File:Bulletin - United States National Museum (1966) (20483359536).jpg

Title: Bulletin - United States National Museum
Identifier: bulletinunitedst24145511966unit (find matches)
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: United States National Museum; Smithsonian Institution; United States. Dept. of the Interior
Subjects: Science
Publisher: Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, (etc. ); for sale by the Supt. of Docs. , U. S. Govt Print. Off.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Figure 4.—Political campaigns offered farmers and small-town dwellers a brief period of excitement. The hats of his Nebraska audience, here, suggest the interest which the \oung orator aroused among the common people. (Courtesy .Xebraska Stale Historical Society.) Other political celebrations, such as that held at Minden in early October, were on a more modest scale, but even here the occasion was described as "a big democratic rally and torchlight procession, headed by a band and enthusiastic crowd on the streets." * Much of the political work was carried on by devoted party laborers and candidates who went out to the people, meeting with them in crossroads school- houses or tiny villages, without the excitement of banners and bands and parades. One Democratic candidate for the state legislature from Lancaster County spent so much time stumping the countryside that he was hardly known in Lincoln, the county seat.*" These traveling speakers were, to a consider- able degree, the forgotten heroes of rural politics. Ibid., October 4, 18f Ibid.. October 26, U Many of them hoped for rewards—patronage appoint- ments or help in obtaining local elective offices, but there were never enough rewards to satisfy all the party faithful. While some party inen ser\-ed simply out of loyalty, the recruitment of effective speakers was an endless problem for the party leaders, particu- larly in the Nebraska Democracy, since the party had been perpetually out of oHice. This was the setting of William Jennings Bryan's first political triumphs and his rapid rise to political prominence. Bryan quickly made known his interest in campaigning, and he entered at once into the battle. Once enrolled, his particular combination of talents—as an entertainer, a debater and exhorter, a phrasemaker skilled in the popular idiom, and an in- spirational speaker of great ability—coupled with his tremendous physical endurance, made him one of the indispensable stars in the Nebraska Democratic galaxy. The years of training in local politics at Jacksonville PAPER 46: BRYAN THE C.-\MP.\IGNER 57

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