Cross Of Gold Speech Analysis

William Jennings Bryan delivered this speech on July 9th, 1896. It was known as the “Cross of Gold” speech. He wanted to use silver for the national currency and not just gold. On March 4th ,1895 a few Democrats addressed the ongoing question of “should silver be used as the national currency?” If so, then the people who believed it should needed to form organizations and take charge to make silver the national currency. People are worried that if silver becomes our national currency then they will lose money because silver does not equal up to the amount that gold it worth. They are not just going to ask the richer people or the business man, but they are asking everyone for their opinion. They see everyone as equals. This way, there is poorer people who would vote to use silver as the national currency. He is basically saying that the people who work for a business man could eventually become a business man themselves. They put a strict definition to what a business man is so, now they want to do away with that definition. Anyone could become a business man. He uses a lot more examples than just the business man he also uses farmer, miners, and the merchants at the

McKinley, a republican, who “declared for the maintenance of the gold standard until it should be changed in bimetallism by an international exchange.” Not every country in the world is going to want to use gold and silver as a currency. Jennings brought up this quote because, as I said in the previous paragraph, Jennings did not think every country would want this currency nor would there ever be an international agreement on the currency. Now most people are agreeing with Jennings idea on the international agreement. People who were part of the convention months prior to his speech were saying that the gold standard was the only currency that should be used. The people of the convention are now saying that they are in favor for both metals being used as a