emerged as the principal participant, diminishing the 

 importance of political gadgets, parades, and celebra- 

 tions, and preparing the way for the now familiar 

 20th-century presidential contests. 



At a time when candidates were not expected to 

 show any strong desire for the high office, Bryan set 

 out on an unprecedented national tour. With limited 

 support from his divided party, and with very meager 

 finances at his disposal, Bryan strove almost single- 

 handedly in an intensely personal effort to dramatize 

 himself and his issue. To defeat Bryan's unusual 

 tactics, William McKinley, Bryan's first opponent, 

 could not avoid participating actively in the contest, 

 although he did not tour the country. Bryan's 

 repetition of his personal campaigning in 1900 and in 

 1908 solidified the pattern and induced Theodore 

 Roosevelt and William Howard Taft to conduct 

 intensive tours of their own. By 1912, when he was no 

 longer in the presidential race, Bryan's influence had, 

 to a considerable degree, produced a significant 

 change in the pattern of presidential office seeking. 

 No longer could the candidate sit idly by, waiting for 

 the returns to come in. Since Bryan's time, custom 

 has dictated that the candidate lead the contest in his 

 own behalf. By focusing public attention upon him- 

 self, Bryan had prepared the way for the present era, 

 in which radio and television have become the natural 

 means of exalting presidential aspirants. 



It may be argued that Bryan's political apprentice- 

 ship was divided into two periods. During the first 

 period, which ended after the election of 1890, he 

 acquired his campaign style. Drawing upon his 

 experience in the local Democratic politics of Jackson- 

 ville, Illinois, he perfected his own style of campaign- 

 ing, and by November of 1890, at the age of 30, he 

 had established the pattern which would carry him 

 through 20 years of active politics and three presi- 

 dential contests. Basing his campaigns on a dedi- 

 cation to democratic principles, influenced by 

 evangelical revivalism, and nourished upon the 

 traditional techniques of oratory he had learned so 

 well, Bryan was ready to carry his message to the 

 nation. During the second period of his political 

 apprenticeship, which lasted from his entrance into 

 the House of Representatives in 1891 until after the 

 election of 1894, Bryan solidified and perfected his 

 already familiar power, endeavored to establish a 

 national reputation, and gained important experience 

 in the arts of political organizing. During this period, 

 he operated in several different arenas: the House 



of Representatives, Nebraska politics, and the nation 

 as a whole. - 



For more than a dozen years before the campaign 

 of 1896, Bryan's own particular style of politics had 

 been ripening. The 1880's, when Bryan served his 

 political apprenticeship, were a golden age of political 

 enthusiasm. Party loyalty and fervor were main- 

 tained through an immense network of organizations, 

 political views were circulated by means of gadgets 

 with campaign slogans, group activities; and the 

 American scene was enlivened during election years 

 by extraordinary celebrations, parades, demonstra- 

 tions, and mammoth feasts of victuals and oratory. 

 The noise, the mass behavior, and the novelties were 

 colorful and exciting, and they contributed to political 

 communication in a pre-electronic era, but they 

 meant very little in terms of providing a meaningful 

 choice to the electorate. The hullabaloo of politics 

 in the 1880's tended to avoid or obscure real issues 

 by creating and reinforcing public excitement with 

 procedures and gadgetry. 



Bryan's campaign techniques moved away from the 

 preoccupation with gadgets and organizations, toward 

 a more personal relationship between the candidate 

 and the electorate. Replacing with his own effective 

 rhetoric the varied stimuli offered by the mechanical 

 campaign contrivances available during the 1880's, 

 Bryan depended upon his voice, his message, and his 

 own personal dynamism for his influence over the 

 public. In a limited sense, he was the first "modern" 

 presidential candidate, emphasizing as he did the need 



- Only recently have scholars begun to give serious attention 

 to Bryan's career, his accomplishments, and his contributions 

 to American politics. Paxton Hibben's biography of Bryan, 

 The Peerless Leader: William Jennings Bryan (New York, 1929), 

 is a debunking volume, accepting whatever evidence tended to 

 diminish the Commoner's stature. As recently as 1948, Pro- 

 fessor RiCH.ARD HoFST.^DTER, in The American Political Tradition 

 and the Men Who Made It (New York: Vintage, 1955), p. 205, 

 dismissed Bryan as a confused and stupid man, a mirror of the 

 lowest level of the popular intelligence. "He [Bryan] closed 

 his career in much the same role as he had begun it in 1896: 

 a provincial politician following a provincial populace in pro- 

 vincial prejudices." Bryan's historical reputation is beginning 

 to shift, however, as shown by the publication of Paul \V. 

 Glad's recent volume. The Trumpet Soundeth: William Jennings 

 Bryan and His Democracy, 7896-7972 (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1960), 

 a sensitive and sympathetic interpretation of Bryan as a son of 

 the Middle Border. The series of carefully documented articles 

 on Bryan's career by Professor Paolo E. Coletta, appearing 

 since 1949, bears promise of a serious definitive biography to 

 come. 



48 



BULLETIN 24 i: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



