In every national campaign since the time silver was demonetized in 1873 the demand for bimetallism has been a platform plank always of one and frequently of both of the two great political parties. The first unequivocal renunciation of the policy and theory of bimetallism on the part of any important national convention occurred in June, 1900, at Philadelphia. In 1896 the Republican party, in its platform adopted at St. Louis, pledged itself to the promotion of bimetallism by international agreement. The Democratic party, both in 1896 and 1900, expressed its conviction that bimetallism could be secured by the independent action of the United States, and to that end demanded “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 other nation.” Previous to 1896 each of the great political parties made quadrennial expressions of faith in the bimetallic theory, frequently demanded its enactment into law, and generally condemned the opposing party for “hostility to silver.” And yet, despite the universal belief in bimetallism on the part of the American people; despite the general demands for bimetallism made by both political parties; despite the many and eloquent speeches for bimetallism delivered in Congress and out of it by party leaders of all complexions, the hope of its becoming an actuality seemed to wither and wane in inverse ratio to the fervency of the expressions of friendship on the part of the politicians. Sometimes those who were most vehement in their demands were most instrumental in the passage of that series of legislative enactments that inevitably broadened and deepened the gulf between gold and silver. In explanation of this phenomenon it may be said that of all the functions of government none is more important than the power to regulate the quality and quantity of its circulating medium; none more freighted either with prosperity or disaster to its people; and none more liable to make demagogues of statesmen and knaves and hypocrites of those in authority. The first overt act in the fight against bimetallism, which theretofore had been insidious, was the demand of the Cleveland administration and the powers that were behind it for the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman Act. The clause which was aimed at provided for the purchase by the government of bar silver sufficient for the annual coinage of $54,000,000. With its repeal would disappear from the Federal statute books the last vestige of authority for the coinage of silver money other than subsidiary coins. In the fight against the administration over this measure Mr. Bryan took a leading part. He was one of the public men whose professions and practices in the matter of financial legislation were not at variance. In his first campaign for Congress, in 1890, he had inserted in his platform this plank, written by himself: