William Jennings Bryan:
The most influential loser in American history

William Jennings Bryan

By Vikki L. Jeanne Cleveland

Thomas Wolfe may have thought you can't go home again, but people in Salem have a dirterent plan for their favorite native son, William |ennings Bryan, who was born there March 19, I860. Memories and memorials abound in this small community at the juncture of Interstate 57 and Highway 50, about 70 miles east of St. Louis.

Politics formed part of Bryan's education all his life. He especially became interested in the process when he was 12, when his father, Silas Bryan, a prominent citizen in Salem, sought election to the House of Representatives. Young "Willy" accompanied his father to the campaign rallies.

Bryan's mother, Mariah Jennings Bryan, also contributed to her son's education. Before young William started public school his mother taught him at home, otten standing him on a table to recite his lessons. According to Bryan, these tabletop recitations were his first experiences with stump speaking.

The actual table is part of the exhibits in the Bryan Home and Museum, 408 South Broadway in Salem. Bryan's birthplace/ boyhood home is carefully preserved and filled with mementoes of Bryan, his politics, and his private and public life.

Just inside the front door in a glass displace case is Bryan's baby gown, a symbolic beginning to the tour that parallels his journey from boyhood in Salem to death in Dayton, Tennessee, just days after his participation in the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial."

The front parlor of the two-story home contains furniture that belonged to Silas and Mariah Bryan. Some items, given as wedding presents to the couple, were made locally in Walnut Hill, Mariah's hometown.

Walls and displays in adjacent rooms hold other Bryan photographs and memorabilia, including many silver items. After Bryan gave his famous "Cross of Gold" speech in Chicago just before the 1896 Presidential election, he and his wife received a variety of silver items as gifts. Also on display is the Blickensderfer typewriter that Bryan used. Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company, located in Stamford, Connecticut, first presented its typewriters at the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, where Bryan probably was introduced to them.

When Bryan was six years old, his family moved to a 600-acre farm on the north edge of Salem. A large deer park in a corner of the farm is now a residential street called Deer Path Drive. The "Silas Bryan Estate" was at the end of Bryan Lane, near what is now Bryan Memorial Park. The Bryans' 13-room, two-story brick house later burned down. In 1991, Rick and Patti Moore built a new home on the site, using bricks from the original in their circle driveway.

Charred fire tongs from the burned house are now kept safely in the Bryan museum, along with other mementoes of the orators day-to-day private life: a wash bowl and basin; a kettle; ice skates; safety and straight razors; bowties; and walking sticks—one made from the backbone of a shark.

There is plenty to represent the public Bryan, too.

He traveled over 18,000 miles in the 1896 Presidential campaign and wore holes in the soles of a pair of shoes. These shoes, along with a note of authentication in Bryan's own hand, are in the front room of the Bryan home.

Bryan's first campaign for President included his first ride in an automobile. A framed photograph in the museum shows Bryan and his wife, Mary Baird Bryan, in an open automobile in Decatur on October 23, 1896. Bryan had to stand up in the car to deliver his speech because the crowd was so big.

Voting in Bryan's day was different from voting today. A ballot like the one on display in the Bryan museum demonstrates the basic difference: there could be no truly secret ballot. Voters approaching the polling place were met by party representatives with long strips of paper on which were printed the names of the candidates of a specific party. The voter chose whichever paper he wanted and then deposited that paper in the ballot box.

In 1906, Bryan and his wife and two of their three children, Grace and William Jr.. went on a world tour. A collage of pictures from that trip is in the museum along with other mementoes, such as a Jerusalem picture book, Japanese art, and the hatbox for the silk hat he carried. Bryan brought back several rocks from the Sea of Galilee—one rock for each member of his church. Some of these souvenirs are also in the museum.

"People from all over give us things," said Maxine Lonbard, curator of the museum, "and each item has its own story."

Part of the Bryan story included his time as a colonel in a Nebraska regiment during the Spanish-American War of 1898. His uniform is on display in the museum. Next to it is another relic of Bryan's political life: the office chair he used during his tenure as Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. After two years and four months, Bryan

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Bryan birthplace and boyhood home and Bryan-Bennett Library (inset)

resigned this post in 1915 in opposition to Wilson's hawkish anti-German policy. When the United States entered World War I, however, Bryan supported Wilson and his policies.

In the museum is an official government document signed by Secretary of State Bryan to allow safe conduct to a family traveling in Europe during this contentious time.

The Bryan museum now sits eight feet farther south than its original location. The home was relocated in 1909 to build the Bryan-Bennett Library, which Bryan helped to found. At that time his cousin, May Davenport, served as the librarian and lived in the original Bryan home with her mother.

Recent home improvements include new paint inside and out, new landscaping, a dusk-to-dawn lighting system for the outdoor sign, and new walks made from bricks once used to pave Kinmundy, a neighboring community. A $15,000 state grant paid for new wallpaper and plaster in the hallway, staircase, and in an upstairs bedroom, as well as repairs to the stairs. Other improvements are pending.

The Bryan Home and Museum, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975, is operated by the city with the Salem Historical-Patriotical Commission overseeing the operation. The museum is open to the public-Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays from noon to 4:30 p.m. or by appointment by calling Salem City Hall, 618/548-2222.

Bryan's spiritual life was both public and private. As a boy he attended Sunday school twice weekly because his lather was Baptist and his mother was Methodist. At the age of 14, Bryan joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, now the First United Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of McMackin and Washington in Salem. An ornate pulpit inside the church was a gift from Bryan, who gave an identical one to his church in Lincoln, Nebraska. The pulpits, crafted from pearl and exotic woods, display a carved scene of the burning bush as depicted in the book of Exodus.

Bryan was also generous with his father's church. Hearing that Salem's First Baptist Church was in debt over $500, he matched donations made by the church members to pay off the debt. His gift of $217 is noted in church minutes from that time.

The Scopes trial

Bryan's staunch belief in the literal word of the Bible was one of the reasons he became involved in the Scopes trial in 1925.

John Thomas Scopes, who had been indicted for teaching evolution in a Dayton, Tennessee, high school, was also from Salem, Illinois. When he graduated from Salem High School May 16, 1919, Bryan delivered the commencement address.

In Salem, Scopes boarded in the Badollet House, still standing at 310 North Washington. This house was the first brick house built in Salem and had served as a slave stop on the Underground Railroad. Originally built for Howard and Tabitha Pace Badollet, the home is now owned by Ed and Jody Walker Smalley.

At the trial in Dayton, Bryan was never out to discredit Scopes. In fact, Scopes and Bryan's son were friends. Bryan himself thought the Tennessee law was a poor one because it involved fining an educator. He even offered to pay the fine if Scopes was convicted.

Nor was Bryan against teaching evolution if it was presented as a theory along with other options, such as creationism.

Defense attorney Clarence Darrow, however, unexpectedly called Bryan to the witness stand as an expert on the Bible, then ridiculed Bryan's beliefs rather than question him on the points of the trial. In truth, the whole trial was something of a circus. Extreme heat and huge crowds dogged the proceedings, and the trial eventually had to move outdoors when the courtroom floor began to crack.

Despite the conditions and Darrow's strategy, Bryan handled himself well by sticking to the facts, defining terms carefully, differentiating between literal and figurative language in the Bible, and questioning the reliability of scientific evidence that contradicted the Bible.

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However, Darrow's questioning Bvealed that Bryan actually knew very little about those he had denounced for their criticism of the Bible. Darrow also induced Bryan to admit that parts of the Bible were open to interpretation, an admission that was, at best, a undamentalist faux pas. According to Kvan biographer Robert W.Cherny, "The gasp of the startled Fundamentalists must have been loud enough to earn, over the national radio hookup."

Scopes never took the witness stand, nor was he jailed. The judge abruptly stopped the trial amid the confusion and fist-shaking emotion of Bryan and Darrow, and charged the jury, who returned in [list a few minutes with a guilty verdict. Scopes was fined $100, which was later refunded.

In spite of the verdict, Bryan was humiliated and exhausted by the trial. In true Bryan fashion, however, in the five days following the trial, he was as busy as ever:

•  He fine-tuned the 5,000-word speech he had hoped to give at the trial before it was terminated.

•  He inspected sites around Dayton for what is now Bryan College.

•  He traveled several hundred miles to deliver speeches to crowds totaling 50,000 people.

•  He was hit by a car.

•  He consulted with doctors about his diabetic condition.

•  He conferred with printers about his latest message.

On Sunday, June 26, he drove from Chattanooga to Dayton, participated in a church sendee, and then lay down for a nap from which he never awakened.

Papers reported that he died of "apoplexy," the term used for a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage at the time. Some accounts claimed a heart attack felled the "Silver-Tongued Orator." Others cited diabetes mellitus. Whatever the official cause, the intense heat, stress of the trial, and his diabetes surely contributed to his untimely death.

Some reporters and editors of big-city newspapers ridiculed him even after his death. Most considered him an ignorant hick with no redeeming qualities. The common people, however, realized his dedication, hard work, and sacrifice in their behalf and showed up in large numbers for his funeral.

Because of his service in the Spanish-American War, Bryan was buried in Arlington National Cemetery along with his wife and a daughter, Grace Dexter Bryan.

Bryan's parents and some of his siblings, however, were buried in Salem in the Bryan plot in East Lawn Cemetery, about 200 feet from Main Street on the west side of the main cemetery road. In 1896, Bryan walked up this same road behind his mothers funeral coach before boarding a train to Chicago, where he delivered his famous "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Before he left, Bryan reportedly told a friend he felt he would receive the Democratic nomination if he had an opportunity to speak to the delegates. Some historians maintain Bryan's Chicago speech was the highlight of his political career, even though he was a Presidential candidate twice more and eventually Secretary of State under Wilson. His "Cross of Gold" speech drew a greater ovation than any other speech at the convention. Even those defending the gold standard applauded his eloquence.

Although Bryan's aspirations and careers in law, journalism, and politics took him to places far removed from his small Midwestern hometown, he returned to Salem often. And the town proudly wears the stamp of respect for him. The first three call letters for Salem's radio station, WJBD, are Bryan's initials. The B does double duty since the last two call letters represent the initials of Bryan Davidson, one of the partners of Salem Broadcasting Company, which began broadcasting in December 1956.

American's most influential loser

Salem's tri-weekly newspaper, the Times-Commoner, was also named in honor of Bryan, who was known as "The Great Commoner" for his defense of ordinary, working-class Americans. When the Salem Republican and the Marion County Democrat merged in 1955, a contest was held to select the best name for the new publication. "Times" and "Commoner" were the two most popular entries. In Nebraska, Bryan himself had a newspaper called The Commoner.

The Republican was first printed during the year of Bryan's birth, 1860. Consequently, the Times-Commoner can claim to be the oldest continually published newspaper serving the Salem area.

Bryan has been called one of the most influential "losers" in American history. Despite three defeats in Presidential elections, he dominated his party for 16 years, from 1896-1912, while leading the Democrats through a major transformation "to make the masses prosperous." During this time of change, he was also "the watchdog of Congress and the conscience of the country."

Some of his most radical ideas eventually became realities: the 16th Constitutional Amendment dealing with graduated income tax; the 17th Amendment providing for direct election of Senators; the 18th Amendment concerning prohibition of liquor; the 19th Amendment for women's suffrage; public disclosure of newspaper ownership and the signing of editorials; workmen's compensation, minimum wage, the eight-hour work day; public regulation of political campaign contributions; the Federal Reserve Act; the Federal Farm Loan Act; voting reform; and pure food processing— among many, many others.

"Bryan was no intellectual giant," wrote historian Dennis Phillips, "but how many men have been? Like him or not, William Jennings Bryan has had more influence on American public

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policy than at least half the men who won Presidential elections."

Phillips also believes the Depression would not have hurt common people so much if more of Bryan's ideas had been made into law before 1929.

"When he was right," said Phillips, "he took up a cause with a zeal not often found among politicians."

Bringing Billy home

The Bryan statue in the Bryan Memorial Park triangle on North Broadway in Salem represents another time when Bryan did not receive the respect he deserved.

Gutzon Borglum, who sculpted the faces on Mt. Rushmore, created the statue, which originally stood in West Potomac Park in Washington, DC. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated it there May 3, 1934. About 10 years before Bryan's death, Borglum had created life masks of both Bryan and his wife, as well as a cast of Bryan's fist. These smaller sculptures are in Salem's Bryan museum.

Later, however, the statue in Washington, DC, was literally yanked down to clear way for a new approach to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. It lay in a vacant lot until Salem City Attorney Frederick Merritt and Illinois Senator Paul Douglas began a campaign to obtain the statue. They and others back in Salem agreed that "Billy" should come home where he would be appreciated.

In 1961, when Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall agreed to loan the statue to Salem, the exchange was not without its complications and mishaps. The first problem was how to get a 2,700-pound bronze statue and its 29,300-pound marble base back to Salem without spending $2,000 on just the transportation. Insurance involved would also be an astronomical expense for Bryan's hometown.

However, citizens of Salem banded together for this special project. James Johnson furnished a flatbed truck, along with the insurance for the trip. James Warfield bought the fuel. L.R. Young donated a lead truck and driver. Emmet Kane Insurance donated three years of insurance for the statue when it reached its final destination, and Paul Henley made two long truck signs stating that Bryan was returning home to Salem.

Bryan addresses a crowd in Granite City, 1908

Billy left Washington on May 22, 1961. During the journey home, the truck had a flat tire, brakes on the truck caught fire in the mountains, and the load shifted so severely that Billy nearly toppled off the flatbed.

Nevertheless, the trip was successfully completed, and Billy was escorted into Salem with respectful pageantry. People from throughout the Marion County area lined Highway 50 east of Salem; the Salem Fire Department, the Salem Police Department, and the high school band paraded Billy to the Bryan park triangle.

Back in Washington, the mood was not so jubilant. Some citizens there objected to the statue's removal. One paper erroneously reported that a "crew of Shanghai toughs" had tried to smuggle the statue out of the District only to be stopped by outraged citizens.

Washington historian Alexander M. Padro understands their concern. "Moving monuments that may no longer be politically correct to make room for tributes to persons and events now in favor might seem expedient," he said, "but it would be terribly shortsighted, not to mention detrimental to the historical character of our city. We owe it to the people who erected the monuments of the past to safeguard them, just as we hope future generations will cherish the tributes we erect."

Salemites point out that no one in Washington seemed too concerned about the Bryan statue while it was lying neglected in a vacant lot.

In 1973, Congressman Kenneth Gray introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives giving Salem a quitclaim deed with all rights, title, and interest to the $125,000 statue of William Jennings Bryan. Congressman Paul Simon turned the title over to the City of Salem on March 31, 1975, in a ceremony at the Bryan home.

Billy was home to stay.

Freelance writer Vikki Cleveland of Salem is starting her 27th year teaching English and American histor)1 in the Patoka School district. She also teaches English and writing classes at Kaskasia College. Her genealogical journal, Cleveland Family Chronicles, is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

For Further Reading

Bryan, WIlliam, and Mary Bryan. Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan. Haskell House Pub. Ltd., 1970

Cherny, Robert W. A Righteous Cause: The life of William Jennings Bryan. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.

Cornelius, R.M. WIlliam Jennings Byran, The Scopes Trial, and Inherit the Wind.TN: Byran College, 1997.

Scopes, John Thomas, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes. Henry Holt & Company Inc., 1967.

Springer, Donald K. WIlliam Jennings Byran: Orator of Small-Town America. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991.

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