In this campaign Mr. Bryan received the votes of all the Democrats and nearly half of the Populist members of the Legislature, who represented a constituency then amounting to a considerable fraction of the suffrage of the State, which has not decreased with the increase of years. In Nebraska the Democratic party has been for many years in the minority. But as there are several points of agreement between it and the Populist party, Mr. Bryan has always advocated co-operation between the two.

In the spring of 1893 Mr. Bryan received the support of a majority of the Democratic members of the Legislature, but when it became evident that no Democrat could be elected, he cheerfully assisted in the election of Mr. Allen, a Populist, who now occupies that seat. Again in 1894 in the Democratic State convention Mr. Bryan aided in securing the nomination of a portion of the Populist ticket, including Mr. Holcomb, Populist candidate for Governor. The cordial relations which existed between the Democrats and the Populists of Nebraska were a potent influence in securing Mr. Bryan's nomination in 1896 at Chicago. Mr. Bryan made his entrée upon newspaper work September 1, 1894, when he became chief of the editorial staff of the Omaha "WorldHerald." In this position he was able to reach daily a much larger number of people than could possibly be addressed from any platform. After the adjournment of Congress, however, on his way home from Washington Mr. Bryan lectured at Cincinnati, Nashville, Little Rock and at several points in Missouri, arriving in Lincoln March 19, 1895, his thirty-fifth birthday. This occasion was made notable by a reception accorded to him by the Jefferson Club of Lincoln at which Mr. Bryan made his famous address upon the perennial subject, "Thomas Jefferson Still Lives." A portion of this address may appropriately be quoted here:

"Let us then with the courage of Andrew Jackson apply to present conditions the principles taught by Thomas Jefferson-Thomas Jefferson, the greatest constructed statesman whom the world has ever known; the grandest warrior who ever battled for human liberty. He quarried from the mountains of eternal truth the four pillars, upon whose strength all popular government must rest. In the Declaration of American Independence he proclaimed the principles with which there is, without which there cannot be, ‘a government of the people, by the people and for the people.' When he declared that 'All men are

created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,' he declared all that lies between the Alpha and Omega of Democracy."

Mr. Bryan intended to resume the practice of law at this period of his career, but the contest for supremacy in the Democratic party had begun in earnest and the calls upon his eloquence were so numerous and so urgent that it seemed best to him to devote his time to lecturing and to the public discussion of questions which clamored for an answer. Concerning this period of his career Mr. Bryan's political enemies have not scrupled to insinuate that he was in the pay of the silver league. A sufficient reply to these insinuations is furnished by Mrs. Bryan herself, who says:

"His editorial salary formed the basis of his income. When lecturing before Chautauquas and similar societies he was paid as other lec turers. At meetings where no admission was charged he sometimes received compensation and at other times received nothing. Many of the free speeches were made en route to lecture engagements, and his compensation ranged from traveling expenses to $100. Only upon two or three of these occasions did he receive more than this. Never at any time was he under the direction of or in the pay of any silver league or association of persons pecuniarily interested in silver. During the interim between the adjournment of Congress and the Chicago convention he spoke in all the States at the West and South and became acquainted with those most prominently connected with the silver cause."

This with some proper emendations is a sufficient record of Mr. Bryan's course since the election in November, 1896. When the call to arms came for the conflict with Spain he was one of the first to respond. Though unaccustomed to the military career, he raised a regiment and was appointed its colonel. His military record is part of the history of this period. It is without blemish, beyond reproach, entitled even to the high praise which comes to a military commander who maintains the dignity of his command in time of peace.

There is no desire at this time or in this place to dwell upon Mr. Bryan's private life. Any biography of the man, however, would be incomplete without reference to his relations to the home which he has built in the Nebraskan capital. It is perhaps enough to say that every

moment which can be snatched from a busy public career is spent in the intimate and confidential association with his wife and children. Of the latter there are three, two girls and a boy. Mr. Bryan possesses the happy faculty of all great men which enables him to so nicely adjust the balance of his time that he can expend upon his public duties from sixteen to eighteen hours of the twenty-four and yet live in intimate association with the members of his family. He has an unbounded capacity for work. The visits at his Nebraska home number scarcely less than one hundred daily. His mail is enormous. Yet by the perfect adjustment of his relations he finds himself able to see every American citizen who comes to him with a competent errand and to answer every letter that reaches him in the mail. At all times and in all relations he is the ideal American citizen.

CHAPTER XII.

ADLAI EWING STEVENSON

The candidate for Vice-President has been a familiar figure in public life for more than forty years—always as a Democrat. Mr. Stevenson was born in Christian County, October 23rd, 1835. Like Mr. Bryan, he spent his youth on a farm. His father was a Kentucky planter of an old North Carolina family descended from some of the earliest ScotchIrish settlers in that Commonwealth.

The son attended the Kentucky common schools until his seventeenth year, when the family removed to Bloomington, Illinois, which has been Mr. Stevenson's home almost continuously ever since. The young man attended Illinois Wesleyan University and afterward Center College at Danville, Kentucky, where he finished his academic career. He then returned to Bloomington, where he was admitted to the bar in May, 1857. He began the practice of his profession at Metamora, Woodford County, Illinois, and soon attracted attention throughout the circuit, which includes McLean County, of which Bloomington is the seat.

Young Stevenson entered politics almost before he attained to his majority. The so-called Know-nothing movement was in progress at this time, and the young man made many speeches against that now obsolete proscriptive policy. This action endeared him to many settlers who had lately come into the country from Germany and Ireland and added much to his hold upon the popular affections. In 1860 at the age of twenty-five he was appointed Master in Chancery. This was his first public office, and he held it for four years. In 1864, being at the time a Democratic elector on the McClellan ticket, he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Twenty-third Judicial District. This office he held for four years. It was at this time in January, 1868, that Mr. Stevenson formed a law partnership at Bloomington with his cousin James S. Ewing. The firm of Stevenson & Ewing soon became one of the most prominent in the community, and it is continued until the present day in the front rank of the McLean County bar.

Mr. Stevenson was one of the earliest advocates of reform in the currency. On that issue he was nominated for Congress in 1874. The

district had been considered reliably Republican by a majority of about 3,000, but Mr. Stevenson was able to draw many Independents to his support and after an exciting canvass was elected by a majority of 1,232 votes. His opponent, the late General John C. McNulta, was one of the leading Republicans and most influential citizens in the State. In the Forty-fourth Congress Mr. Stevenson served on the Committee of the District of Columbia and the Territories.

Mr. Stevenson was renominated for Congress in 1876 by acclamation. This was a Presidential year, in which, it will be remembered, party lines were drawn with unusual sharpness. President Hayes carried the district by nearly 3,000 majority. Mr. Stevenson was not able to overcome this enormous lead, but he was defeated by only 250 votes. At the end of his term he resumed his law practice, appearing in public only for a short time in 1877, as a member of the Board of Visitors to West Point.

In 1878 Mr. Stevenson was again nominated for Congress on the National Greenback Labor ticket. The Democrats of the Bloomington district endorsed his nomination, and he carried every county in the district, receiving 13,870 votes against 12,058 for the Republican incumbent, T. F. Tipton. Mr. Stevenson carried his own county, which as has been said, gave Hayes nearly 3,000 and Garfield more than 2,000 plurality.

In the Forty-sixth Congress Mr. Stevenson served as chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining. He was renominated in 1880, another Presidential year, and again suffered defeat, though by the small margin of 200 votes. At the end of his term he went back to his practice of the law in Bloomington until 1882, when he was again nominated for Congress and again defeated by 350 votes. This was his last attempt for Congressional honors.

Mr. Stevenson was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago in 1884 that nominated Grover Cleveland for President. Mr. Cleveland appointed him First Assistant Postmaster General. In this office he had jurisdiction over the appointment of more than 44,000 fourth-class postmasters. He announced at the outset of his career that, other things being equal, when reputable and efficient Democratic applicants presented themselves for these offices, he should consider it his duty to appoint them, displacing the Republican incumbents. This policy he maintained to the end, not without occasioning some bitter