William Jennings Bryan and Free Silver
Near Telluride, Colorado
In the eighteen nineties, no political cause mattered more to a silver mining town than free silver. Miners wanted the government to coin silver freely alongside gold, which would raise the price of the metal coming out of these mountains and put money in every pocket in the valley. Their champion was a young orator from Nebraska named William Jennings Bryan.
In eighteen ninety six, Bryan electrified the Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold speech, warning the powerful that they should not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. To places like Telluride, he was a hero. On the fourth of July in nineteen oh three, Bryan came to Telluride in person and is said to have spoken from a platform in front of the New Sheridan Hotel, right here in the heart of town.
By then the silver cause had already been dealt a heavy blow. The Panic of eighteen ninety three had cratered silver prices and shuttered mines across Colorado. But for one summer afternoon, the man who spoke for silver stood on Colorado Avenue and told a mining town exactly what it wanted to hear.
