Cross of Gold speech

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cross of Gold speech was a speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speech advocated Bimetallism. At the time, the Democratic Party wanted to standardize the value of the dollar to silver and opposed pegging the value of the United States dollar to a gold standard alone. The inflation that would result from the silver standard would make it easier for farmers and other debtors to pay off their debts by increasing their revenue dollars. It would also reverse the deflation which the U.S. experienced from 1873-1896.

Cynical political cartoon of the speech from the magazine Judge.

1 Opposition
2 The Speech
3 Origin of the Name
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Opposition

Backers of the solely gold standard felt that the protection against inflation was paramount, and the gold standard would prevent inflation. Inflation would put a burden on creditors.

[edit] The Speech

The speech was given in the context of a wider debate at the Convention about bimetallism, and so the greater part of Bryan's speech is devoted to responses to other speakers whose contributions have largely been forgotten. Bryan's speech places him in the camp of Western interests (largely farmers and other borrowers) against Eastern interests (moneylenders), in the camp of rural interests against urban interests, and in the camp of economic nationalists against internationalists who were concerned about the U.S. abandoning the internationally recognized gold standard. Bryan's speech cemented his role as a leading voice for economic populism.

[edit] Origin of the Name

The speech gets its popular name from its ending, with its biblical allusions:

Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.