HAPP 17

William Jennigns Bryan

H:This time saw the resistance of small businesses and workers to the potentially exploitative practices of business magnates. This led to the rise of the People’s Party and the changing in views of the Democratic party to one that outright supported the workers and small businesses over big companies.

A - The target audience of this document, during the election year, is those within the Democratic party who were on the fence or opposed to the ideals that align with the People’s party, as convincing them would allow for a bigger chance to have a nomination that would support the author’s political views.

Three Pieces of Specific Factual Information:

• During this time, farmers formed labor movements to protect their ability to make a sustainable living. This relates to the document because those ideas set forth by the labor movements partially contributed to the motivations behind this document.

• During this time, the railroad business, partially because of attempts to make up for losses elsewhere, had driven up the prices for farmers to use their services to transport goods. As a result, farmers felt as if they were being exploited.

• The stock market crashed in 1893, which led to many businesses to go into bankruptcy. This depression caused farmers to be unable to make money off of crops. The attempt to counteract this partially led to the formation of the ideas that motivated the creation of this document.

Author and Time Period

• Many Democrats and Populists liked Bryan, hence, he became the Democratic nominee for president. His ideals mostly matched up with those in the Democratic and the Populist party. During this time there was a lot of division amongst the Democrats: gold democrats and pro-silver democrats, however, through Bryan they were able to set aside their differences and vote him as their Democratic nominee.