Bryan had long planned to run for president . Although he would only be 36 years old in 1896 — one year above the constitutional minimum — he believed the silver question could carry him not only to the nomination , but to the presidency . He traveled widely , speaking to audiences across the nation . His speeches impressed many ; even some of his opponents later conceded that Bryan was the most compelling speaker they had ever heard . Bryan 's speeches evolved over time ; in December 1894 , in a speech in Congress , he first used a phrase from which would come the conclusion to his most famous address : as originally stated , it was " I will not help to crucify mankind upon a cross of gold . " A myth has arisen that Bryan was an unknown prior to 1896 . This was not the case ; Bryan was well known as an orator on the tariff and silver questions . Albert Shaw , editor of '' The Review of Reviews '' , stated that after Bryan 's nomination , many easterners professed not to have heard of him but : " If , indeed , they had not heard of Mr. Bryan before , they had failed to follow closely the course of American politics in the past eight years . As a Democratic member of the Ways and Means Committee through two Congresses , Mr. Bryan was by all odds the ablest and strongest orator on the Democratic side of the House . His subsequent canvass campaign for the United States senatorship in Nebraska was noteworthy and conspicuous on many accounts . " In the aftermath of the 1894 election , the silver forces , led by Altgeld and others , began an attempt to take over the machinery of the Democratic Party . Historian Stanley Jones , in his study of the 1896 election , suggests that western Democrats would have opposed Cleveland even if the party had held its congressional majority in 1894 ; with the disastrous defeat , they believed the party would be wiped out in the West if it did not support silver . Bryan biographer Paulo E. Coletta wrote , " during this year July 1894 – June 1895 of calamities , disintegration and revolution , each crisis aided Bryan because it caused division within his party and permitted him to contest for its mastery as it slipped from Cleveland 's fingers . " In early 1896 , with the economy still poor , there was widespread discontent with the two existing major political parties . Some people , for the most part Democrats , joined the far-left Populist Party . Many Republicans in the western states , dismayed by the strong allegiance of eastern Republicans to the gold standard , considered forming their own party . When the Republicans in June 1896 nominated former Ohio Governor William McKinley for president and passed at his request a platform strongly supporting " sound money " ( the gold standard unless modified by international agreement ) , a number of " Silver Republicans " walked out of the convention . The leader of those who left was Colorado Senator Henry M. Teller ; he was immediately spoken of as a possible candidate for the Democratic nomination
the convention
1896 Republican National Convention
Cross of Gold speech