LAD #20 Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech

On July 9, 1896, William Jennings Bryan gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue of the speech was over whether or not to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. This caused unrest and conflict among the Democratic party. They are all from Massachusetts, yet they want different things and each person comes up and says something different that they want. A group of the Democrats are no longer going to fight or petition they are simiply just going to defy the others. They keep arguing back and forth one group is saying that the income tax passed by the other was unconstitutional and the group that passed it is saying that it was constitutional at the time. On the other hand, the other side is accusing them of resenting national bank currency and they keep arguing. The one group thinks that it is the government who should be coining the money. This whole speech is about what they people want, and how voting will change the way the monet is coined based on the results.