El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-06-22

teaching his tenets throughout the
country till he was regarded in many
quarters as the future political savior
Of the people. By all the laws OF
logic. therefore. he should have beer
the man chosen to head the party
ticket.
Bland had been proposed as the
Democratic presidential nominee by
'Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, OF South
Carolina Tillmans nominating speech
lad been a vittiOlic denunciatiOn of the
minority Of gold Democrats and had
stirred even the friends OF free silver
to such a pitch of Indignation that the
delegates met his words with a storm
Of Kisses and cat calls. Then came SEN
ator HIS shrewd dissection of the
free silver platform 1t has been sal,
that after Tillman had shamed the free
silverites Hill showed them how they
had shamed themselves.
There could have been no time more
prOpitiOuS for the speech of a free sill
yer advocate of Bryan'S elOQuence. Till
mans speech had thrown the conyen-
ton into an uproar and had created
diSsensiOn among the free silver men,
while Hill address had brought 10y to
the gold minority and had heightened
the disaffectiOn in the free silver
ranks.
It was at this moment when William
Jennings Bryan, then a young man
of Sc rose to address the delegates.
He said:
Mr.. chairman and gentlemen Of the
conventions 1 would be preSumptuOus
indeed. to present myself against the
distinguished gentlemen to whom you
have listened, if this were but a meas
Uring of ability, but this is not con-
test among persons. The humblest cit
iZen in all the land, when clad in the
armOr of a righteous cause, is stronger
than all the whole hosts of error that
they can bring. 1 came to speak to you
IN defence of q cause as holy as the
cause of hberty-the cause Of hu
manity.'
Bryan's speech was short, occupying
scarcely 5000 words and during it he
dwelt upon glittering generalities in
his advocacy of free silver. He closed
his masterpiece Of elOquence with these
ringing metaphors:
You shall not press down upon the
brow of labor this crown of thorns.
You shall not cruelty mankind upon a
cross Of gOldi"
With this stirring admonition ringing
IN their ears, the delegates began the
ballot. There were 76S delegates vot-
ing and, under the tWO-thirdS rule
ton J. T. Hill, of Georgia, the young
est delegate on the floor, who was
only q years old, secured the services
Of Hal T Lewis, of Georgia to
place Mr.. Bryan in nomination and
on the first roll call Georgia was the
first state to cast its vote for the boy
orator.
When the votes on the first ballot had
been cast, it was seen that silver
Dick Bland led with 2S5. BRYAN came
next with 119- Robert E. Pattison. of
Pennsylvania, was third with 50, and
Horace Boies, of Iowa, was fourth with
So Joe Blackburn, of Kentucky. gor
So and +he wealthy John r. Mclean.
of Ohio, 81.
On the second ballot Bland got 2S3
and Bryan 100.
On the third ballot Bland received POI
and Bryan 219.
Bryan Goes Ahead.
On the fourth ballot Bland at last fell
behind. He got pa votes, while Bryan
drew ESQ On the fifth ballot the land
slide began.
John r Mclean withdrew his name
and cast the 46 votes of the Ohio dele
cation solidly for Bryan, and governor
Stone. the champion OF Bland. strobe to
the platform and withdrew his candi-
dates name, casting the 81 votes of
for the Nebraskan
Iowa discarded BOies for Bryan. Ar
kansas followed suit, Montana shifted
to the winner, and then senator Turpie,
Of Indiana, arose and proposed that the
nomination of Byran be made unani-
nous Bryan's cross of gold" speech
had captured the convention. He was
beaten at the polls by Mckinley by
S25,SO2 votes.