9 июл 1896 г. - "Cross of gold" speech

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A speech given by Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, IL. His main concern in the speech, and indeed his campaign, was the gold standard, the practice of assigning a particular value to the dollar based on the current amount of gold possessed by the US. This prevented the currency from fluctuating wildly, as the amount of gold the country had would not drastically change over a short period of time. However, this hurt farmers badly, who were suffering economically at the time due to an excess of supply of crops and livestock. Bryan called for "free silver," which would extend the gold standard to include the amount of silver in US supply as well. Since the US had a large amount of silver, this would allow more money to be produced which would help ease farmers out of debt to banks. Before the speech, Bryan was considered a dark horse candidate with little support, but he became wildly popular after giving it. He pointed out that "Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country." Bryan was also deeply religious and a strong supporter of the Social Gospel movement. He evoked strong emotions in his audience with Biblical imagery, declaring "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." As he delivered this last line, Bryan stuck his arms out as if he were being crucified like Jesus. It is often considered to be one of the best political speeches in US history, and helped him win the nomination for president.

Full Text: https://bit.ly/1dtBcY9

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