On July 9th 1896, William Jennings Bryan gave his Cross of Gold Speech at the Democratic Convention. Bryan began his speech by appreciating the American Worker, and how much they have done to keep the country going. Bryan, a "Silver Democrat" believed the way to fix the hurting economy was to replace the money system with silver instead of gold, because of it's availability. This was not only going to help the economy, but the average American farmer as well. Jennings emphasized that doing this would help all Americans that were hurting because of the overtake of big business. And this was important because it would help a majority of the population, instead of the "1 per-centers" that ran the businesses. With this change in standard, farmers would easily be able to pay off their debts because silver is 1/16th of the price of gold. Bryan also said to benefit the people, an income tax must be emplaced. Bryan ends his speech by saying, "You shall not crucify a man upon a cross of gold."
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