William Jennings Bryan. Harvey Ellsworth Newbranch
1881, William Jennings Bryan entered the Union College of Law at Chicago. Out of school hours his time was spent in the office of ex-Senator Lyman Trumbull, who had been a great friend of young Bryan’s father. His vacation and summer months were spent on the farm, and it was these years of rugged, outdoor life which gave to his manhood that vigor, stability, and splendid physique so helpful to him in his life as a student and in his work since he has left college.
Mr. Bryan stood well in the law school, taking an especial interest in constitutional law. He was also connected with the debating society of the college and took an active part in its meetings.
At the age of twenty-three Mr. Bryan finished a collegiate course and started in life for himself, leaving the farm, robust and ambitious, to grow in the knowledge of his profession. His parents were devout Christians and members of the Baptist Church. So Mr. Bryan was early taught those principles of right and wrong, justice, equality, and the advantages of a pure life. His father’s example convinced him that the old saying that “no honest man can become a lawyer” was a myth and a mistake. And on July 4, 1883, William Jennings Bryan began the practice of his profession in Jacksonville, Ill.
Stocked with a liberal education, a conscience void of offense, a character unsullied, and an ambition to know the law, and to apply this knowledge for the benefit of the people, he began at the very bottom of the ladder. The drudgery and disappointments, the hardships and jokes common to a beginner without means and alone, in competition with men of gray hairs and wisdom that come from years of toil and practice, was the portion of Mr. Bryan. But he was a courageous man; Napoleon-like he knew no such word as fail, and with that force and enthusiasm so characteristic of the man, he labored on, believing that each disappointment contained its lesson, and that every hardship endured had its counterpart in a triumph. His early practice was not unlike that of other beginners, taking such cases as usually come to the young lawyer.
At the close of the first year, and during the fall of 1884, his income was such that he could support a wife; a modest home was planned and built, and in October, 1884, he was married. During the next three years he lived comfortably, though economically, and laid by a small amount. Politics lost none of its charms, and each campaign found Mr. Bryan speaking, usually in his own county.
Three years after graduation he attended the commencement at Illinois College, delivered the Master’s oration, and received the degree, his subject being “American Citizenship.” From that time until he entered Congress in 1891, his only support for himself and his wife was from his profession. Mr. Bryan continued in a growing practice of law in Jacksonville until October, 1887. In July of that year, while on a western trip, he passed through Lincoln, Neb., to visit friends, and in two days was so impressed with the city and its possibilities that he disposed of his business in Jacksonville, and located in Lincoln. Political ambitions did not enter into this change, as the city, county, and state were strongly Republican. Mr. Bryan began his lot as a lawyer in Lincoln by forming a partnership, the style of the firm being “Talbot & Bryan.” He at once applied himself vigorously to the details of the practice in his new field, and was soon recognized as a lawyer of unusual strength.
In the few years of practice at the bar of Lincoln before he was elected to Congress, Mr. Bryan became somewhat celebrated as the champion of the anti-sugar-bounty doctrine, and as the pleader for equal rights, under the law, for all classes of men. In the spring of 1896, the city proposed to issue $500,000 of its refunding bonds in gold. A number of citizens believing such a contract unjust to the tax-payers, consulted Mr. Bryan and secured his services in their behalf. Without compensation, he at once devoted his energies to restrain the city of Lincoln from issuing and selling such bonds. A temporary restraining order was issued by the court, and after a vigorous contest an injunction against the city, preventing such contract, was granted. In these cases was shown Mr. Bryan’s genuine interest in public matters, and in the general welfare of the people. Aside from many of these cases involving public interest, his work as a lawyer was the usual practice of the profession.
Mr. Bryan is a man of great physical endurance. As a lawyer as well as a legislator, he is a man of great deliberation. Before acting, he believes in being fully advised as to the subject upon which he is to act. He was never known to champion a cause, accept a case, or make a statement to a jury or elsewhere that did not present the honest conviction of his mind, always having a sincere belief in the correctness of the position assumed. In explaining a proposition of law, he seeks the reason for the law, which he is always able to present with peculiar clearness.
In his method of argument he is never emotional, but makes strong applications of law and fact by the statement of his case and proof, without any effort at embellishment or oratory. His ability to crowd a great deal in a few words and sentences is very marked. The weakness of his opponents he easily detects, and readily points out the fallacy. Mr. Bryan is an ardent believer in the American jury system. When in Congress, he introduced a bill providing that a verdict agreed to by three-fourths of the members of a jury should be a verdict of the jury in civil cases, and he made an argument before the Congressional Judiciary Committee in its support.
“Mr. Bryan did not distinguish himself as a lawyer.” Those who thus complain should consider that he entered the practice at the age of twenty-three, and left it at thirty, and in that period began twice, and twice became more than self-supporting. He has not had the time and opportunity in which to establish the reputation at the bar which gives to many American jurists the illustrious positions which they occupy. However, at the time of his election to Congress, his practice was in a thriving condition and fully equal to that of any man of his age in the city.
Whatever may be said of Mr. Bryan by friend or foe, it must be conceded that his convictions control his actions on all questions, either as a lawyer or as a public man, and when employed in a case involving great interests, he would, without question, acquit himself with that distinction which has characterized him as a leader in public affairs.
IN CONGRESS
Mr. Bryan’s first political speech of importance was made at Seward in the spring of 1888. At that time Lincoln was known to be as strong as the rock of Gibraltar in the Republican faith. On this occasion of his first public appearance as a political orator in Nebraska, he drew men to him by the power of the orator, and held them there in subsequent years by the virtue of the man. His extraordinary popularity with the masses of his followers was universally acknowledged. After his first few speeches, it did not take long for his reputation to spread over the state, and when he was elected as a delegate from Lancaster county to the Democratic State convention in 1888 he was in great demand. The sources of this popularity, though less clear, were of profound significance, being only in part personal. In fact, it seemed to be this man’s fortune to embody a fresh democratic impulse, which in time would make him the leader of a new democratic movement.
The reports as to Mr. Bryan’s first speech in the convention, say in part: “Mr. Bryan, of Lancaster county, was then called. He came forward and delivered a spirited address, in the course of which he said that if the platform laid down by the President in his message upon the tariff question were carried out and vigorously fought upon in the state, it would, in the course of a short time, give Nebraska to the Democracy. He thought if the Democrats went out to the farmers and people who lived in Nebraska and showed them the iniquity of the tariff system, they would rally round the cause which their noble leader, Grover Cleveland, had championed.” This short, but pointed speech created the greatest amount of enthusiasm, and the young orator impressed his personality upon the public mind of his adopted state.
In the fall of 1888, Mr. Bryan made a canvass of the First Congressional District, in behalf of Hon. J. Sterling Morton, and also visited some thirty counties throughout the state. Mr. Morton was defeated by three thousand four hundred, the district being normally Republican.
When the campaign of 1890 opened, a few Democrats who came to appreciate Mr. Bryan’s real ability believed that with him as the nominee the Republicans could be defeated. So when the Democratic convention met at Lincoln, July 31, 1890, Mr. Bryan was selected without opposition, and at once began