Bryan
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Bryan. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
William Jennings, an American statesman and political leader. He was born at Salem, Illinois, March 19, 1860. He was graduated at Jacksonville, 1881, and at the Union College of Law, Chicago, 1883. After four years of practice at Jacksonville he removed to Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1890 he was elected to Congress where he served four years. On his retirement from Congress Mr. Bryan acted as editor of the Omaha World-Herald. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1896. He electrified the convention by an address in which he said: "No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetalism is good, but we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply, that instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetalism, and then let England have bimetalism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." He was nominated for the presidency on a free silver platform and carried on a remarkable train-end and platform campaign. He was defeated by William McKinley. In 1900 he ran again, but was defeated by Mr. McKinley a second time. Mr. Bryan improved an interval of rest by taking a trip around the world. He wrote articles for a syndicate of newspapers and, on his return, he accepted extensive platform engagements. In 1908 Mr. Bryan ran for the presidency a third time, and was defeated by William Taft. In 1900 he established The Commoner, a political weekly devoted to the interests of the common people, as Mr. Bryan interprets those interests. Mr. Bryan's career has many points in common with that of Henry Clay. He is a ready speaker. None doubt his integrity of purpose.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM JENNINGS, an American political leader, born in Salem, WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN Ill., March 19, 1860. He was graduated at Illinois College in 1881, preparing subsequently for the bar at Union College, Chicago. In 1887 he removed to Lincoln, Neb., and was elected to Congress in 1890, and again in 1892. Four years later he was nominated for the WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT Presidency of the United States by the Democratic National Convention at Chicago. He advocated the free and unlimited coinage of silver by the United States at a ratio of 16 to 1, regardless of the action of other nations. The Presidential campaign resulted in his defeat. During the war with Spain, he became Colonel of a regiment of volunteers, but saw no field service. In 1900, he again appeared as Democratic candidate for the Presidency upon a platform of free silver, opposition to trusts, and antiimperialism, and was again defeated by William McKinley. He made a tour of the world in 1906. In 1908 he was defeated for the Presidency by William H. Taft. He was appointed Secretary of State by President Wilson, March 4, 1913, and resigned Jan. 9, 1915. While in office he negotiated treaties with 30 nations. After resigning, devoted himself to lecturing. He took no active part in politics until the Democratic Convention of 1920, when he fought for the insertion of a prohibition plank in the platform. In this he failed. Publications: "Under Other Flags" (1904); "The Old World and Its Ways" (1907).
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account leaves Bryan as a thrice-defeated candidate of "integrity of purpose," and Collier's in 1921 stops with his failed fight for a prohibition plank — Collier's also misdates his resignation as Secretary of State, which came on June 9, 1915, in protest at Wilson's second Lusitania note. What neither could know is the ending: in July 1925 Bryan went to Dayton, Tennessee, to help prosecute John Scopes for teaching evolution, was cross-examined on the Bible by Clarence Darrow, and died in his sleep on July 26, five days after the verdict. The monetary question that made him famous is settled against him in one sense and for him in another: no one now argues over silver at 16 to 1, but the United States abandoned the domestic gold standard in 1933 and the last link to gold in 1971. Historians today treat him less as a Henry Clay than as a forerunner of the New Deal — the income tax, direct election of senators and popular reform planks he carried in defeat mostly became law.
Written for this edition, 2026.