The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago, Ills., Tuesday, July 7, 1896, and the silver forces immediately took control of the Convention by unseating David B. Hill, of New York, who had been chosen by the National Committee as temporary Chairman, and substituting John B. Daniel of Virginia. The Democratic platform of 1896, adopted on the third day of the Convention, contained the following plank, which, with the opposite declaration in the Republican platform, became the controlling issue of the campaign: "We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any nation." A minority report was presented by Senator David B. Hill, but was rejected by a vote of 626 to 303. It was during the debate on the motion to substitute this minority report that William J. Bryan delivered his remarkable speech for free silver, an effort that created remarkable scenes of enthusiasm in the Convention and made him immediately the idol of the free silver forces. The speech concluded: "If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: 'You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."' This Democratic Convention nominated William J. Bryan for President on the fifth ballot, and named Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for Vice-President on the fifth ballot.