Politician Wm Jennings Bryan as Author

 

"The First Battle" by William Jennings Bryan, pub. 1896

Our small hometown is very fortunate to have a wonderful public library.  During an Open House at the library, I noticed a shelf of books the library was selling to raise funds.  The title, "The First Battle," caught my eye, along with the author's name of W.J. Bryan.  I opened the cover to find a yellowed check-out form with not a single stamp to show that the book had ever been checked out since its acquisition by the library.  Handling it carefully because of its fragile condition, I was amazed to discover a book written by the 1896 presidential candidate of both the Democrats and the People's Party, William Jennings Bryan, and published the same year of that  failed candidacy.  I bought it to add to my research materials of the late 1800s.
 

Preface to Bryan's Book, p. 11

Preface to Bryan's Book, p. 12  



 

                      In an unusual Preface to the book, Bryan's words are presented in his own handwriting.  In part, they read:  "The campaign of 1896 was a remarkable one whether we measure it by the magnitude of the issues involved or by the depth of interest aroused.  I have been led to undertake the present work by a desire, felt by myself and expressed by others, to have the more important incidents of the campaign put into permanent form for the convenience of those who have taken part in the contest and for the use of those who shall hereafter desire to review the struggle.  The amount of work done by the advocates of free coinage is beyond computation and the number of those who took an active part in the contest to [sic] great for enumeration..."  Included in the book are not only texts of speeches and other documents by Bryan but also documents of other men instrumental to the Silver issue, the primary theme of Bryan's 1896 candidacy. 

 

                      In another rather unusual decision, Bryan chose his wife to serve as his biographer, inserting her brief genealogy of his family and following that with her personal biography of her husband's life.  She recorded his birthday of March 19, 1860 and his family's move from Salem, Illinois, to a 500 acre farm outside of town when Bryan was five.  He entered public school at the age of ten and attended there for five years before entering Whipple Academy, the prep school for Illinois College at Jacksonville, IL, where he remained for eight years, acquiring a classical education.  He met his wife, Mary Baird, in September 1879, while they were both students in Jacksonville, (she attending a school for young ladies), and having graduated from college, he entered Union College of Law in Chicago in the fall of 1881.  He began his legal practice on July 4, 1883, and he and Mary wed on October 1, 1884.

 

As for his political biography, he first became interested in politics during his father's Congressional political campaign of 1872, and according to Mary, "...from that time on he always cherished the thoughts of entering public life."  It was the summer of 1887 when legal business took him to Kansas and Iowa, that he made a side trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, and was so impressed with the prairie town that he decided to move to Lincoln and begin a legal practice with a former classmate from law school.  That practice commenced on October 1, 1887, and Bryan immediately became active in Democratic politics in Nebraska.

 

William & Mary's Home

 With his handwritten Preface and his wife's biography having opened the book, Bryan begins his own text with this title to Chapter 1:  "My Connection with the Silver Question Begins."  There is no question that Bryan's political career was built on identifiable issues and skills.  Perhaps foremost was his formidable skill as an orator; without question his principal political issue was Free Silver; and underpinning his reputation was his strong reputation as a Christian man.  His career is bookended by the "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic convention of 1896 that probably led to his selection as the party's presidential candidate (See my blog "The People's Party Urged Silver, July 18, 2013) and it essentially closed with the so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925.

 

Bryan was well known for lacing his oratory with frequent Biblical references and quotations, just as he did in his stirring challenge to the Republicans not to "press down upon the brow of labor a crown of thorns" nor "crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."



Darrow, left, & Bryan, right, at Scopes trial 

It was surely that reputation that influenced his selection as attorney for the state in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes in which Clarence Darrow, the famous defense attorney, was hired to defend school teacher, John Thomas Scopes.  The highly publicized trial became a contest between those who believed the Bible took priority over all human knowledge and those who believed evolution could be reconciled with matters of faith.  The Tennessee law made it illegal for any state-funded school to teach evolution, and with two such famous lawyers representing opposing sides, the trial was covered by newspapers far beyond Dayton, Tennessee.  Bryan won, with Scopes found guilty and fined $100, (although the verdict was overturned); however, Darrow took the unusual tactic of putting Bryan on the witness stand as an expert on the Bible, and Bryan's testimony left him feeling humiliated and exhausted.


Images of Bryan selected for his book

While those two events probably bookend his reputation today, in his own lifetime he was well known for  many distinguished achievements.  Not only was he chosen in 1896 as the presidential candidate of both the Democratic and the People's parties, he was chosen as the Democratic presidential candidate again in both 1900 and 1908.  He was the Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1915), and people were willing to pay to hear him speak to the extent that he supported his family from speaking engagements for many years.  Despite his achievements, Bryan's star was never again so high as during the 1896 presidential election, and many believe that L. Frank Baum's depiction of the Cowardly Lion in the Oz book published in 1900 was intended to caricature and ridicule Bryan.

By the time of the 1896 Presidential election in which Bryan first ran, Isaac was no longer living; however, the Silver issue was the controlling question for the People's Party even before Isaac's death, and there was no greater champion of that issue that William Jennings Bryan.

Remember, you can enlarge the images by clicking on them.

 




Halloween in the Southern Colonies

The American tradition of Halloween did not arrive in New England with the Puritans, whose more rigid religious beliefs rejected the Celtic customs.  It is believed that the origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain as practiced in Ireland and Northern France.  Pronounced "sow-in," the festival was intended to frighten away the ghosts of the dead who returned on the night of October 31st to damage crops and cause trouble.  The Celts wore costumes and built huge bonfires, using embers from the sacred bonfire to relight their extinguished hearth fires, a ritual intended to protect them during the coming winter.

 

The tradition of Halloween in America's earliest years was first practiced in Maryland and other Southern Colonies, where customs of different European ethnic groups merged with Native Americans' customs to create what has become Halloween in the United States.

Birthplace of Woodrow Wilson in Stauton, VA

On Saturday, October 27th, we were in Staunton, Virginia, to visit the birthplace and museum of Woodrow Wilson.  As we reached his birthplace and prepared to buy our tickets, we were invited to join a tour of the lovely town by historical society members Jane and Richard Hicks.  Jane's personal focus on her tours is architecture, although other guides may select their own emphasis, but architecture interested us, and off we went.

So, what does our visit to Woodrow Wilson's birthplace and an architectural tour of  Staunton have to do with Halloween?  Every year the merchants of Staunton, Virginia, carry on the traditions of early southern colonists, perhaps modified for modern times but with their origins in colonial time all the same, and costumed children fill the town's streets going from shop to shop to trick or treat.

I confess, Jane's tour was excellent, but the costumed children were a delightful distraction for me, and I paused many times to photograph the adorable kids in their wonderful costumes!  The name Halloween comes from the Christian holy day of All Saints' Day, which is also known as All Hallows.  Two Christian customs may have also contributed to present-day Halloween traditions.

The custom of baking and sharing soul cakes on All Saints' Day may have evolved into the tradition of trick or treat.  In countries from which colonists immigrated, soul cakes were often given to poor children who went door to door asking for them.  Rather than asking for cake, this darling little elf has her eye on a window filled with tiny candy ducks in a confectioner's window.  

Because it was believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, it came to be believed that All Saints' Eve was the last opportunity for the wandering dead to take revenge on their enemies.  To avoid the vengeance of enemies that had died during the previous year, people wore masks or costumes to disguise their identities.  That custom provides a possible explanation for Halloween costuming.  This young boy's transformation into a tractor is quite an effective disguise!

Isaac Werner had no children, and he does not mention whether the Kansas community where he homesteaded celebrated Halloween.  Neither do I know whether little Tommy Wilson (as Thomas Woodrow Wilson was known in childhood) costumed for Halloween, and perhaps his father, a Presbyterian minister, might not have encouraged that tradition.  However, the present citizens of Wilson's birthplace have a wonderful tradition for the children of Staunton!  Thank you to all the costumed children and their mothers who have allowed me to share their wonderful celebration with my blog visitors.  We fell in love with their beautiful city, set in the Appalachian foothills, with a charming and vital downtown, beautiful architecture, and the birthplace, museum, and gift shop of Woodrow Wilson.

 

It will surprise none of you that the souvenirs I selected in the gift shop were books.  We passed much of the time during our continuing journey reading about the 28th President of the United States, who knew when he was quite young that he had "a very earnest political creed and very pronounced political ambitions" and who vowed with a college friend to "drill ourselves in all the arts of persuasion but especially in oratory...that we might have facility in leading others into our ways of thinking and enlisting them in our purposes."  (Quoted from a letter written by the young Woodrow Wilson)  His path to the Presidency was unusual, achieved not through a succession of political offices but rather through teaching, writing, and becoming the president of Princeton, from which he was recruited to become governor of New Jersey, and then was nominated and elected to two terms as President of the United States.  He served from 1913 to 1921, including throughout the years of our involvement in World War I. 

 

Woodrow Wilson retired from the presidency to a home in Washington, D.C., but I suspect had I been in his place, I might have returned to the beautiful Virginia hometown of his birth.