"The Cross of Gold" Speech
Delivered by William Jennings Bryan
at the National Democratic Convention,
July 9, 1896

Excerpt of Bryan's speech that is re-created (with a few
changes) here:

My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate
for its own people on every question, without waiting
for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and
upon that issue we expect to carry every state in the
Union. I shall not slander the inhabitants of the fair state
of Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the state of New
York by saying that, when they are confronted with the
proposition, they will declare that this nation is not able
to attend to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over
again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number
had the courage to declare their political independence of
every other nation; shall we, their descendants, when we
have grown to seventy millions, declare that we are less
independent than our forefathers?

No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our
people.