The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States Representative from Nebraska, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9, 1896. In his address, Bryan supported "free silver" (i.e. bimetallism), which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.

Cross of Gold speech, classic of American political oratory delivered on July 8, 1896, by William Jennings Bryan in closing the debate on the party platform at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago during the campaign for the presidential election of 1896.

Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1.

On the night of July 8, William Jennings Bryan revealed himself as the candidate the silverites were looking for by delivering one of the most famous speeches in American history. At the time, Bryan was a former member of Congress from Nebraska who had been working tirelessly to build support for his candidacy.

At the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Bryan offered his famed “Cross of Gold” address, in which he made the case for bimetallism and free silver. Bryan secured not only the Democratic and Populist nominations for the presidency, but also the nomination of the short-lived, Nevada-based Silver Party.

Hear William Jennings Bryan deliver his “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention

May 4, 2022 · The cross of gold : speech delivered before the National Democratic Convention at Chicago, July 9, 1896 by Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925

In the 1896 presidential campaign, Populists supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, a firebrand orator from Nebraska. At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, in 1896, Bryan delivered his most famous speech in which he decried the northern monied interests and their suppression of average Americans.

When television coverage begins at a presidential nominating convention, it is only a matter of time before some commentator alludes to William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic convention as the leading example of an orator's ability to sway listeners.