186O-1925
Democratic Presidential Candidate, 1896, 1900, 1908
Secretary of State, 1913-1915

"The Great Commoner."

Best known for his three unsuccessful campaigns for the presidency of the United States (1896, 1900, and 1908), for his tireless advocacy of the rights of the "common man," and for his participation in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial in 1925, William Jennings Bryan is also notable for his exemplary leadership of the faltering Democratic Party during the first decade of the twentieth century.

Background.

Born in Salem, Illinois, on 19 March 1860, Bryan inherited from his parents a fervent Protestant faith and an intense commitment to the Democratic Party. After earning an A.B. (1881) and an A.M. (1884) at Illinois College and a law degree from Union Law School in 1883, he married Mary Elizabeth Baird in 1884. In 1887, seeing no political future for himself in Illinois, he set up a law practice in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1890, when the new Populist Party...