UXITKi) STATKS <>F AMKUICA. 





third rule in operation. 



following result : 



The fifth ballot gave the 



Ohio changed from McLean to Bryan during the ballot. 

 Oklahoma changed from Bland to Bryan. Hill received 1 

 vote from Massachusetts, and Turpie "l vote from Wiscon- 

 sin. Changes were made after the ballot was announced, 

 giving Bryan more than the 512 necessary votes. 



There were 5 ballots for a candidate for Vice-President. 

 On the fourth ballot McLean. Ohio, received 296: Sewall. 

 Maine. 262: Daniel. Virginia. 54: Clark. North Carolina. 46; 

 Williams. Massachusetts. Ill; Harrity. Pennsylvania. 11: 

 Pattison. Pennsylvania, 1: not voting. 252. No" record was 

 kept of the fifth" ballot, but the nomination was made unani- 

 mous. 



From the table it may be noted that the States 

 not voting (wholly or in part) were: Connecticut. 

 Delaware. Maine. Maryland. Massachusetts. Minne- 

 sota. New Hampshire. Xew Jersey. Xew York. 

 Rhode Island. Vermont. Wisconsin. Of these. Xew 

 York was the only State retaining a solid delega- 

 tion against platform and candidates. 



William Jennings Bryan was horn in Salem. 

 Marion County. 111.." March 19. 1860. His father 

 was Silas L. Bryan, a lawyer of high standing, who 

 had served eight years in the Illinois Senate and 

 was afterward a circuit judge. The family came 

 originally from Virginia. The son spent his early 

 life on his father's farm, on the outskirts of Salem, 

 went to the public schools, prepared for college in 

 the Whipple Academy, at Jacksonville. 111., and at 

 the age of seventeen entered Illinois College, in that 

 town. He was a good student, and graduated with 

 honors in 1881, appearing at commencement as the 

 orator of his class, a position that he had earned by 

 gaining the second prize in an intercollegiate ora- 



torical coiit.-st hej.i urg while h.- \ 



senior. He immediately began tl>. 

 law, eiiterin:: Judge Lyman TrumbuH'- 

 Chicago, and at tin- same time pursuing 

 of the Union Law College. He began his j,; 

 sional career in Jacksonville, and a year later : 

 ried Mary K. Baird. the only daughter of a 

 perous merchant of Perry. 111. The mar 

 the result of an attachment that had sprm._ 

 when he was a student in coll,-,, and the \ 

 woman a student also in the seminary at Ja< - 

 vjlle. In 188? the young couple removed to Lincoln. 

 Xeb.. where he formed a partnership with a la 

 named Talbot and opened a law office in the autumn 

 of that year. Mrs. Bryan took up the study of the 

 law after the birth of the first of her three children, 

 was admitted to the bar, and gave ellicient aid to 

 her husband in his law practice. In May. 1888, 

 Bryan was elected a delegate to the Democratic 



WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. 



State Convention that met at Omaha to elect dele- 

 gates for the national convention at St. Louis. Be- 

 ing invited to make a speech at the convention, he 

 electrified his colleagues with a brilliant exposition 

 of the doctrine of tariff for revenue only, gaining 

 thereby a reputation throughout the State for ora- 

 torical ability and political knowledge. In the fol- 

 lowing year the Democratic leaders of the State 

 offered to the young and hitherto unknown lawyer 

 the nomination for Lieutenant Governor, which he 

 declined. He took an active part, however, in the 

 campaign, making speeches in all parts of Xebraska. 

 A year later, in 1890. the younger element of the 

 Democrats of his district, which had elected a 

 Democratic candidate by ?,000 majority in 

 and in 1888 had suffered a severe reverse. J. Ster- 

 ling Morton being defeated by his Republican oppo- 

 nent by a majority of 3,000. made Bryan the party 

 candidate for Congress. Mr. Bryan accepted the 

 nomination, and though ridiculed as an inexperi- 

 enced boy by the Democrats of the rival city of 

 Omaha and neglected by the party managers, who 

 took no interest in the contest, regarding it as hope- 

 less, and supplied no funds, he made a vigorous 



