to praise the administration of the Democratic President, Cleveland.  When the platform with its radical planks, including free silver, was reported, a veritable storm broke.  Senator Hill, trembling with emotion, protested against the departure from old tests of Democratic allegiance; against principles that must drive out of the party men who had grown gray in its service; against revolutionary, unwise, and unprecedented steps in the history of the party.  Senator Vilas of Wisconsin, in great fervor, avowed that there was no difference in principle between the free coinage of silver—­“the confiscation of one-half of the credits of the nation for the benefit of debtors”—­and communism itself—­“a universal distribution of property.”  In the triumph of that cause he saw the beginning of “the overthrow of all law, all justice, all security and repose in the social order.”

[Illustration:  Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.

WILLIAM J. BRYAN IN 1898]

=The Crown of Thorns Speech.=—­The champions of free silver replied in strident tones.  They accused the gold advocates of being the aggressors who had assailed the labor and the homes of the people.  William Jennings Bryan, of Nebraska, voiced their sentiments in a memorable oration.  He declared that their cause “was as holy as the cause of liberty—­the cause of humanity.”  He exclaimed that the contest was between the idle holders of idle capital and the toiling millions.  Then he named those for whom he spoke—­the wage-earner, the country lawyer, the small merchant, the farmer, and the miner.  “The man who is employed for wages is as much a business man as his employer.  The attorney in a country town is as much a business man as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis.  The merchant at the cross roads store is as much a business man as the merchant of New York.  The farmer ... is as much a business man as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain.  The miners who go a thousand feet into the earth or climb two thousand feet upon the cliffs ... are as much business men as the few financial magnates who in a back room corner the money of the world....  It is for these that we speak.  We do not come as aggressors.  Ours is not a war of conquest.  We are fighting in defense of our homes, our families, and our posterity.  We have petitioned and our petitions have been scorned.  We have entreated and our entreaties have been disregarded.  We have begged and they have mocked when our calamity came.  We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more.  We defy them....  We shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, ’You shall not press upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns.  You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.’”