27 pages • 54 minutes read
William Jennings Bryan, Robert W. ChernyCross of Gold
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Economic Development
Bryan’s arguments focus on economic development. That is, he seeks to improve the quality of life for the people of the United States. While this was the platform on which both parties ran, the difference lay in how they wanted to approach the issue. Bryan does not concern himself with the interests of the businessmen and banks that the Republicans focused on. Instead, he uses the speech to explain what he thinks will help the working people of the country, particularly those living outside of cities.
Bryan portrays money and the ongoing depression as the most crucial topics. He opens “Cross of Gold” by calling bimetallism “a cause as holy as the cause of liberty” (199). Later, when addressing why other issues are not being dealt with, he says, “[W]hen we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other necessary reforms will be possible, and that until that is done there is no reform that can be accomplished” (204). Bryan characterizes the issue as “a struggle between the ‘idle holders of idle capital’ and ‘the struggling masses who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country’” (205). Rather than relying on wealth to flow down, he wants to support American blue-collar workers. Bryan is interested in the economic development of the United States. One of the major issues he has with the gold standard is that it hurts the country by making it beholden to outside influences. It may facilitate international trade, but it will make the US dependent on other countries. Because the US economy can produce domestically what consumers need, he thinks the country should avoid international entanglements.
Workers’ Rights
The main argument that Bryan gives in “Cross of Gold” is that the country’s workers deserve to have rights and interests met as much if not more than the rich. When he gave the speech, in 1896, the people suffering the most under the depression were blue-collar workers. Many of them were unemployed, cash-poor, and burdened with debt. Bryan’s argument against the gold standard rests on the idea that it would cause further trouble for the working people of the country who, as he points out, make up the majority of the population.
Unlike McKinley and the Republican Party, Bryan concerns himself with the well-being of the rural masses and spends the majority of the speech arguing on their behalf. Most of his arguments do not address the Republicans but rather the Bourbon Democrats who spoke before him. He believes their support of gold means they are not taking the working people of the country seriously, and he condemns them, saying, “[T]hey refused to give expression to the sentiments of those whom they would lead” (199). The Democratic Party, he says, long considered itself as the party that supported the people, and it should act like it now.
Bryan depicts the rural populace, particularly those living in the West, as hardworking and in need of both the respect and sympathy of the people in charge of the country. While gold is the focus of his argument, he includes a few other examples of obstacles in the path of workers. One is the issue of term limits, which he supports. A lack of them, he says, “[E]stablishes an office-holding class and excludes from participation in the benefits the humbler members of our society” (203). It is another example of the ways the rights of the working class can be either taken away or diminished in favor of the wealthy. He also denies that bimetallism is about getting votes. Instead, it allows him to give a voice to the people. He concludes that the people of the United States will not allow their rights to be taken from them, and they hold the true power in the country through their labor.
Dangers of Capitalism
The biggest opposition to bimetallism came from the supporters of the gold standard. These were the Republicans and the Bourbon Democrats, who all had capitalist sentiments. The Populist Party, whose views aligned with Bryan’s, took a critical view of unrestrained capitalism. Bryan does as well in his speech. He believes the money issue the country faces cannot be solved privately, but rather only by the intervention of the government.
Bryan portrays banks and their supporters as antagonistic to US workers. He aligns with the views of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, whom he notes did not want banks to gain too much power. A prior speech during the convention suggested that money was only a banking issue, so the banks should handle it without government intervention. Bryan gives a sharp response, saying, “[T]he issue of money is a function of the government and that the banks should go out of the governing business” (203).
He takes issue with the supporters of the gold standard for what that monetary system represents. By taking what they viewed as the “safe” monetary option, they would hurt the working population while furthering their own interests. To the gold supporters’ claim that a return to bimetallism would “disturb [their] business interests,” he replies, “You have disturbed our business interests by your course” (200). His opponents are considering the business interests only of the rich. He defends the income tax. His opponents called its legality into question, saying that it is unconstitutional. Bryan argues that it is “a just law” and that is a fair way of funding the government (203). He criticizes its opponents, saying, “When I find a man who is not willing to pay his share of the burden of the government which protects him, I find a man who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like ours” (203).
Bryan’s anti-capitalist statements did not earn him popularity with the Bourbon Democrats. Yet he seems to express no interest in doing so. In a telling statement on how he feels about the gold supporters, he says, “They will search the pages of history in vain to find a single instance in which the common people of any land ever declared themselves in favor of a gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have” (205).
