Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Kemosabe, invoking the rhetoric of Williams Genning Bryan does NOT earn you a lifeline. It's the speech of an era long past, fortunately, when people had a couple of hours to burn standing and listening to wind-bags championing fortune and the main chance and conventions were held in places like Kansas City with no air conditioning. I'd have to vote this as a leaky backwater of American history rather than a main branch, myself. Adam On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 08:51:53 -0700, Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> wrote: > If you guys are going to make fun of the phrase "Free Silver" you should > at least learn enough U.S. History to know where it comes from. > > Having watched the US Presidential debates last night, I long for the era > of riveting public speakers. One of the most mesmerizing speakers in U.S. > history was William Jennings Bryan, a fervent populist. He gave this > speech to the 1896 Democratic National Convention, during which "free > silver" was THE issue of contention. > > http://douglassarchives.org/brya_a26.htm > > The history books say that Bryan got 30 minutes of standing ovation after > giving that speech. Here is a good watercolor of the era, including a > photograph of him speaking, in this page maintained by the historical > society of his home state of Nebraska: > > http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/stories/0601_0304.html > > If you go to this website and select the 1896 Democratic Party platform: > http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php > you'll be able to divine what the "free silver" issue was all about. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >