William J. Bryan, 25th President of the United States - Source: Wiki Commons
Part 2: Virtuous Cause
Chapter III: Temerity and Reaction: The Bryan Presidency
The unthinkable transpired. By a fluke of the gods, it appeared as though William Jennings Bryan would now be President of the United States. Republicans were dumbfounded when reporters called the election for the congressman. How was it that an evangelical orator from the American Prairie able to defeat the mighty alliance of Republican machine politicking and exuberant corporate power?
The prime reaction among Republicans leaders, at first, was pure disbelief. On November 4th and 5th, Republican National Committee Chairman Garret Hobart contested the count in Ohio, alleging widespread fraud and corruption from Democratic-held districts. Publications like The Nation outright refused to refer to Bryan as the president-elect, distributing headlines assuring its readership that the election was growing closer as the count progressed. The fretting only subsided once Governor McKinley firmly opted against declaring his state's vote suspect, to the dismay of the national party.
On November 6th, Harrison finally conceded the race and Chairman Hobart ended all attempts to contest the legitimacy of the election. Harrison gave no official statement to the press, but Hobart released a brief dispatch. In it, he admitted that the election results were final and, regardless of how narrow the margins proved to be, that he would yield to the voice of the voters. "The nation has selected its next president in Mr. Bryan. [...] As Chief Executive, Mr. Bryan will have earned the trust by the millions of patriotic Americans who cast their votes for Benjamin Harrison. They adhere to the majority of the office and believe in the validity of the result. We shall nonetheless continue our work to secure growth for American markets and encourage enterprise with the restorative properties of protection and sound money."
When the election was said and done, Republicans and Bourbons next convinced themselves that the economy would plummet into a deeper depression. Treasury Secretary John G. Carlisle (D-KY) relayed these fears in a correspondence with President Cleveland, gossiping that men on Wall Street, "expressed immeasurable apprehension at the very idea of [Bryan's] succession." He offered that the nation would erupt into a new banking panic the precise moment of inauguration, "that may well dwarf that of 1893.". However, such calamity never came. The American economy remained weakened in its state of early recovery, but it did not collapse further from the news of Bryan's win. Unemployment rates did not increase and gold specie hovered at the same trading value throughout November. Conservatives later accredited the resilience of the economy to their continued hold on Congress.
For Democrats, this was no less than an astounding victory. Few expected Bryan to pull off this grand upset, and fewer still believed he could carry a plurality in the Popular Vote. Upon the news of Benjamin Harrison's defeat, joyous Democrats held rousing parades in towns and cities all across the nation. From New York City to San Francisco, men and women marched in syncopation with a newfound sense of optimism for the future. Bryan himself was greeted by enormous crowds at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska in the aftermath of his win, to which he cheerfully reiterated portions of his famed Cross of Gold speech. Observers reflected that this sole front-porch display far outmatched, audience-wise, any of the similar events held by Harrison.
On Thursday, March 4th, 1897, William Jennings Bryan was sworn in as the 25th President of the United States. Overlooking a sea of supporters from all corners of the country, Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller administered the oath of office to the newcomer. Bryan, as one may imagine, delivered a memorable inaugural address to the hungry crowd.
I want you to understand the campaign which we have had to fight. They have told us that the great interests of society were against us. Yes, certain great interests have been. The trusts have been against us, but the trusts are no more against me than I am against the trusts. The syndicates which have been selling bonds for the government are against me, but, my friends, they have reason to be, because, from this day, they will no longer bleed the American people. They say that the corporations are against us. Yes, many of them are, and they have reason to be, because we believe that the corporation is a creature of law and that the government which created it is still greater than the corporation and should compel it to obey the law.
I realize that the great corporations, trusts, syndicates and combinations of wealth are against us, but I remember that they were against Andrew Jackson in the same fight that we are making today. They were powerful before the people, but when the time to vote came the people were greater than the combination. My friends, this campaign has demonstrated the desire for to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people, not a government of syndicates by syndicates and for syndicates.
I will promise you that no power in this country or in any foreign land will prevent the restoration of the money of the Constitution among our people. The work that lies before a president who goes into the office with a desire to reform the financial policy and to drive the trusts and syndicates from this land, will be hard enough if he is supported by the people; his work would be impossible if he were not supported by them. Here, today, we know now that the people have chosen to fight for freedom from this curse of gold. They tell us that we must bow down and worship the golden calf. I say, my friends, that the American people did not bow down. They have voted to restore the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution, and lead in the restoration of bimetallism throughout the world.
My friends, for all that you have done, for all that you have said, for all that you have felt, I beg to thank you and assure you that whatever may come, it shall be my desire, and I shall prize it, to know that I have obtained your respect, your confidence and your esteem; and it shall be the saddest day of my life if any word or act of mine shall make any person in this vast throng to regret a single kindly thought that he has felt toward me.
William Jennings Bryan, Inaugural Address Excerpt, March 4th, 1897