Kinley and yelling and jeering at repudiation, so
that Mr. Bryan could not be heard for several minutes. If they had
applauded him incessantly for even a full half hour, would there
have been any complaint of their preventing him from starting out
in his speech? Has not a crowd in the open air as much right to
hiss as to cheer? At what period in our history was that privilege
taken from Americans? These dissenting students, the reports agree,
did not offer any personal violence to Mr. Bryan or anybody else.
They did not throw rotten eggs at him or otherwise assail his
dignity, but merely shouted their college cry and yelled
derisively. They did not like the cause the speaker represented.
They detested and despised both it and him, and they made known
their feelings noisily.

Speech Concluding Debate on the Chicago Platform.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: I would be presumptuous,
indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom
you have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities; but this
is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen of the land,
when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the
hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as
the cause of liberty--the cause of humanity.

When this debate is concluded, a motion will be made to lay upon the
table the resolution offered in commendation of the administration, and
also the resolution offered in condemnation of the administration. We
object to bringing this question down to the level of persons. The
individual is but an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies; but principles
are eternal; and this has been a contest over a principle.

Never before in the history of this country has there been witnessed
such a contest as that through which we have just passed. Never before
in the history of American politics has a great issue been fought out
as this issue has been, by the voters of a great party. On the fourth
of March, 1895, a few Democrats, most of them members of Congress,
issued an address to the Democrats of the nation, asserting that the
money question was the paramount issue of the hour; declaring that a
majority of the Democratic party had the right to control the action of
the party on this paramount issue; and concluding with the request that
the believers of free coinage of silver in the Democratic party sh