Robert W. Cherny - A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

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title	:	A Righteous Cause : The Life of William Jennings Bryan
author	:	Cherny, Robert W.
publisher	:	University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin	:	0806126671
print isbn13	:	9780806126678
ebook isbn13	:	9780585119069
language	:	English
subject	Bryan, William Jennings,--1860-1925, Statesmen--United States--Biography, United States--Politics and government--1865-1933.
publication date	:	1994
lcc	:	E664.B87C47 1994eb
ddc	:	973.91/092
subject	:	Bryan, William Jennings,--1860-1925, Statesmen--United States--Biography, United States--Politics and government--1865-1933.

Page i A Righteous Cause The Life of William Jennings Bryan

Page ii The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. WILLAM JENNINGS BRYAN,1896

Page iii A Righteous Cause The Life of William Jennings Bryan Robert W. Cherny UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS: NORMAN AND LONDON

Page iv Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cherny, Robert W. A righteous cause : the life of William Jennings Bryan / Robert W. Cherny. p. cm. Originally published: Boston: Little, Brown, c1985. With new pref. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8061-2667-1 (pbk.) 1. Bryan, William Jennings, 18601925. 2. Statesmen United StatesBiography. 3. United StatesPolitics and gov ernment18651933. I. Title. [E664.B87C47 1994] 973.91'092dc20 [B] 94-10867 CIP The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc. Published by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. Copyright 1985 by Robert W. Cherny. New preface copyright 1994 by Robert W. Cherny. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A. First printing of the University of Oklahoma Press edition, 1994. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Page v to my parents

Page vii Preface to the New Edition At the distance of a century, the 1896 presidential election still looms large, both for the drama of the contest and for its long-term impact on American politics. On the Republican side stood William McKinley, a political veteran from Ohio who led a well-heeled and smoothly functioning organization. The Democrat was William Jennings Bryan, a political neophyte from Nebraska who tried to make up for what he lacked in funds and organization through grueling travel and impassioned speechmaking. The central issue they debatedthe gold standard versus a bimetallic currencyis now nearly as obscure as the Ostend Manifesto or the presidency of Millard Fillmore. One argument that Bryan presented in 1896, however, has resonated through the nation's politics from then to our own day: There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them. In losing, Bryan established a political career that spanned three decades and, according to William Allen White, a prominent journalist who always voted against Bryan, "influenced the thinking of the American people more profoundly than any other man of his generation." Bryan dominated the Democratic party for sixteen years, from 1896 to 1912, longer

Page viii than any other person. Those were crucial years for the Democrats and the nation, as the United States took on the status of world power, acquired an insular empire stretching fully half-way around the globe, established the basis for the modern regulatory state, and experienced pivotal changes in its political decision-making process. Bryan did not initiate these changes. Indeed, throughout his career he led the opposition. He opposed the acquisition of empire, and he called for a more forceful federal regulatory policy than was adopted then, or since. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was to lead the Democratic Party through one of its most crucial transformations, from a party committed to the Jacksonian precept that government is best when it governs least, to a party pledged to use the power of government on behalf of those displaced and disadvantaged by the advance of industrialization and the emergence of corporate behemoths. As Bryan said, government power should be used "to make the masses prosperous." The presidential election of 1896Bryan's first national campaignbegan the process of party transformation. That grand battle, pitting silver against gold, the West and South against the East, marked the completion of a party realignment by voters who made the Republicans the nations majority party for a generation, and which guaranteed for Bryan the role of critic rather than policy-maker. As we approach the 100th anniversary of the critical presidential election of 1896, publication of this new edition of A Righteous Cause provides an opportunity to reconsider my earlier judgments of Bryan's political career in light of recent scholarship. The original manuscript of A Righteous Cause was completed more than ten years ago, but works by historians during the past decade have not appreciably changed this portrayal of Bryan. On major points, LeRoy Ashby's

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