Marion-Morgan County IL Archives Biographies.....Bryan, William Jennings 1860 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000719 August 9, 2008, 10:14 am

Author: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary

BRYAN, William Jennings, statesman, was born at Salem, Marion county, Ill., 
March 19, 1860; son of Silas Lillard and Mariah Elizabeth (Jennings) Bryan, 
grandson of John and Nancy (Lillard) Bryan, and great-grandson of William 
Bryan, born in Culpeper county, Va., about 1765. His grandfather removed from 
Culpeper county to Point Pleasant in western Virginia shortly after his 
marriage, and in 1852 his son, Silas Lillard, was married and removed to 
Salem, Marion county, Ill., where he was a lawyer of high standing, for eight 
years state senator, and for twelve years a circuit judge. Until his tenth 
year, William was taught at home, then entering the public schools, and, in 
1875, Whipple academy, the preparatory school of Illinois college, at 
Jacksonville. When fourteen years old he joined the Presbyterian church, and 
in 1880 made his first appearance as a speaker at a political meeting. In 
June, 1881, he was graduated at Illinois college with the highest honors, and 
was also chosen class orator. In 1884, by invitation of the faculty, he 
delivered the masters oration, and received the degree of M.A. During his 
college course he won five prizes. Immediately after his graduation from 
college he entered the Union college of law in Chicago, where he had as a 
classmate Henry, son of Lyman Trumbull, and thus gained the privilege of the 
use of Mr. Trumbulls law office for study after school hours. He was admitted 
to the bar, beginning his law practice July 4, 1883. On Oct. 1, 1884, he was 
married to Mary Elizabeth Baird of Perry, Ill., who afterwards studied her 
husbands profession, and won admission to the bar, not for the purpose of 
practising, but in order to be in intelligent sympathy with Mr. Bryans 
business life. Until 1887 he practised in Jacksonville, Ill., removing in that 
year to Lincoln, Neb., where he became a law partner with Mr. Talbot, but did 
not share in his railroad business. He early took an interest in political 
affairs, was a student of the science of government, and soon became known for 
his knowledge of political questions. In 1890 he received the unanimous 
nomination of the Democratic party as representative from the first Nebraska 
district to the 52nd Congress. He was elected in an overwhelming Republican 
district, receiving 6,713 more votes than his chief competitor, a result 
attributable largely to his exceptional ability as a platform orator and the 
persistency with which he personally prosecuted the canvass. His reputation 
had preceded him to Congress, and he was placed on the Ways and Means 
Committee, one of the youngest members to be ever thus honored. His speech on 
the tariff, delivered March 16, 1892, was made a campaign document in the 
canvass of that year, resulting in the second election of Mr. Cleveland, and 
was universally commended for its lucid statement of the tariff question then 
at issue. Though a Democrat, and running on a Democratic platform, he was re-
elected in 1892 in a district which gave the Republican state ticket a 
plurality of six thousand at the same election. In the 53rd Congress he was 
again placed upon the Ways and Means Committee. He also took an active part in 
the silver debate, which began with the extraordinary session, and on Aug. 16, 
1893, made a speech in favor of The gold and silver coinage of the 
Constitution. In this speech he advocated the free coinage of silver at the 
ratio of sixteen to one, without waiting for the consent of any other nations, 
claiming that the adoption of a bimetallic standard by the United States would 
force the other nations, England only excepted, to adopt the standard as 
final. On July 4, 1892, he made a notable speech in Tammany Hall, New York 
city, that greatly increased his reputation as an orator, and on May 30, 1894, 
he delivered an oration at Arlington cemetery, Virginia, at the memorial 
services over the soldiers graves, which was listened to by the President and 
his cabinet, and was widely published as an exceptional oratorical effort. As 
political editor of the Omaha World Herald he represented his paper at the 
Republican convention at St. Louis, June 19, 1896, and there was the first 
newspaper man to obtain a definite acknowledgment of the intention of the 
leaders to stand for gold, notwithstanding the declaration in their platform 
in favor of bimetallism. This, to him, radical measure greatly increased his 
faith in the success of the Democratic party, if it could be induced to adopt 
the free coinage of silver as the political issue of the campaign. When the 
convention met at Chicago, July 9, 1896, Mr. Bryan was a delegate, and while 
awaiting the report of the committee on platform he addressed the assembly. 
His speech electrified the audience, the different delegations bringing 
forward their standard, and clustering them around the young orator. One of 
the oldest conservative and experienced newspaper correspondents of a gold 
organ telegraphed to his paper: As he (Bryan) spoke I thought I could see the 
presidential halo about his brow. The next day Mr. Bryan was found to have 
captured the convention, and after the heroic fight made by the gold standard 
Democrats to stem the silver tide, Mr. Bryan was nominated as the Democratic 
standard bearer. At the national convention of the Silver party at St. Louis, 
July 24, Mr. Bryan received the nomination of that party as he did that of the 
Peoples party. In the canvass that followed Mr. Bryan took the stump, and in 
the course of the campaign made 592 speeches in 477 cities and towns, in 27 
states of the Union, travelling 18,831 miles between July 12 and Nov. 2, 1896. 
This was an example of industry and earnestness unprecedented in the history 
of politics in America. At the general election Nov. 3, 1896, he was defeated 
in the election, receiving 176 electoral and 6,351,042 popular votes. He 
became colonel of the 3rd Nebraska volunteers July 13, 1898, and joined the 
7th army corps at Jacksonville, Fla., which corps was ordered to Savannah, Ga. 
He resigned from the army Dec. 10, 1898, and entered actively into the 
campaign against the annexation of the Philippine Islands, declaring that the 
United States could not permanently endure half republic and half colony, half 
free and half vassal. He was nominated a second time for president of the 
United States by the Democratic party in 1900, and was defeated, receiving 155 
electoral and 6,358,133 popular votes. He received the degree LL.D. from 
McKendree college in 1897, and published The First Battle (1897). In 1901 he 
established and edited The Commoner, a weekly political journal, at Lincoln, 
Neb.

Additional Comments:
Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans.
Vol. I-X. Rossiter Johnson, editor. Boston MA: The Biographical Society. 1904.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/marion/bios/bryan1461gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/

File size: 7.4 Kb