Section 4, Grave 3121, of Arlington National Cemetery, under the inscription “Statesman, yet friend to truth! Of soul sincere, in action faithful, and in honor clear.”⁠[1][3][4]

Fairview was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by 1964; Bryan Hospital commissioned its restoration in 1992, and it reopened as a house museum in 1994.⁠[7]

Nebraska was represented in the National Statuary Hall Collection by a statue of Bryan. On September 18, 2019, a statue of the Ponca chief Standing Bear was dedicated at the U.S. Capitol to replace it, and the Bryan statue is now displayed at the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward, Nebraska.⁠[13]

Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State: Official website: https://history.state.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

History Nebraska: Official website: https://history.nebraska.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Arlington National Cemetery: Official website: https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]