BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS (1860—). An American politician, born in Salem, III. He graduated at Illinois College in 1881, and at the Union College of Law, in Chicago, in 1883, and practiced law in Jacksonville, Ill., until 1887, when he removed to Lincoln, Neb. From 1891 to 1895 he was a member of Congress. Ile at tracted attention as a public speaker soon after beginning the practice of the law, and in Congress he made several effective speeches on free trade. In 1893. and again in 1894, he sought unsuccess fully to secure an election to the United States Senate. lle was the editor of the Omaha World, Herald from 1894 to 1896. and made many speeches oil free silver throughout the Mississippi Valley. An eloquent speech against the gold standard, \ vhiell he delivered in the Democratic National Convention of 1896, brought him the nomination for President, and soon afterwards he received the Populist nomination also. He canvassed much of the country in person.
traveling more than 18,000 miles, and snaking numerous speeches. but was defeated by Mc Kinley by an electoral vote of 271 to 176. Dur ing the next four years, except for a short time in 1898, when he served as a colonel of volun teers in the Spanish-American War, he devoted himself assiduously to preaching the gospel of free silver and opposing trusts and im perialism. In 1900 he was again nominated for the Presidency, this time by the Silver Re publicans in addition to the Democrats and the Populists. He again made an active personal canvass, but was again defeated by McKinley. the electoral vote being 292 to 155. Soon after the Presidential campaign of that year he estab lished a weekly periodical, The Commoner, which he has since edited. Ile has published The First Battle: A Story of the Campaign of 1896 (1896), which also contains some of his speeches and a biographical sketch by his wife.