APHC: Saturday, November 23, 2002

Convention Speeches
Saturday, November 23, 2002

William Jennings Bryan, Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the 9th of July 1896.

Mr. Chairman & Gentlemen of the convention…: The humblest citizen in all 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…The individual is but an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies; but principles are eternal; and this is a contest over a principle.

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

Theodore Roosevelt, National Progressive Party, Chicago, Tuesday, August 6, 1912.

The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, boss?ridden and privilege?controlled, neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on the vital issues of the day. This new movement is a movement of truth, sincerity and wisdom which proposes boldly to face the real and great questions of the day, and not skillfully to evade them as do the old parties. We propose to raise aloft a standard to which all honest men can repair, and under which all can fight, no matter what their past political differences, if they are content to face the future and no longer to dwell among the dead issues of the past.
Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one in which we are engaged. I hope we shall win, and I believe that if we can wake the people to what the fight really means we shall win. But, win or lose, we shall not falter. Whatever fate may at the moment overtake any of us, the movement itself will not stop. Our cause is based on the eternal principles of righteousness; and even though we who now lead may for the time fail, in the end the cause itself shall triumph…To you who gird yourselves for this great new fight in the never-ending warfare for the good of humankind, I say in closing…:We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord.