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William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois on March 19, 1860. At age 14, he attended a revival, and was baptized and became a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He would say that the day of his baptism was the most important day in his life. His father Silas was an avid Jacksonian Democrat who was elected to the Illinois State Senate, but was defeated for re-election in 1860.
William Jennings Bryan was home-schooled, and raised with the strong belief that gambling and liquor were evil and sinful. He studied law at Union Law College in Chicago and while preparing for his bar exam he taught high school. It was there that he met Mary Elizabeth Baird, the woman he married her on October 1, 1884. His wife Mary also became a lawyer and worked with her husband both on legal and political matters. In 1887 they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where Bryan met James Dahlman. The two men became lifelong friends. As chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, Dahlman would help carry Nebraska for Bryan in two presidential campaigns.
In the Democratic landslide of 1890, Bryan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, from Nebraska's First Congressional District. Bryan was only the second Democrat to be elected to Congress in the history of Nebraska. He was re-elected in 1892 and ran for the Senate in 1894, but a Republican landslide led to the state Legislature's choice of a Republican for the Senate seat.
Bryan was one of the founders of the American Bimetallic League, which then evolved into the National Silver Committee. Many farmers' groups believed that by increasing the amount of currency in circulation, commodity prices would go up. This was opposed by banks and bond holders who feared the effects of inflation. At the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Bryan attacked the moneyed classes for supporting the gold standard at the expense of the average worker. He became famous for his "Cross of Gold" speech and at age 36, Bryan became (and still remains) the youngest presidential nominee of a major party in American history. Bryan also formally received the nominations of the Populist Party and the Silver Republican Party. With the three nominations, voters from any party could vote for Bryan without crossing party lines. In the election campaign Bryan gave 500 speeches in 27 states, but McKinley won by a margin of 271 to 176 in the electoral college. The popular vote was much closer and in some key states.
Bryan strongly supported the Spanish-American War in 1898. He volunteered for duty and became colonel of a Nebraska militia regiment. He contracted typhoid fever in Florida and stayed there to recuperate, never seeing combat. But Bryan was against empire-building and gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1900 called "The Paralyzing Influence of Imperialism." The Democrats chose him as their candidate once again in 1900. Once again he gave a prolific number of speeches, once making 12 speeches in 15 hours. But once again McKinley won the electoral college, this time with a count of 292 votes compared to Bryan's 155.
To make money, Bryan became a circuit speaker, giving paid speeches on current events in hundreds of towns and cities across the country. He usually charged $500 per speech in addition to a percentage of the profits. He ran for President a third time in 1908. In the campaigh he campaigned in favor of income and inheritance taxes, and against corporate domination. He denounced the wrongs done by the Republicans. His campaign slogan was "Shall the People Rule?" But in a time of peace and prosperity, he lost the electoral college 321 to 162.
In the election of 1912 Bryan supported Woodrow Wilson and was appointed Secretary of State. However, Wilson made all major foreign policy decisions himself. Bryan made several attempts to negotiate a treaty with Germany, to avert the first world war, but was unsuccessful. In September 1914 he wrote President Wilson urging mediation in the First World War. Wilson's demands for German accountability after the sinking of the Lusitania troubled Bryan, and he resigned in June 1915. Despite this, Bryan campaigned as a private citizen for Wilson's reelection in 1916. When war was declared in April 1917, Bryan wrote Wilson, asking to allow him to join the army. Wilson, however, did not allow the 57-year-old Bryan to rejoin the military, and did not offer him any wartime role.
Bryan continued to serve as a social activist, campaining in favor of prohibition and opposed to the theory of evolution. He was asked to represent the World Christian Fundamentals Association as the famous "Scopes Monkey Trial" at which, in a most unusual occurrence, Bryan took the stand and was questioned by defense lawyer Clarence Darrow about his views on the Bible. The national media reported the trial in great detail, with H. L. Mencken ridiculing Bryan as a symbol of ignorance and anti-intellectualism. The jury returned a guilty verdict but the state Supreme Court reversed the verdict.
After the trial, Bryan returned Dayton, Florida where he attended a church service, ate a meal, and died in his sleep that afternoon on July 26, 1925 — just five days after the Scopes trial had ended.