When the result of the great presidential contest of 1896 was made known, Mr. Bryan’s political enemies, both in and out of the Democratic party, loudly proclaimed that “Bryanism”—or “Bryanarchy,” as a green-eyed relict of Mr. Cleveland’s second cabinet terms it—was dead and buried. Some said it was “too dead to bury.” And Bryan himself, they gleefully asserted, had died with the death of ideas to which he was wedded. Doubtless many of them believed this. The fierce and determined onslaught of the silver men in that memorable campaign had so wrought upon the fears of the class of Americans of whom Marcus A. Hanna and Pierpont Morgan are representative, that, in their nervous hysteria after their narrow escape, they were in a frame of mind where but little evidence was required to induce great faith. And, moreover, the decisive defeat which Bryan had suffered, considered in its probable effect on his disorganized following, was such as naturally gave birth to the hope that to the outstretched palms of the repudiated and disowned leaders of the party, such as Mr. Cleveland, might soon be restored in contrition the insignia of power and authority.

But even those who most sincerely believed and uproariously heralded the death of Bryanism and of Bryan continued their flagellations of both as earnestly as of yore. To them the good old Latin rule “De mortuis nihil nisi bonum” was obsolete and cobwebby.

And so, for almost three years succeeding Mr. McKinley’s election, the funeral notices of Democracy’s leader were daily published and his requiems daily sung. But, through all this time, the faith of the allied forces of reform that their leader was still of the living abode with them, and, firm in the belief, they were neither faltered nor dismayed, and never a man broke ranks.

And it was not long before faith that was of the spirit gave way to that certainty which comes of knowledge that is of the brain and senses. The first evidence was the remarkable sale and popularity of “The First Battle.” Another was the increasing demand for Mr. Bryan’s services as lecturer and public speaker, and the rapturous enthusiasm with which he was received, excelling, if possible that which greeted the Presidential candidate. Then, when he fearlessly took a stand against imperialism, which seemed to be sweeping the country like a great forest fire, and at once, in response to his appeal, the great Democratic party lined up against that policy, it became clearly evident that the powers of the great popular leader had not waned; neither had his influence over the minds and hearts of the people been lost. Finally, just as he was the first great public man of the United States to raise his voice in protest against the abandonment of the Republic, so he was the first to propose a definite and coherent remedy for the overshadowing evil of the trusts. This again demonstrated his natural fitness for leadership. Mr. Bryan first outlined his views at the Anti-Trust Conference held in Chicago in 1899. Because of its importance, as well as because it was the first tangible remedy proposed, it is here reproduced:

“I believe we ought to have remedies in both state and nation, and that they should be concurrent remedies. In the first place, every state has, or should have, the right to create any private corporation, which, in the judgment of the people of the state, is conducive to the welfare of the people of that state. I believe we can safely entrust to the people of a state the settlement of a question which concerns them. If they create a corporation, and it becomes destructive of their best interests, they can destroy that corporation, and we can safely trust them both to create and annihilate, if conditions make annihilation necessary. In the second place, the state has, or should have, the right to prohibit any foreign corporation from doing business in the state, and it has, or should have, the right to impose such restrictions and limitations as the people of the state may think necessary upon foreign corporations doing business in the state. In other words, the people of the state not only should have a right to create the corporations they want, but they should be permitted to protect themselves against any outside corporation.

“But I do not think this is sufficient. I believe, in addition to a state remedy, there must be a Federal remedy, and I believe Congress has, or should have, the power to place restrictions and limitations, even to the point of prohibition, upon any corporation organized in any state that wants to do business outside of the state. I say that Congress has, or should have, power to place upon the corporation such limitations and restrictions, even to the point of prohibition, as may to Congress seem necessary for the protection of the public.

“Now, I believe that these concurrent remedies will prove effective. To repeat, the people of every state shall first decide whether they want to create a corporation. They shall also decide whether they want any outside corporation to do business in the state; and, if so, upon what conditions; and then Congress shall exercise the right to place upon every corporation doing business outside of the state in which it is organized such limitations and restrictions as may be necessary for the protection of the public.”

The legislation to be enacted by Congress Mr. Bryan roughly outlined as follows:

“Suppose that Congress should say that whenever a corporation wants to do business outside of the state, it must apply to and receive from some body, created by Congress for the purpose, a license to do business. Suppose the law should provide three conditions upon which the license could be issued:

“1. That the evidence should show that there was no water in the stock.

“2. That the evidence should show that the corporation has not attempted in the past and is not now attempting, to monopolize any branch of industry or any article of merchandise; and

“3. Providing for that publicity which everybody has spoken of and about which everybody agrees.”

This plan of Mr. Bryan’s for the suppression of monopolistic trusts is given here, not especially because of the intrinsic merit it may possess, but as illustrating one of the important phases of his character.

When the tariff question was under discussion, Mr. Bryan was an outspoken advocate of a tariff for revenue only. When the silver question arose Mr. Bryan wrote and stood squarely upon the first platform that declared for the “free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth.” When the dark cloud of imperialism rose on the horizon his was the first voice to point out the danger, and he took an unequivocal position in favor of granting independence to the Filipinos. And now, at the Trust Conference, while many joined with him in denunciation of the evil, he alone proposed and ably defended a definite and explicit remedy. So it has been with every other question with which Mr. Bryan has had to deal, in his career as a public man; he has never failed to state his exact position and to take the American people fully and freely into his confidence. And his frankness and honesty have been appreciated. Of the thousand delegates chosen during the first six months of the year 1900 to attend the great Democratic National convention at Kansas City, those from every state but two were instructed for Bryan for President. When it is remembered that this was done in spite of the earnest desire of a number of well-known Democrats who wished it otherwise, but absolutely dared not make a fight, the full significance of this great popular tribute to the defeated candidate of four years before may be understood. It was this unanimity as regarded the candidate, together with the unanimity regarding the issue, the feeling of enthusiasm aroused by the one, and of patriotic fervor excited by the other, that made the Kansas City convention one destined to be memorable in American history. And while the name on the lips of every Democrat was the same name as was pronounced at Chicago four years before, the issue which aroused them by the compelling force of events was entirely different. Then the question was: What kind of money shall this nation have, and who shall issue it and control its volume? Now the question was: What form of government shall this nation have; shall it remain a Republic, as contemplated by the fathers,—the world’s beacon light of liberty,—or shall it turn its face to the past, extinguish its light, and on the dark sea of empire, littered with the flotsam and jetsam of nations that once were great and free, set forth toward the orient? The issue was worthy of the man, and the man, with a reunited and virile Democracy behind him, was prepared to meet it.

No man who was so fortunate as to be present at the Kansas City convention can live long enough to forget it. It was epoch-marking not only for its outward appearance, but for its inward significance. To the onlooker, stirred by its emotional enthusiasm, by the wildness and frenzy of its patriotic manifestations, these were its memorable and significant features. But to him who looked beneath the surface, who knew and saw the strange combat being waged between one man and many hundreds of men,—a combat one of the strangest in nature and most remarkable in its outcome ever waged in a parliamentary body,—it was this that held him entranced to the end, and sent him home marveling at that one man’s strength and greatness. It came about in this wise: Of the hundreds of thousands of Gold Democrats who left the Democratic party in 1896 because of the silver question, ninety per cent. or more were anxious to come back and aid in Mr. Bryan’s nomination and election, now that they believed they saw the Republic itself in danger at the hand of President McKinley and his advisers. They saw, as did the Silver Democrats, as did Mr. Bryan himself, that imperialism was to be the dominating, all-important issue of the campaign. In the shadow of the great danger of the conversion of the Republic into an empire they were willing to subordinate all minor differences and join to defeat the President they had themselves helped to elect four years before. It is true that to these men “free silver” was still a bugaboo. At the same time they were convinced that, because of the complexion of the Senate, with its heavy Republican majority, even should Mr. Bryan and a Democratic House of Representatives be elected on a free silver platform, it would be impossible for them, in four years, to enact any legislation along that line. But nevertheless, after the manner of many a returning prodigal, they demanded a concession. It was a very modest and moderate concession they wanted. They asked the party only to reaffirm instead of reiterating the free silver plank of the Chicago platform.

It can hardly be denied that to reaffirm is, in effect, to reiterate. The difference is only in seeming,—and, possibly, that it gives opportunity for “interpretation” and “construction.” At all events, the Gold Democrats had early gone to work to secure this concession. They had been successful in enlisting in their behalf scores and hundreds of sincere friends of bimetallism in the Democratic party. And when the delegates were gathered at Kansas City it became evident that a large majority of them were favorable to the policy of a general reaffirmation of the Chicago platform without a specific repetition of the demand for free silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. Not only were the most of the delegates inclined to this course, but it was advocated, before the convention met, by a large majority of the influential party leaders. It was, on the part of the leaders, as of most of the delegates, a sincere and honest advocacy, by men whose fealty to the doctrine of bimetallism was undoubted. It was their intent, not to abandon the demand for free silver,—far from it,—for the platform would reaffirm the demand made in 1896,—but to subordinate it in such a way as would do least damage in the fight for the preservation of the Republic. Such was their honest position.

But here the trouble arose. The Gold Democrats, by their very insistence, had made “free silver” the only issue, so far as the convention was concerned. There was no difference among Democrats as to any other plank of the platform. This very fact, and the fact that in every newspaper in the country the one question of discussion and of speculation concerning the convention was whether it would “reaffirm” or “reiterate” had brought the old issue so prominently to the fore-ground that not to reiterate would mean practically to abandon the position, while under fire. Had the issue never been raised, had the fight thereon never been precipitated, it is conceivable, even probable, that there had come from no source any objection to the policy of reaffirming the Chicago platform so far as the old issues were concerned, and making specific declarations on the new ones. But the issue had been raised, and the objection came,—came from William J. Bryan, at his home in Lincoln.

On July 1, R. L. Metcalfe, a delegate at large from Nebraska, after a long consultation with Mr. Bryan gave out an authorized interview in which he declared that there must be a specific declaration on the money question. This was taken as a statement of Mr. Bryan’s position, and David B. Hill, the leader of the Gold Democrats, at once hastened from Kansas City to Lincoln on a futile mission. He wished to induce Mr. Bryan to recede from his position. It became at once evident that there was to be a contest over the money plank of the platform.

On July 3, the day before the convention met, A. S. Tibbets of Lincoln, another delegate-at-large from Nebraska, threw this bomb-shell: “Bryan will not run on any platform which does not contain a specific declaration in favor of free coinage at the ratio of sixteen to one. If this convention does not put that declaration in the platform it will have to nominate another candidate for president.”

This authorized statement was a bugle call to Democrats, reminding them that parties are founded on the bed-rock of principle, and that platforms are made unequivocally to express convictions. Many of the leaders of the party, assembled at Kansas City, took their stand by Bryan’s side, and the fight for sturdy, honest, and manly candor waged fiercely to the end.

Ex-Governor Hill, who had returned from Lincoln, alone among the leaders who had fought for a specific silver plank, boldly and openly continued his fight. He is a hard and stubborn fighter, and he centered his efforts on the organization of the committee on resolutions. He sent for heads of delegations known to be favorable to his plan, and urged upon them the necessity of selecting “careful, conservative, long-headed men,” as members of that important committee. He argued vehemently for the necessity of such action as would “reorganize the party” and make victory assured. “Good God, gentlemen,” the famous New Yorker exclaimed to one delegation with which he was closeted, “we must not lose this election. It means fifty years of republican rule. And if we are wise,” he said, wagging his head solemnly, “we will not lose it. The people want to be with us. Shall we be so generous”—with an oratorical flourish and Frenchified shrug of his expressive shoulders—“as to refuse to allow them to fight our battles?”

Here a Kansan spoke up. “I am not a delegate, senator,” he said, “but I want a conservative platform. If we don’t get it I’ll go home and quit, and I’ve voted the Democratic ticket for fifty years.”

“Wait, wait, my friend,” came the quick response; “don’t, don’t, I pray you, say that. Whether the platform pleases us or not, we must fight, fight to win, fight to the death.” The eyes of the shrewd and wily politician flashed. In quick, nervous staccato he continued: “Mark my words, mark my words. If McKinley and a Republican Congress are elected inside the year a force bill will be fastened upon us. Why? Kentucky; that will be the excuse. And the next move—do you know what it will be? On the pretext that the negro vote is not cast nor counted, the representation of the southern states in Congress will be reduced. Their vote in the electoral college will be diminished, and they’ll have the Democratic party by the throat, bound hand and foot. We must not permit it. We must not.”

The second day before the convention met, the writer of this chapter, in a dispatch to the Omaha World-Herald, said:

“There are many Democrats in Kansas City to-night who profess to deplore what they term William J. Bryan’s lack of skill as a “practical politician,” who murmur their complaints that the leader of their party does not understand the gentle art of constructing a platform that will “catch ‘em acomin’ and catch ‘em a gwine,” who complain that Mr. Bryan does not understand that the end and aim of a political party is to get into power—to hold offices and control the patronage of the administration. These men, crafty, cunning diplomats, though not always successful withal, are, it may frankly be admitted, grieved and disappointed at Mr. Bryan’s insistence that the Democratic platform should clearly and explicitly set forth the conviction and the purpose of Democracy’s heart and brain.

“But in all Kansas City, among all the sweltering and noisy crowds that throng the lobbies and march up and down the streets, there can not be found a single man—Democrat, Populist, or Republican—but will confess his admiration of Mr. Bryan’s honesty and courage.

“To the leaders and manipulators of parties, to the men taught and accustomed to play to the pit, Mr. Bryan is a source of ever-increasing wonder and surprise. It is hard for the politician to understand the statesman.

“It it not to be doubted that Mr. Bryan’s wishes are to prevail in the great convention of American patriotism which is to convene to-morrow on the anniversary of the Republic’s birth, to proclaim anew the unchanged and never-changing truths to perpetuate which the blood of heroes and of martyrs was shed on a hundred battlefields.

“The platform will be an honest platform, it will be an easily understood platform, it will conceal nothing, and it will evade nothing. It will there declare, in explicit terms, for independent bimetallism by this country alone, at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one. This prediction may be safely hazarded.

“All day long the leaven has been working, all day long the gospel of candor and righteousness has been preached, and to-night there is not a delegate but knows that Mr. Bryan demands that the Democratic party deal in unequivocal good faith with the people of this country.”

In truth the bold and manly position taken by Mr. Bryan had won him the admiration and respect of the whole country. It demonstrated anew those noble qualities which he possesses in such an unusual degree. The strength of his position was well outlined in an interview given to the New York Herald by Mr. Metcalfe, who led the fight for a specific declaration. Mr. Metcalfe said:

“When the American people know Mr. Bryan better, they will learn that he is not a politician in the popular acceptation of that term, but that he is honestly devoted to his views of fundamental principles, and that, while not an obstinate man, on this question of principle he is as firm as a rock. Men who know him best know him to be a man of iron. He stands to-day determined that the platform on which he is to be a candidate shall contain a plank explicitly pledging independent bimetallism at the ratio of sixteen to one. Those men of the East who do not know the man, and who may be inclined to regard his position on this question as an obstinate one, should know that the same firmness of purpose, the same indifference to appeal even by men known to be friendly to him that characterizes his adherence to the principle in which some of the men of the East believe him to be wrong, will sustain him in the White House on the many great questions on which they believe him to be right.

“The situation is an unusual one as political situations have gone in this country, but the man who is to be the nominee of this convention is an exceptional man. As the prospective nominee of this convention he will not surrender his convictions. As the nominee of the Democratic party in the coming campaign he will not be a dodger. In the White House he will not be a wabbler. When he shall be elected, men who may be saddened by the thought that they have a President who believes in bimetallism at the ratio of sixteen to one may find consolation in the demonstration of the fact that they also have an American president who adheres to the policies and traditions of a republic in preference to the habits of an empire; who draws his inspiration from the great mass of the people, rather than from a coterie of trust agents; whose purpose it is to discharge his duties so that the result shall be the greatest good to the greatest number, rather than to surrender to a handful of men the privilege of administering the government to the end that the many shall bear all the burdens and the few shall enjoy all the benefits.”

The fight in the resolutions committee was a hard and long one. So closely was the committee divided that it was evident that neither side had more than two or three majority. It seemed almost inevitable that a minority and majority report, differing only as to the wording in which the party’s allegiance to silver should be expressed, would go before the convention. And in this event hard feeling would in all probability be engendered, harsh words be spoken, and factionalism and disunion might result. In this crisis, one of the members of the resolutions committee was seized with an inspiration. In a half hour the whole difficulty was solved. The committee unanimously agreed to a specific demand for free silver coupled with the declaration that imperialism was the paramount issue of the campaign.

On July 5 the platform was read and adopted by the convention, and Bryan nominated for president of the United States.

Again the writer incorporates a portion of a dispatch sent by him to the World-Herald descriptive of this memorable session of the convention:

“Never in the history of popular government has there been held a national convention of a great political party that can be likened to that which at Kansas City to-day promulgated its declaration of principles and nominated its candidate for the chief magistracy of the great commonwealth of sovereign American states.

“To-day’s session witnessed scenes of turbulent enthusiasm, of intense patriotic ardor such as have never before been witnessed and such as promise a victory at once glorious and complete for William J. Bryan at the polls next November. It has been a day marked by loftiest patriotism and noblest purposes, a day that for centuries to come will stand clear and distinct as marking an epoch in the cause of human liberty.

“To-day was fired the first gun of that great war which is to be waged during the next four months for the preservation of the Republic and the perpetuation of American institutions. And to-day, on a Democratic platform, addressing a Democratic convention, Webster Davis, Republican orator, statesman, and publicist, denounced in words of burning eloquence Republican abandonment of republican principles, and pledged his loyal and unswerving support to William J. Bryan. And on that same platform David B. Hill, Gold Democrat, stood before wildly cheering thousands, and announced a reunited Democracy.

“’Save the Republic,’ is to be the battle cry, the Declaration of Independence the party creed, ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ the battle hymn, and the American flag the party emblem. And the leader, honest, unswerving, and undaunted, is to be the same gallant chieftain who breathed anew the breath of life into Democracy four years ago and marched it to glorious battle. Such, while the fire of patriotism burned fiercely in its heart, was the unanimous decision reached to-day by the Democratic National convention.

“As has been daily predicted in these dispatches, the Democratic party took no backward step on the question of finance.

“There is no attempt at quibbling, at subterfuge, or equivocation. Honesty and candor of the highest order live in this plank of the platform as they have their being in every other plank. There is not a line, a word, or a syllable capable of more than the one meaning; there are no omissions, no half statements, no dodgings of any question. The platform is in every sense worthy of the man—candid, bold, honest, and sincere even as he is candid, bold, honest, and sincere. Most wondrously were the schemes and machinations of the enemies of the Democratic party confounded. For on the single question on which the delegates were divided, as to whether there should be a specific demand for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one by this nation alone, the committee on resolutions brought in a unanimous report and the demand was boldly and specifically made. And the platform in which that demand was incorporated was adopted by the convention, not only with absolute unanimity, but amid the wildest, the most general, and most prolonged enthusiasm.

“In this unanimity spoke the love of every delegate for the Republic. It came because of a realizing sense that popular government and free institutions are in danger. And with that danger threatening, not a man in the convention but felt that all other differences must be buried while the party that founded and builded the Republic rallies to guard the sacred edifice from the vandal hands that are outstretched for its destruction. And thus it was that the great Democratic party reunited, north, south, east, and west clasping hands, love of country in every man’s heart and ‘save the Republic’ on each man’s lip, gave its platform and its candidate to the country.”

So Mr. Bryan won his greatest fight. It was a fight not only for principle and honesty, but for absolute candor and sincerity in dealing with any question before the American people. And, having won it, he was again the candidate for President of three political parties. For at Kansas City, at a convention held at the same time as the Democratic, the Silver Republican party, under the leadership of that pure and disinterested patriot, Charles A. Towne, had made Bryan and Stevenson, the Democratic nominees, its own nominees. And the Peoples’ party, at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, early in May had, in a spirit of noble self-sacrifice, gone outside its own party in its search for candidates, naming Mr. Bryan for President and Mr. Towne for Vice-President. Mr. Towne, believing that by so doing he could better further Mr. Bryan’s election, later withdrew from the ticket.

The Republican party met at Philadelphia in June, and renominated President McKinley, choosing as its Vice-Presidential candidate Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York. The platform declared for the permanent retention of the Philippine Islands as property of the United States.

President McKinley, in his speech of acceptance, thus outlined his Philippine policy:

“There must be no scuttle policy. We will fulfil in the Philippines the obligations imposed by the triumph of our arms, by the treaty of peace, and by international law, by the nation’s sense of honor, and, more than all, by the rights, interests, and conditions of the Filipinos themselves.... The Philippines are ours, and American authority must be supreme throughout the archipelago.”

Those who find this declaration vague and unsatisfactory may well turn to Mr. Bryan’s great speech of acceptance delivered at Indianapolis on August 8, in which he makes this distinct pledge:

“If elected, I shall convene Congress in extraordinary session as soon as I am inaugurated and recommend an immediate declaration of the nation’s purpose, first, to establish a stable form of government in the Philippine Islands, just as we are now establishing a stable form of government in Cuba; second, to give independence to the Filipinos, just as we have promised to give independence to the Cubans; third, to protect the Filipinos from outside interference while they work out their destiny, just as we have protected the republics of Central and South America and are, by the Monroe Doctrine, pledged to protect Cuba. A European protectorate often results in the exploitation of the ward by the guardian. An American protectorate gives to the nation protected the advantage of our strength without making it the victim of our greed. For three-quarters of a century the Monroe Doctrine has been a shield to neighboring republics, and yet it has imposed no pecuniary burden upon us.”

So is the issue drawn in the important campaign in which, for a second time, William J. Bryan and William McKinley are the opposing candidates for the highest elective office in the world. For weal or for woe, who can doubt that the outcome will be of serious and far-reaching import to the people of the United States and to their children and children’s children who shall live after them?