LAD #24 Bryan’s “Cross of Gold”

In his speech, William Jennings Bryan spoke on behalf of the Democratic Party to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16:1; "we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government". The gold standard favors the wealthy minority and it does not benefit the common man, Bryan directs the speech towards the common man and he puts down McKinley's Republican platform. "This struggle between the idle holders of idle capital and the struggling masses who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country". The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it". He also emphasizes the Democratic belief that the most important contributors to the American society are the common people. He champions "the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses".

LAD #23 The Populist Party Platform

The Populist Party emerged as a "response to the growth of industrialism". The Populists opposed the concentrated capital of banks and big businesses and they criticized the negative effects that industrialization had on American society. In their eyes, industrialization had "to the verge of moral, political and material ruin"; the "fruits of the toils" of the "plain people" are stolen "to build up the colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind", causing the gap between the social classes to further widen. The value of silver has been "demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold" yet what resulted was "falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, (and) the impoverishment of the producing class". As a progressive party, the Populist Party worked towards an end of "oppression, injustice, and poverty", and "equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of" America.

LAD #22 McKinley's War Message

McKinley's message addresses the "crisis that has arisen in the relations" between the United States and Spain regarding the warfare that has raged in the neighboring island of Cuba for more than three years. The revolution in Cuba "has subjected the United States to great effort and expended in enforcing its neutrality laws, caused enormous losses to American trade and commerce, caused irritation, annoyance and disturbance among our citizens, and, by the exercise of cruel, barbarous, and uncivilized practices of warfare, shocked the sensibilities and offended the humane sympathies of our people." He is speaking on behalf of the safety, the staggering economy of the American people which has been hurt by the tensions with Cuba. McKinley's goal was armistice and "to bring about animmediate termination of the war" as peacefully as possible. He states the grounds of intervention being "in the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there", to protect the citizens of Cuba and "to terminate the conditions that deprive them of legal protection", in interest of American commerce. The destruction the USS Maine, no matter how it was sunk, is impressive proof of a state of things in Cuba that is intolerable. For the time being, McKinley, "in the interest of humanity and to aid in preserving the lives of the starving people of the island, saw it necessary to "recommend that distribution of food and supplies be continues, and that an appropriation be made out to the public treasury to supplement the charity of the citizens."

LAD #21 Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie starts off by saying that the problem of his age was the administration of wealth in society. He states that in earlier times, the distribution of wealth was more even compared to now. He says this change came with the evolving of civilization. This change, he says, is not a bad thing though because there needs to be homes full of art, literature, and other "refinements of civilization". If we went back to our old ways without those refinements of civilization, then it would sweep away civilization with it. Carnegie goes on to say that his wealth will not sit in a bank for hundreds of years, but will be spent on the community. This money in the community would be "required for the comfortable maintenance and education of families". He says the money of rich folks can be saved away for years to come, or it can be spent on the public, for the public. Carnegie wanted his money not only to be left to his family, but the whole city of Pittsburgh. He says that a man who leaves his money to the public after his death is just trying to dispose of it. Carnegie thinks a man should not wait till his death to bring some good in the world. He states that the country will benefit for having only a few men holding a majority of the countries money because they will spend it on public purposes. It is the duty of the wealthy, he states, "to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him".

LAD #20 Sojourner Truth Aint I a Woman Speech

Sojourner Truth, an African American women, delievered her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. She starts off by saying that men think women "need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and have the best place everywhere." She basically says that no one ever did any of those things for her and yet she is a woman. She has done man's work on farms, yet she is still a woman. She could eat as much as a man and seen almost all of her thirteen children sold away off into slavery, yet she is a woman. She then asks why women and negro's rights have to do with intellect. She thinks that men do not give women rights because Christ was a man, not a woman. Truth closes her speech with the remark that man was created by God and a women, so women should be respected.

LAD #19 5th of July Speech

On July 5th, 1852, Frederick Douglas spoke to a crowd in Rochester, New York explaining what the fourth of July meant to a slave. At first, Douglas asked the crowd why "the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to (the blacks)?" Douglas then goes on to say that there was an "immeasurable distance" between him and the whites. This difference was the fact that white people had inherited justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence from their fore founders. Douglas, however, did not inherit any of these virtues from the War of Independence. That is why, he says, "This fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." He later goes on to say that he represents the black slaves and will not "hesitate to declare with all (his) soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to (him) than on (that) Fourth of July". Douglas says the nation "is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future." He proves that the black man is the same as a white man and they very similar. At the end of his speech, he answers his own question of what is the fourth of July to the American slave by saying that it is a day of "gross injustice" and "hollow mockery" to black slaves.

LAD #18 Emancipation Proclamation

As of January 1st, 1863, "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State" were to be free. The slaves that were to be freed were guaranteed their independence and safety by "the Executive Government of the United States, including military and naval authority". Abe Lincoln even lists the states where they may rebel against the release of their slaves, such as Arkanas, Texas Louisana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. The slaves in these states were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the United States government would protect their rights. Although Lincoln warns the people to "abstain from all violence, unless in the necessary self-defense" and to "labor faithfully for reasonable wages". He also adds that now the slaves are free, they have a duty to perform as citizens of the nation. Lincoln concludes that the Proclamation will need the cooperation of everyone so it will follow through.