Monday, September 17, 2012 —
Are you are already tired of the presidential campaigns and the barrage of television ads, glad the conventions are over, and dreading the upcoming debates?
Blame it on William Jennings Bryan.
It used to be different. That was before radio, television, and airplanes. It was not so long ago that presidential candidates did very little personal campaigning. Sometimes the candidate stayed at home on his front porch and let his supporters across the country organize for the election.
All that changed in 1896 when William Jennings Bryan secured the nomination of the Democratic Party and mounted a hard-charging national campaign. Until that year a presidential candidate had rarely, if ever, appeared in North Carolina.
But, as Bob Anthony, told me the other day, Bryan whistled stopped through North Carolina for three days in September 1896 making more than 20 stops in “Asheville, Black Mountain, Old Fort, Marion, Morganton, Hickory, Statesville, Mooresville, Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Burlington, Durham, Raleigh, Selma, Goldsboro, Wilson, Rocky Mount, Whitakers, Battleboro, Enfield, Halifax, and Weldon. Longer stops and off the train rallies at Asheville, Hickory, Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Raleigh, Goldsboro, Wilson, and Rocky Mount. Briefer stops, with Bryan often speaking from the rear of the train at the other places. He arrived in Asheville from Knoxville on Sept. 16, and his last stop was at Weldon on his way to Virginia during late afternoon of Sept. 18. In three days in the state, he spoke to crowds that collectively were estimated to have numbered more than 100,000 people.”
If you are tired of full-time campaigns, blame it on Bryan.
Anthony, curator of the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been preparing a talk for a program on important North Carolina political campaigns at the Wilson Library on the UNC campus.
The program will examine campaigns of North Carolinians like William Graham, Zeb Vance, Kerr Scott, Luther Hodges, Jim Holshouser, and Reginald Hawkins, and the Raleigh mayor’s campaign of Isabella Cannon.
How does William Jennings Bryan fit into this pattern?
Anthony says that the three-day, multiple-stop tour in our state was reason enough. Presidential and gubernatorial campaigns have never been the same in North Carolina or the rest of the country.
But there is more. Anthony’s talk is titled “Next to Nebraska: North Carolina and William Jennings Bryan’s 1896 Presidential Campaign.”
Anthony says that Bryan credited support from North Carolina as being, next to his home state of Nebraska, the most important for him in securing his party’s nomination.
Even though Bryan, at age 36, barely met the minimum age requirement to be president, he had several things going for him in our state, according to Anthony.
He was a compelling public speaker who had previously proved his talents with a rousing speech at the Women’s College in Greensboro, where he gained many admirers.
He had made a good friend of Josephus Daniels, the young but influential editor of the Raleigh News & Observer.
He was a pro-farmer advocate who had admirers not only among Democrats, but also among supporters of the Populist Party, which had come to power in the North Carolina legislature in a cooperative or fusion effort with the Republican Party. Many North Carolinians, whatever their political party, agreed with Bryan’s efforts to increase the supply of money by coining more silver and weakening the gold standard.
After his famous “Cross of Gold” convention speech opened the door, Bryan’s North Carolina supporters were poised to help him win the nomination.
Bryan lost the election. But his vigorous effort won in North Carolina and led to earthshaking changes in the state’s political power structure. Bryan’s candidacy drew support from Populists, thereby weakening their fragile partnership with Republicans.
That change led to the 1898 and 1900 White Supremacy campaigns that destroyed the Populists, marginalized the Republicans, and froze African-Americans from the North Carolina political process for most of the 20th Century.
Blame it on Bryan.
Opinion & Letters to the Editor
Related Photos
-
D.G. Martin
Discussion
Blame it on William Jennings Bryan
- Opinion & Letters to the Editor
-
-
Shining stars in a time of darkness
The acts of kindness shown during the aftermath of Thursday night’s storm is a nice sign for humanity.
-
School’s Out!
We took our last exams and then we sent the kids home for the summer. It is a happy day for both students and teachers. It has been a good school year, but it is always good to send the students home for summer vacation. Now we have a couple of days to clean our rooms, turn in our final grades, complete some paperwork and say good bye to our colleagues.
-
Many factors explain current economic situation in China
When I was growing up in the 1950s, China was our political enemy. My uncle, who lived next to my family, had fought the Chinese army in Korea, so nothing positive was said about China during family gatherings.
-
Remembering Our Heroes
Last weekend was Memorial weekend. It was three glorious days away from work. I spent almost every waking minute outside; I was actually still sitting on the front porch at midnight. The days were warm, not too hot, and the nights were cool. I know we won’t get another weekend like this until sometime late in the fall. In my opinion, it was a taste of heaven on earth. I hated to see it end.
-
Harristown News
Friends and Family Day
Spaulding Chapel AME Zion Church will celebrate Friends and Family Day on June 9. -
Remembering the Merritts
If you mention Merritt’s Store anywhere around Chapel Hill, most often you will hear something like, “Oh yes. Best BLTs I’ve ever tasted.”
-
We are Uniquely Made
Earlier this week the seniors at our school had one final hurdle to jump before graduation. They had to present their senior projects before panels of community members. Each room had four adults: the moderator and the three judges. You can be sure the students were quite nervous, but they usually do a great job. If they have practiced and prepared then they should experience success.
-
Ronald McDonald House of benefit to us all
On Tuesday, Stanly County Managers Association members heard a presentation concerning the Ronald McDonald House in Charlotte.
-
Celebrating small businesses and continuing new ways of communicating
Some stories are worth mentioning again.
-
Editorial: Seizure of AP phone records insult to independent press
This amounts to spying on an American news organization -- common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press.
- More Opinion & Letters to the Editor Headlines
-
Shining stars in a time of darkness
