both roles coincide, and the President serves the best 

 interests of his partisan followers by serving the people 

 as a whole. William Jennings Bryan did not com- 

 bine these features ideally; perhaps his weaknesses in 

 the area of political organization cost him the Presi- 

 dency. Nevertheless, he asserted personal leadership 

 of the National Democratic Party, and he insisted that 

 the candidate should be responsible to the electorate. 

 In practice, the Bryan campaign technique performed 

 both of these functions, gaining for him the position 

 of national party leader and providing a direct con- 

 nection between the leader and the Nation as a whole. 

 And the Presidents during the 20th century who have 

 seemingly been most effective in the role of voice of the 

 people have campaigned aggressively and person- 

 ally, just as Bryan did. The fact that they went out 

 to the people, courting public favor during their 

 drives for the highest office, apparently created a 

 relationship of responsibility between candidates and 

 people which pre-Bryan candidates, for the most 

 part, did not have. The personal campaign has 

 become an essential ingredient of 20th-century presi- 

 dential leadership. Thus, Bryan's campaign style has 

 played a significant role in the development of the 

 modern Presidency. 



The questions remain: were Bryan's innovations 

 significant for the technique of presidential campaign- 

 ing? Were the changes which he introduced of great 

 magnitude or were they relatively minor? Was 

 Bryan a major inventor; were his campaign techniques 

 original or did he borrow and adapt methods de- 

 veloped by others? These questions can never be 

 answered absolutely, yet they are important questions 

 for any final judgment of Bryan and his contribu- 

 tion to .American politics and presidential campaign- 

 ing. Bryan adopted the traditional techniques of 

 stump speaking and local area canvassing which were 

 common in the rural Midwest, but he added his own 

 special physical equipment — an extraordinary power- 

 ful yet melodious voice and a tremendously energetic 

 body. Coupled with his physique were Bryan's com- 

 mitments to evangelical morality and direct democ- 

 racy, ideas which had grown out of his Midwestern 

 upbringing. Neither his physical nor his intellectual 

 storehouses were unique, yet he fused the two in a new 

 synthesis which became known to some as "Bryanism." 



Figure 19. — Bryan campaign song emphasizing 

 the youth and the western origin of the candi- 

 date. (Smithsonian photo 49346-C, Becker 

 collection.) 



Bryan did not invent his campaign techniques inde- 

 pendently, but he did adapt already existing campaign 

 patterns in a unique fashion to the presidential contest. 

 In this sense, he was an innovator and his contribu- 

 tions were totally new. And judging by the effect 

 that his aggressive personal campaign style has had 

 upon the presidential battlefield itself, and, more 

 fundamentally, upon the Presidency, it must be con- 

 cluded that the campaign techniques of William 

 Jennings Bryan have been, indeed, a significant inno- 

 vation in American politics. Although he never 

 achieved his highest political ambitions, Bryan 

 changed American politics in a significant manner. 

 He did not accomplish the change singlehandedly, 

 but more than any other single person he is responsi- 

 ble for the prevalence of the personal campaign in 

 presidential politics. 



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