The word Bryan no longer belongs to any one man. It has become the
common property of all who love liberty. The word Bryan became the cry
of exultation at the birth of the New Democracy. At this most momentous
historic event of the present century when an ideal was grasped from
the upper realm of books, of hope, of morality and religion, brought
down to the world of fact and embodied in flesh and blood; when what
before was a dream, a philosophy, an aspiration, suddenly allied itself
with physical agencies and created a political power that surprised
the world, the one cry into which the long oppressed millions breathed
their joy, their hope, their hate, their devotion to their fellows,
their defiance of their enemies was the magic word, Bryan! Bryan! As
this one word was repeated and cheered and cried aloud to express both
hope and anger, promise and defiance, it became sacred. It flitted from
the possession of the single human mite whom it had pleased God to
appoint as the herald of the new dispensation, and became the common
heritage of humanity.
At the Chicago Convention one citizen lost his name, but the world
found it and the word Bryan became the battle cry of all who fight for
freedom or strive for justice.
As this individual citizen of Nebraska cannot by any act or blunder in
the future, efface the mark that he has made upon history's scroll nor
smother the fire of enthusiasm his eloquence has lighted nor imprison
again in his single breast the wondrous truths breathed out of it that
now fill the whole world, so neither shall he rob us of the one magic
word, once his own, NOW OURS, which, wherever uttered, kindles lethargy
and inertia into enthusiasm and fills the abode of gloom with the light
of hope.
The people need a key-note, a battle cry, one single word that
expresses all they believe and feel and hope. We have such a word. It
is BRYAN. We intend to keep it and utter it wherever and whenever it
will cheer us or help our cause. And if again one individual citizen's
modesty prompts him to interfere with our rights, our only answer will
be: "Hands off, honored sir," or, in the immortal words of Pennoyer of
Oregon, "You tend to your business and we, the people, will tend to
ours."
BEST WAY TO START.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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