On July 9, 1896, a dark horse candidate named William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous Cross of Gold speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Bryan spoke passionately against the rigid gold standard, advocating instead for the free coinage of silver to help struggling farmers and laborers, famously declaring that mankind should not be crucified upon a cross of gold. The speech secured Bryan the Democratic presidential nomination, though he eventually lost the general election to William McKinley.
The atmosphere inside the convention hall immediately following Bryan’s final line was initially eerie. A stunned, dead silence gripped the crowd of twenty thousand delegates for several seconds as the sheer weight of his rhetoric sank in. Suddenly, the venue erupted into absolute pandemonium, with delegates screaming, weeping, and carrying Bryan on their shoulders around the convention floor for half an hour in an unprecedented display of political adulation.
Image: Artist’s sketch of Bryan after he delivered his speech via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
