William Jennings Bryan

[Dr. Cynic]

What do you guys think would have happened if Bryan had beaten McKinley in 1896?

[Akno21]

He wouldn't have been the laywer in the Scopes Trial, probably, and thus a very good movie and several very good books wouldn't have been made.

Also, TR wouldn't have been President 5 years after, so it really would have been a disaster.

[Dr. Cynic]

I think if Bryan were elected, he would have been unpopular with the East, so much so they would drive him out by 1900. I would pay to have seen a Bryan-TR Election.

[Schmitz in 1972]

I think if Bryan were elected, he would have been unpopular with the East, so much so they would drive him out by 1900. I would pay to have seen a Bryan-TR Election.

I would have like to have seen that too, but I doubt it would happen. My guess is that the Republicans would have renominated McKinley

[The Dowager Mod]

Bryan would have been a one term president because of the economy tanking after his abandonment of the gold standard.
the u.s. wasn't ready for that yet.

[Dr. Cynic]

That's unfortunate. They were just so alike that they didn't even realize it. They were friends outside of politics, and even had a debate by letter during Bryan's final try in 1908.

The Nebraskan quoted scripture, the Rough Rider waved the flag. Bryan was an artist with words, Roosevelt was a better Tub Thumper. Bryan's voice was deep, resonating, and pleasing to the ear, Roosevelt often cracked into a high falsetto.

They were both so good at speaking to the public. We need more men like them. It would have been awsome.

[PBrunsel]

He would not have fiught the Spanish-American War, calling it "impearealism", and he would have switched to a silver standard prolonging the Panic of 1893 to go all the way to 1903. He would have been a one term president, beign defeated in 1900 by either Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio or Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusettes.

Teddy Roosevelt, never being a Rough Rider, may have never have become popular in new York, never became governor (as he won by only a narrow margin in real life), and he may never have been president.

[Dr. Cynic]

By 1908, Bryan had eased off Silver, and probably would have made a good President then, because it wasn't until then that his views evened out with the public. Bryan, like Roosevelt, fought in The Spanish-American War. Although he saw no real action, He did lead a regiment which was a key point of intelligence from Cuba to Washington.

[PBrunsel]

Here's a Bryan story:

When William Jennings Bryan was going to propose to his wife, he needed her father's permission. Her father was a deeply religous man who read his Bible regularly every day. Bryan went to his future wife's father and told him, "You known King Solomon once said 'A man who's found a wife has found a great thing."" "But," the father replied, "The apostle Paul said, 'He who is married does well but he who does not does better.'" "Well," Bryan replied, "Paul had no wife and Solomon had 1,000."

[Dr. Cynic]

Bryan had a very witty humor, and would display it at many speaking engagements.

He would sweat profusely during the 1896 campaign, and once had an icepack placed under a brown derby hat, so that he wouldn't collapse from heat stroke.

[PBrunsel]

Bryan ran an energetic campaign in all of his presidetntial runs. McKinley always ran "front porch" campaigns.

[Dr. Cynic]

Well, that was logical. Bryan had almost no money, so the most sensible strategy is to send him around to speak. McKinley's Front Porch campaign, I must say was brilliant strategy. To win, however, he had to place more emphasis on Sound money, which he had no heart of passion for, unlike Bryan. And less emphasis on protection, which he throughily believed in.

I always felt sorry for Bryan, especially as distorted as his image is today. Many regard him with utter contempt, which isn't fair to him.

"He has the same rights as we do. The rigt to be wrong." -
Henry Drummond  to E.K. Hornbeck in "Inherit The Wind" after they are informed Brady has died. (This is not how the real Scopes Trial went).

[PBrunsel]

McKinley's fence had been stolen by the end of the 1896 Campaign due to suvenere hunters!

[Dr. Cynic]

LOL. That's a funny story. Bryan literally went bald from the people that hounded him everywhere.

[Dr. Cynic]

Bryan literally lost his hair from being hounded. LOL. that was a funny post, PBrunsel.