PULL FOR YOUR CANDIDATE 



Figure i6 and 17. — Two Bryan campaign novelties from the campaign uf 

 1896 that are in a lighter vein. By campaigning three times for the Presi- 

 dency, Bryan had a substantial impact upon the practice of presidential 

 campaigning, increasing the role of the candidate himself. (.Smithsonian 

 photos 48191-P and 49455, Becker collection.) 



The Efforts Assayed 



Bryan's campaign style grew out of his evangelical 

 religious background, his genuine commitment to 

 popular democracy, and his years of political ex- 

 perience. In practice, Bryan relied upon his re- 

 markable voice to enunciate the popular idiom, his 

 personal dynamism and friendliness, and his tre- 

 mendous physical endurance to reach people through- 

 out the county, the congressional district, the State, 

 or the Nation. The pattern had been established 

 by 1890, and it remained essentially the same through 

 all three of Bryan's presidential contests. 



At the same time that they brought him power 

 and glory, Bryan's campaign methods deceived him: 

 many of the people who gathered to listen and cheer 

 were only curious, not converted. It is probable 

 that Bryan's apparent personal success with the 

 crowds discouraged the building of a strong and 

 effective political machine for his support. His 

 insistence on a single type of campaign brought a 

 relatively high degree of inflexibility to his efforts: 

 the personal, "folksy," evangelical campaign was 

 not necessarily suitable for all occasions and in all 

 localities. In certain parts of the East, Bryan 

 impressed his opponents with his limitations — his 

 lack of sophistication, the superficiality of his learning, 

 and his apparent dcmagoguery. 



Bryan's presidential campaigns had important con- 

 sequences for other aspirants to the highest office. No 



candidate could afford to ignore the precedents set by 

 his three great efforts; no longer could presidential 

 nominees rely on the dignity of the office to protect 

 them from involvement in campaigning. Bryan was 

 one of the first politicians to take serious advantage 

 of the national transportation network. To a con- 

 siderable degree, he raised the level of campaigning 

 by moving the candidate into the spotlight, where 

 mudslinging and backroom maneuvering were less 

 appropriate than they had been when candidates 

 stayed out of the public view; and it is perhaps 

 significant that Bryan's appearance on the national 

 political scene coincided with an aggressive drive 

 to clean up politics on all le\els — the progressive 

 era.'"" Bryan's personal style of campaigning 

 struck a deathblow at the gadgets and pageantry 

 which seemed to dominate American politics during 

 the 1880's. His emphasis during the campaign on his 

 own personality and on certain basic issues continued 

 in the campaigns of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow 

 Wilson and still later during the 1930's, 1940's and 

 1950's. There is little doubt that the concentration 



I™ To some extent Bryan was a bridge between the earlier 

 period of agricultural discontent, with its Populism and evange- 

 lism, and the more broadly based Progressive movement. 

 Bryan represented Progressive principles in his drive to purify 

 politics, to bring ethics into practice in public affairs. Many of 

 the specific proposals of his platforms were embodied in 

 Progressive legislative prograins. Free silver was not one of 

 them. 



78 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



