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Essay / Analysis of William Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech
Table of ContentsSummary and AnalysisConclusionWilliam Jennings Bryan was born in 1860 and lived until 1925. He was a Democratic and Populist leader. He also tried three times to run for president and failed each time. The "Cross of Gold" speech was a speech by William that helped propel the convention to nominate him as the Democratic presidential candidate. Bryan also ran in 1900 and 1908, which proved unsuccessful. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe speech was given at the Democratic National Convention, so the audience was invited to bring together delegates from all 50 states -United so that they can express their opinion. votesThis was William Jennings Bryan's Democratic presidential speech. Bryan believes that "we are going to show their program and tell them that their program commits the party to getting rid of the gold standard and replacing it with bimetallism." That was Bryan's whole point. He was against the gold standard and believed it was destroying American wealth and wanted to change it with money. Summary and Analysis Everyone has different opinions on what to do with wealth. How to get rid of it, how to earn it and how to proceed. Even today, one can hear debates about why cryptocurrency should take over from American currency. This is what Bryan was saying, how wealth should be managed. He wanted to replace the wealth of gold with bimetallism. He did not want to completely abolish the gold system, but he believed that silver and gold should have the same value. An interesting point according to him is that "if protection killed thousands of people, the gold standard killed tens of thousands." Bryan shows the difference between what gold did to America: it killed it by the tens of thousands. Bryan uses these arguments to argue what gold has done for America. One thing that is very notable is that throughout the speech Bryan uses “my friends” because he is addressing his audience because he wants to make that connection. This allows the reader to think that whatever Bryan says will benefit them. This also allows them to pay more attention to what Bryan has to say because it will affect them greatly. Bryan didn't just want to abolish the gold system, he didn't just want to get rid of it. He supported the idea of bimetallism. The idea of bimetallism allows two metals to coexist, which is what Bryan wanted. He knew how difficult it would be to abolish gold because of the way the United States uses it to trade with different nations. So he decided to create something where gold and silver could dialogue together. He asserts that "if the gold standard is a good thing, we should decide in favor of maintaining it and not in favor of abandoning it." Even if he himself does not like the idea of the gold standard, if the government finds it useful to the United States, it must keep it but add another currency that has the same value, viz. money. ConclusionBryan thinks having gold for the rest of humanity will have a detrimental effect. To conclude his argument, Bryan states, “you will not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” By the word "you" he is referring to the government claiming that if they don't do something about the gold system it will lead to bad things. Even going so far as to say that it would “crucify humanity”. This is a great conclusion because it allows not only the reader but also the people who were listening to his speech to really question the gold. Is it really worth it? Does this really have a.