Historical Analysis: The Cross of Gold Speech by William J. Bryan

This report provides an in-depth analysis of William Jennings Bryan's 'Cross of Gold' speech, delivered at the 1896 Democratic National Convention. The speech, a powerful critique of the gold standard, advocated for the free coinage of silver to aid the working class and combat economic inequality. The analysis explores the historical context of the speech, the economic issues of the time, and Bryan's rhetorical strategies, including his use of persuasive language and appeals to the masses. The report examines the speech's impact on American politics, Bryan's presidential aspirations, and its lasting significance as a pivotal moment in American history. Bryan's foresight regarding class struggle and the biases of the gold standard is also highlighted, alongside the speech's enduring relevance to contemporary issues of economic justice.

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DOCUMENT ANALYSIS
CROSS OF GOLD SPEECH BY WILLIAM J. BRYAN

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The chosen document for this study is the famous and historical speech namely the
‘Cross of Gold’ speech which was written and presented by William Jennings Bryan. The speech
had been delivered at the occasion of the Democratic National Convention that was held in
Chicago in 9th July, 1896. Bryan presented his speech as the United States representative of
Nebraska. The speech was addressed to the masses of America who were heavily impressed by
this unforgettable speech and as a result Bryan was nominated to be the next president because of
the gained popularity after the presentation of the Cross of Gold speech. The time of
commencing this speech left an impact on my understanding of the document as this was a time
when economic inequality was at its peak and serious steps needed to be taken in order to restore
the real essence of democracy in U.S.
This document has been based on the backdrop of the mid 19th century American gold
standard issue that created a lot of trouble for the whole country and especially for the common
masses. In his speech, Bryan totally criticized the issue of gold standard that, he thought, was set
in a biased way favoring only the rich and the powerful people by neglecting the poor people. In
order to elaborate, Bryan said that the gold standard of that time was in the favor of those who
mined a lot of gold in the 1850s and those who used to be the elites of England. As a result, the
working class people had been disadvantaged as the elites increased the debt prices. In addition,
with the devaluation of the silver and increased value of gold, many people could not afford
accessing gold and thus they became unable to pay their debts in time.
The situation became worse as the interest rates started increasing and the poor people
became more vulnerable. Bryan expressed that the problem could be solved by starting a
movement that would announce silver to be free of cost. The reason behind the mention of this
movement was that Bryan thought that this movement had the capability to aid all the affected
working class people as the movement would have increased the general amount of capital in
circulation (Bryan 4). The speech was written in such as way that shows the brilliant use of
words for awakening the masses for their own benefit. Especially, the last line of the speech,
‘you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold’, remains timeless as it talked about all the
economically disadvantaged people who were in need of a leader at that time (Bryan 6). Bryan
also said that this free solver movement would end the economic disparity between the elites and
the poor masses. The rigidity of the gold standard was like any other political stance that favored
the powerful people of the United States and thus talking about this particular issue was
important in order to deal with other similar issues as well.
Apart from this, the speaker expressed his views on business interests, income tax,
proposal of Senator Hill, the republican threat and so on. All these topics were related to how the
common masses were economically and politically oppressed by the wealthy section of the
society because of the fact that the wealthy section of the society were in the position to make
polices and rules. The appeal of this speech can be analyzed from a literary point of view as well.
This is because the writer applied a brilliant use of persuasion that made this speech appealing to
audiences. The motto behind this was to convince the listeners that he was empathetic towards
them and that his words were not superficial or self serving. On the other hand, Bryan showed
humbleness by applauding the speakers who spoke before him on the same platform. On the top
of everything, he claimed that he was talking on behalf of humanity that implied that he was the
advocate of those who did not have the voice or any representatives.

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Words like ‘liberty’ increased the standard of his speech and that was the reason behind
the immense popularity his speech received afterwards (Bryan 1). These are also the reasons
behind considering this speech as one of the greatest speeches in the American history. One
interesting thing about this speech is the way Bryan could foresee the role of the biased gold
standard in enhancing the ongoing class struggle between the money ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’.
For that reason, he seemed to be a perfect mouth of the Democratic Party which was supposed to
protect the interests of the common people and was not to side against them.
One purpose of making this speech is obvious. The speaker wanted to protest against the
ongoing unequal treatment of the poor or marginalized people of America. In addition, his
purpose was to convince the democrats so that his appeal would be accepted by them. However,
there was another obvious purpose that drove Bryan to deliver this speech. William Bryan
represented Nebraska two times since the time he delivered his speech. It can be predicted that
he aspirated to be the next president of United States. All of his purposes were served as he got
the nomination for being the president. Moreover, the democrats accepted his proposal and
allowed the free silver coinage to favor the disadvantaged masses.
There are various affective documents in the American history. However, I chose this
document or speech because I felt that this speech has relevance today also. It is true that
listening to the speech is very important for every American history because this speech was so
powerful that it convinced the authorities to change a long established economic policy. Another
reason for choosing this speech is that the speech was delivered at a time when the position of
the working class people was horrible and very few people were there to take their sides. The
literary or stylistic element of this speech also added an extra flavor to the document that
convinced me to select this document over significant documents in the American history since
1877.

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Reference list
Bryan, William Jennings. "Cross of Gold." Library of Congress, Music Division, 1925:1-6.