The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-08-27
THE BOY ORATOR. +"
YOUNGEST PRESIDENTIAL NOM
lNEE.
Astudy Of William ]. Bryan.

A0tu0y VI WILLIAM " Dry dus
Leslie's Weekly.
| The wonderful possibilities of Amer
lean citizenship are strikingly illustrat
ed in the nomination for the Presiden,
cy of William Jennings Bryan, who
was selected at Chicago on the 10th oi
July last to lead the national Democra-
cy in the quadrennial battle tor nation
al supremacy. Mr.. Bryan was not a
national figure prior to his speech at
Chicago. He had won, it is true, fame
of a tentative sort, through his brilliant
speeches in Congress and his strength
as an advocate of silver on the stump
and forum in the South and West.
But his youth and his comparatively
circumscribed fight across the horizon
of publicity kept his name from fgur-
ing in the list of posi- bilities. But, to
paraphrase Burke Cochran, eshis nomi-
nation was so much an improbability as
to become a possibility" Chance gave
him the opportunity to place the i'm
press of his oratorlcal power upon the
convention, and he proved his claim to
greatness by rising to the occasion.
His speech won him the nomination
on the following day.
One of the charges brought against
Mr.. Bryan, in denial of his fitness for
the Presidency, is that he is young.
This is undeniable. He, himself, ad-
mits it, and the family Bible is a mute
witness to the truth of the charge.
Mr.. Bryan has the distinction of being
the youngest man ever nominated for
the Presidency, and In fact is barely a
year beyond the thirty-tive year age
limit OF the Constitution. But, not
withstanding his youth, he had before
his nomination for the Presidency
achieved honors that have come to but
comparatively few men in life.
He was very young, but thirty, when
he was first elected to Congress, and
had the honor during his first term of
being appointed to place on the Ways
and Means committee. He was even
younger when he first gained reputa-
ton as an eloquent, cogent, and inter-
esting speaker.
Mr.. Bryan was born in the small
town of Salem, Illinois, on the 10Th of
March, 1860. His father was Judge
Bryan for number of years Judge of
the circuit court which embraced the
county of Marion, and who for eight
years represented that district in the
Illinois State Senate. William Jen-
nings Bryan was born on farm just
outside of Salem, and, now that he has
achieved distinguished honors, he
shares the fate, common to the great, of
being remembered as a remarkably pre-
cocious child.
Mr.. Bryan's prediction for politics
speedily led him into the arena, where
the greatest triumphs have since been
won. In 1883 and 1889 he stumped
the State for the Democratic ticket,
and his star as an orator first appeared
in the armament. His rise in politics
came about in peculiar way. The
Democratic party in Nebraska had for
years been controlled by coterie OF
old-line Democrats, but they had failed
to achieve any measure of success. In
1883 the scholarly J. Sterling Morton,
the present Secretary of Agriculture
and one of the then leaders, was defeat
ed by large majority in his race for
Congress in the First district, which
then embraced the long settled south
eastern section of the State. In 1890
the Democratic nomination for Congress
went begging, and when young Bryan
come forward and asked for it it was
willingly given him by the old guard.
They had not looked with a kindly eye
upon his rising fame, and it Is shrewd-
ly suspected that their ready acquies-
cence was given more to extinguish the
new light than otherwise, as it was be-
lieved that where Morton had failed no
Democrat had any hope for success.
The young candidate had already
made himself the idol of the younger
element of his party, and they gaye an
enthusiastic Endorsement to his plans.
He wrote his own platform, in which
tariff for revenue and free coinage OF
silver were the cardinal planks, and en-
tered upon a canvass now memorable
in the political annals OF the State.
One of his first moves was to challenge
his opponent, Congressman. w. J. Con-
nell, to joint debate. ConneH was an
Omaha lawyer, who had been fairly
successful In practice at the bar, and,
contrary to Bryan's expectations, he ac-
cepted the challenge. He was, h6wev-
er, no match for Bryan, and when the
votes we're counted it was found:that
the latter had overturned Republican
majority of three thousand two hum
dred and carried district by six thous-
and eight hundred.
VUh;1o n ,,osidont 0f Illinois Mr. RrV.