American political leader, son of Silas Lillard Bryan, a native of Culpeper county, VA, who was a lawyer and from 1860 to 1897 a state circuit judge; born at Salem, Marion county, IL, on the 19th of March 1860. He graduated from Illinois College as valedictorian in 1881, and from the Union College of Law, Chicago, in 1883; during his course he studied in the law office of Lyman Trumbull. He practised law at Jacksonville from 1883 to 1887, when he removed to Lincoln, NE. There he soon became conspicuous both as a lawyer and as a politician, attracting particular attention by his speeches during the presidential campaign of 1888 on behalf of the candidates of the Democratic party. From 1891 to 1895 he represented the First Congressional District of Nebraska, normally Republican, in the national House of Representatives, and received the unusual honour of being placed on the important Committee on Ways and Means during his first term. He was a hard and conscientious worker and became widely known for his ability in debate. Two of his speeches in particular attracted attention, one against the policy of protection (March 16, 1892), and the other against the repeal of the silver purchase clause of the Sherman Act (Aug. 16, 1893). In the latter he advocated the unlimited coinage of silver, irrespective of international agreement, at a ratio of 16 to 1, a policy with which his name was afterwards most prominently associated. In a campaign largely restricted to the question of free-silver coinage he was defeated for re-election in 1894, and subsequently was also defeated as the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. As editor of the Omaha World-Herald he then championed the cause of bimetallism in the press as vigorously as he had in Congress and on the platform, his articles being widely quoted and discussed.
The Democratic party was even more radically divided on the question of monetary policy than the Republican; and President Cleveland, by securing the repeal of the silver purchase clause in the Sherman Act by Republican votes, had alienated a great majority of his party. In the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1896, during a long and heated debate with regard to the party platform, Bryan, in advocating the “plank” declaring for the free coinage of silver, of which he was the author, delivered a celebrated speech containing the passage, “You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” This speech made him the idol of the “silver” majority of the convention and brought him the Democratic nomination for the presidency on the following day. Subsequently he received the nominations of the People’s and National Silver parties. In the ensuing presidential campaign he travelled over 18,000 m. and made altogether 600 speeches in 27 different states—an unprecedented number. In the election, however, he was defeated by William McKinley, the Republican candidate, receiving 176 electoral votes to 271. But though defeated, he remained the leader of his party. Between 1896 and 1900, except during the Spanish–American War when he was colonel of the 3rd Nebraska Volunteers, though he saw no active service, he devoted his time to the interest of his party. His ability, sincerity of character, and wide information, and his attitude towards the new issues arising from the war, in which he took the side opposed to “imperialism,” increased his following. Although he had advised the ratification of the Peace Treaty, he opposed the permanent acquisition of the Philippine Islands. In 1900 he was nominated for the presidency by the Democratic, Silver Republican, and Populist party conventions; but although “imperialism” was declared to be the paramount issue, he had insisted that the “platforms” should contain explicit advocacy of free-coinage, and this declaration, combined with the popularity of President McKinley, the Republican candidate for re-election, again turned the scales against him. In the November election after a canvass that almost equalled in activity that of 1896 he was again defeated, receiving only 155 electoral votes to 292.
After the 1900 election he established and edited at Lincoln a weekly political journal, The Commoner, which attained a wide circulation. In 1904 although not actively a candidate for the Democratic nomination (which eventually went to Judge Parker), he was to the very last considered a possible nominee; and he strenuously opposed in the convention the repudiation by the conservative element of the stand taken in the two previous campaigns. The decisive defeat of Parker by President Roosevelt did much to bring back the Democrats to Mr. Bryan’s banner. In 1905–1906 he made a trip round the world, and in London was cordially received as a great American orator. He was again nominated for the presidency by the Democratic party in 1908. The free-silver theory was now dead, and while the main question was that of the attitude to be taken towards the Trusts it was much confused by personal issues, Mr. Roosevelt himself intervening strongly in favour of the Republican nominee, Mr. Taft. After a heated contest Mr. Bryan again suffered a decisive defeat, President Taft securing 321 electoral votes to Mr. Bryan’s 162.
He announced that he was not a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912, but he attended the Democratic convention, and it was largely owing to his personal influence and his large popular following that the nomination went to Woodrow Wilson. In 1913 he was appointed by President Wilson Secretary of State, and from the start devoted much attention to the negotiation of peace treaties with foreign countries. He declared that America should wage no war while he was Secretary. Soon after entering office he went to California and urged, unsuccessfully, that the state Legislature and the governor delay action on the proposed Webb anti-alien land ownership bill, so displeasing to the Japanese Government. In 1914 he supported the repeal of the Panama Canal tolls bill, which excluded American coastwise shipping from the payment of fees. After the outbreak of the World War he was deeply interested in attempts to restore peace. His attitude toward foreign war loans was clearly expressed in an announcement from the Department of State (Aug. 15, 1914), that “There is no reason why loans should not be made to the governments of neutral nations, but in the judgment of this Government loans by American bankers to any foreign nation which is at war is inconsistent with the true spirit of neutrality.” When, however, in December of the same year, Senator Hitchcock introduced a bill to lay an embargo on the shipment of arms, the Secretary informed the British ambassador that it had not been introduced “at the suggestion of the administration”; and later, in 1915, in a letter “to the German Americans” he declared that it would have been in violation of the laws of neutrality to change international rules during war by forbidding the exportation of arms. After the sinking of the “Lusitania,” in 1915, he signed the first strong note of protest to Germany. Upon the receipt of the German reply, and while the second note was being prepared, Dr. Dumba, the ambassador of Austria-Hungary, called at the Department of State and asked Secretary Bryan why the United States dealt more harshly with Germany than with Great Britain. The Secretary replied that Great Britain had only interfered with the commerce of the United States while Germany had drowned its citizens. This plain statement was ignorantly or wantonly misinterpreted by some German official, and the report was widely spread that Mr. Bryan had said that the note was for “home consumption,” and not to be taken too seriously. There was, however, absolutely no truth in this report, even Dr. Dumba denying it in a dispatch to his Government. When the President wrote his second “Lusitania” note, Secretary Bryan resigned, June 8, 1915, saying in his letter of resignation: “You have prepared for transmission to the German Government a note in which I cannot join without violating what I deem to be an obligation to my country.”
During his term of office he had negotiated thirty treaties with foreign nations, requiring the submission of disputes to impartial inquiry and a delay of a full year for arbitration before going to war. Such a treaty had not been concluded with Germany, but was under consideration when interrupted by the World War. As Secretary he was often criticised because of numerous paid engagements on the lecture platform, undertaken, he said, to supplement his inadequate salary; but it was never shown that he was less attentive to the demands of his office than any predecessor. He continued, after his resignation, to work in the interests of peace; opposed the Anglo-French war loan; attacked the Navy League and the National Security League; and tried to resist the growing demand for preparedness in America. In 1916 he was defeated in Nebraska as candidate for delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention. He went, however, as a reporter and gave full support for the renomination and later the re-election of President Wilson. From the announcement by Germany of the resumption of submarine warfare to the actual declaration of war, he favoured any measure that would keep America out of war no matter how largely it involved the surrender of American rights on the sea. But when war was declared he asked to be enrolled as a private, though then fifty-seven years of age; urged loyal support of the President’s war measures; and in his own paper, The Commoner, strongly condemned obstruction of the selective draft as well as abuse of liberty of speech. He supported the League of Nations but thought that the Monroe Doctrine should be specifically recognized. He desired a constitutional amendment changing the two-thirds vote required in the Senate for making a treaty, so that the country could get out of war as easily as it got in. In 1920 he attended as a reporter for his paper both the Republican and the Democratic National Conventions and worked in vain for a dry plank in their platforms. The same year he was tendered the presidential nomination of the Prohibition party but declined. He was disappointed with the nomination of James M. Cox as Democratic candidate, but declared that he would not leave the party. For the most important “progressive” measures adopted by the United States in recent years, the popular election of senators, an income tax, the requirement of publication of ownership and circulation by newspapers, the creation of a Department of Labor, national prohibition and woman suffrage, Bryan laboured earnestly, and their adoption was due in part at least to his popular persistent appeal. See also as editor The World’s Famous Orations.
