BRYAN, William Jennings [1860-1925] -- American lawyer and politician, Secretary of State

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, lawyer, congressman, candidate for the presidency of the United States, was born March 10, 1860, in Salem, Ill. His boyhood was passed on a farm near that place, and he attended the public schools for five years; he then took a course at Whipple academy and completed his education by a four years' course at Illinois college. As a student in the law office of Lyman Trumbull, Chicago, he attended the Union College of Law in Chicago till June, 1883, when he removed to Jacksonville, Ill., and practiced law there for four years. In Oct., 1887, he located in Lincoln, Neb., and opened a law office. He was elected to congress in 1890, and his first speech gave him a national reputation; he was re-elected in 1892, and his speech on the repeal of the Sherman act is considered a masterpiece on bimetallism. He was placed in nomination for the presidency by the democratic, free silver and populistic parties, in 1896, and led a brilliant campaign. He is the author of The First Battle; and A Story of the Campaign of 1896.

He was a lecturer on the Chautauqua circuit and at religious assemblies; was one of the prosecuting attorneys in the case against schoolteacher John T. Scopes and engaged in a notable courtroom debate with Clarence Darrow (1925), popularized in the film Inherit the Wind.  
 

1891-1895

1913-1915