Semi-weekly herald., 1912-07-01

r.
struments were fake.
The news, however, was later con-
frmed by mail, and in the election fol-
lowing, Polk swept his party to VIC
tory.
Another historic case of dark
horse" winning the Democratic no'ni
nation occurred in 1896, when William
Jennings Bryan, "'rhe Boy Orator of
the Platte" made his famous ''crown
of thorns and cross of gold" speech.
sweeping the convention off its feet
by his eloquence and winning the nom
ination hands down on the fifth bal
lot. This was probably the most dra-
matte example of convention stam-
peding in the history of either party
When the Democratic national con
vention met in Chicago on July 7,
1896, for the purpose of nominating
candidate for president CT the Unit
ed States, pledged to the cause Of
free silver. 1t seemed inevitable, there
fore, that Richard p. Bland Of Mis-
souri,, familiarly known as "Silver
Dick" Bland, because of his advocacy
of the free silver doctrine, would be
the Democratic nominee. For twenty
years Bland had worked for the cause
| of free silver, teaching his tenets
throughout the country till he was
regarded in many quarters as the fu-
ture political saviour of the people.
By all the laws of logic, therefore,
he should have been the man chosen
to head the party ticket.
Bland had been proposed as the
Democratic nominee by "Pitchfork"
Ben Tillman of South Carolina. Till
mans nominating speech had been
a vitriolic denunciation of thc minor
ity of gold Democrats and had stirred
even the friends of free silver to
J such a pitch of indignation that the
delegates met his words with a storm
of Kisses and catcals. Then came Sen
free silver platform. 1t has been said
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.
silver advocate of Bryan's eloquence.
Tillman's speech had thrown the cor
vention into an uproar and had Gre
ated dissension among the free silver
men, while Hills address had brought
joy to the gold minority and had
heightened the dissatisfaction in the
free silver ranks. 1t was at this mo-
ment that William Jennings Bryan,
then a young man of SO, arose to ad-
dress the delegates. He said
"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of
the convention. | would be presump-
tious, indeed, to present myself
against the distinguished gentlemen to
whom you have listened, if this were
but measuring of ability, but this is
not contest among persons. The
humblest citizen in all the land when
clad in the armor of righteous cause
is stronger than all the whole hosts of
error that they can bring. | come to
speak to you in defense of cause as
holy as the cause of liberty-the cause
of humanity"
Iryans speech was short, occupy
ing scarcely 5000 words, and dur
iTg it he dwelt upon glittering gen
eralities in his advocacy of free silver
lie closed his masterpiece of eloqucnce
with these ringing metaphors, "You
shall not press down upon the brow
of labor this crown of thorns. You
shall net cruelty mankind upon this
cross Of gold"
With this singing admonition ring
ing in their ears, the delegates began
the ballot. There were 76S delegates
voting AID under the two-thirds rule,
Jl2 votes were necessary For nomi-
natl, Ii. j. T. Hill of Georgia, the
youngest delegate on the floor, who
was only 81 years old, secured the
services of Tai T. Lewis of Georgia
to riece Mr. Bryan in nomination and
en- the first roll call Georgia was the
first state to cast its vote for Tie BOY
orator.
When the votes on the first ballot
mad been cast, it was seen that "Sil-
yer Dick" Bland led with 235. Bryan
came next with 119. Robert E. Pat
tison of Pennsylvania was third with
95 and Horace Boies of Iowa was
fourth with So. Joe Blackburn of |
Kentucky got SO and the wealthy John
r. Mclean of Ohio 81.
On the second ballot Bland got 2S3, |
Bryan 100.
On the third ballot Bland received |
291, Bryan 219.
On the fourth ballot Bland at last |
fell behind He got 241 votes, while
Bryan drew $50.
On the fifth ballot the landslide be-
gan. John r. Mclean withdrew his
name and cast the 46 votes of the
Ohio delegation solidly for Bryan, and
Governor Stone, the champion for
Bland, strobe to the platform and
his candidates name, cast
ing the "a votes of Missouri for the
Nebraskan.