Cross Of Gold Speech Analysis

The Presidential Election of 1986 between the Republican William McKinley and Democrat William Jennings Bryan, is thought to be one of the most impressive and complicated presidential elections in all of American History. One of the major highlights of the election was William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech that sparked the people’s interest for the Democratic representative. This speech not only had a firm and well defined meaning, but its delivery was also delivered superbly. The speech itself was concerned with many problems, such as growing class divisions that later were the cause of many violent outbursts among the people. Money was the most prominent concern for the people in 1896 because of high employment rates and the fact that they were recovering from a few years of depression. The …show more content…
This belief gained McKinley the support of many bankers, businessmen, and investors throughout the country. McKinley believed that the high value of the dollar bill would be maintained with the gold standard. However, not everyone wanted to choose between the two options. Some opted for the idea that the American currency should consist of both silver and gold, these few were the farmers, small business owners, and laborers. These people believed that the gold would be too high, and the silver would be a more acceptable. The difference of opinion proved to be the deciding factor in the election of 1896. The popular vote was given to William McKinley and Bryan came in close but not close enough. By the end of the campaign, Bryan gained 176 electoral votes. While William McKinley had 95 more electoral votes than Bryan, with a total of 271. Since the majority of the people were in the Mideast, and they favored McKinley, there was nothing that Bryan could have done to change the outcome of the election. William Jennings Bryan’s defeat was