famous Cross of Gold speech. Bryan's nomination for the presidency was seconded by a Massachusetts delegate George Fred Williams, who had bolted to the silver side after becoming a delegate, and was a prominent state intraparty opponent of Russell. Russell received two votes for President on the first ballot. Death and legacy After the 1896 convention, Russell traveled to the Gaspé peninsula of eastern Quebec to escape the summer heat and political pressures. He died quite unexpectedly on the night of his arrival, July 16, 1896, in his sleep, at a camp on the Little Pabos River just north of Sainte-Adelaide-de-Pabos. The cause of death was ruled to be heart failure. Russell was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge; his funeral was attended by President Cleveland. In 1903, the William E. Russell School in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, designed by James Mulcahy, was named in his honor. It still serves as an elementary school in the Boston Public Schools. Notes References External links Descendants of Thomas Hastings website 1857 births 1896 deaths Democratic Party governors of Massachusetts Boston University School of Law alumni Harvard College alumni Mayors of Cambridge, Massachusetts Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery 19th-century American politicians Hasty Pudding alumni Bourbon Democrats