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Born in Salem, Illinois, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1883. After moving to Nebraska, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1890 and served two terms. Though defeated in an 1894 Senate race and never again elected to public office, Bryan remained a highly influential national figure. Rooted in agrarian populism, he advocated low tariffs, free silver, direct election of senators, the income tax, aid to farmers, the minimum wage, and women's suffrage. He also became known as a rousing, impassioned orator. At the 1896 Democratic convention, he mesmerized delegates with his famous "Cross of Gold" speech and ended up the party's presidential nominee. He ran for president on the Democratic ticket three times (1896, 1900, 1908) but lost each election. |
Bryan served in the Spanish-American War, but he staunchly opposed imperialist policies in his presidential campaigns. In 1901, he founded the journal The Commoner to promote his brand of populism. He supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election and became Wilson's secretary of state the following year. During the First World War, he advocated strict neutrality and eventually resigned in 1915 over Wilson's pro-Allies policies. A devout Christian all his life, Bryan spent his later years campaigning for prohibition and against the teaching of evolution. In 1925, he served as prosecutor in the infamous "monkey trial" of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher arrested for teaching evolution.
SOURCES: Encyclopedia of American Biography; Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography. |
