<p>The free silver movement was a push in the late nineteenth century to make the U.S. Mint coin all the silver people brought to it. This would give silver the same coining treatment as the Mint gave to gold.</p>
<p>Backers wanted more money in circulation so farm prices would rise and debts would be easier to pay. This guide will explore this political movement, not any modern silver giveaway.</p>
<p>This movement was not pushing for a new policy. Rather, it wanted a return to America’s former bimetallic coining system. That system practically came to an end when Congress <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">dropped the silver dollar</a> in the Coinage Act of 1873.</p>
<p>The movement peaked when William Jennings Bryan gave his <a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-cross-of-gold-speech/">Cross of Gold speech</a> in 1896. It faded after Bryan lost the 1896 and 1900 elections. Following those losses, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/what-is-the-gold-standard">Gold Standard Act of 1900</a>. That act put into law what had already been the practical monetary policy of the country.</p>
<h2>What Was the Free Silver Movement?</h2>
<p>Free silver was the biggest money fight of the Gilded Age. Farmers, silver miners, and the new Populist Party wanted the government to coin silver without limit. In contrast, bankers, most business owners, and most city voters wanted money tied to gold alone (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
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<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Free silver at a glance</th>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Active</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1873 to 1900</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Goal</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Free and unlimited coinage of silver</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Main backers</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Farmers in the South and West, silver miners, the Populists</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Main opponents</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Eastern bankers and business, most city voters</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Leader</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">William Jennings Bryan</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Famous line</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">“You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Outcome</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Lost in 1896 and 1900; gold became the sole standard in 1900</td>
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<h2>What “Free” Meant: Free Coinage, Not Free Metal</h2>
<p>Free silver did not mean free metal; instead, it meant free coinage. Under free coinage, any citizen could bring bullion to the Mint and have them mint coins from the metal for a small fee. There was no limit on how much the Mint would coin (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<p>Gold retained that right after the Coinage Act of 1873. Silver did not. The act left the silver dollar off the list of coins the Mint would create (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>). Silver backers called the law the “Crime of ‘73.” Our guide to the Crime of 1873 explains what the law did.</p>
<p>Gold and silver coins were both “hard money,” also called <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/what-is-specie">specie</a>. The real question was which metal would back the dollar.</p>
<h3>Silverites and Gold Bugs</h3>
<p>Free silver backers were called silverites. The silverite faction wanted a bimetallic system, which was the original monetary system implemented by Congress in 1792. Under that system, the Mint coined gold and silver freely.</p>
<p>The rivals to the silverites were called gold bugs. Outside the mining West, the Republican Party sided with the gold bugs. The party argued that only gold made “sound money” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<h2>Why Farmers and Miners Backed Free Silver</h2>
<p>Farmers backed free silver because falling prices made their debts harder to pay. Silver miners backed it because the Mint would become an unlimited buyer of their metal. We’ll explore these reasons in a little more detail below.</p>
<h3>Falling Crop Prices, Fixed Debts</h3>
<p>Prices fell for years after the Civil War. Economists call this deflation. A <a href="https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/resources/lessons/lesson–free-silver-movement-and-inflation.pdf">St. Louis Fed lesson</a> explains the squeeze: farmers got less for their crops, “but their farm debts remained fixed.”</p>
<p>Here is how that worked. Say a farmer owed a loan worth 1,000 bushels of wheat. If wheat prices fell by a third, the same loan now took 1,500 bushels to repay. The debt stayed the same, but the work needed to pay it grew.</p>
<p>Silverites believed more coins would push prices back up. Britannica notes that farmers thought more money “would increase the price of their crops.” Debtors hoped it would help them “pay their debts more easily” (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>).</p>
<h3>Silver Country</h3>
<p>Most U.S. silver came from mines in the West. Mine owners and miners were among the loudest voices for free silver (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>). They wanted the Mint to take all the silver they could dig.</p>
<p>Some Western Republicans broke with their own party over it. In 1896, Senator Henry Teller of Colorado led a group out of the Republican Party. They formed the Silver Republican Party and backed Bryan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<h3>The Populists’ 1892 Platform</h3>
<p>Farm groups also built a new party, the People’s Party, known as the Populists. Its first national platform came out on July 4, 1892. It demanded “free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold” (<a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/populist-party-platform-1892">UCSB American Presidency Project</a>). It also asked for more money in circulation and a graduated income tax.</p>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Wheat farmers on the Plains and cotton farmers in the South</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">For</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Wanted higher crop prices and lighter debts</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Silver miners and mine owners in the West</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">For</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Wanted the Mint to coin all their silver</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Populists and Silver Republicans</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">For</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Made free silver a core demand</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Eastern bankers, railroads, and factory owners</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Against</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Wanted loans repaid in gold-backed dollars</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">City workers, including many German Americans</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Against</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Feared higher prices and lost jobs</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Farmers in the Northeast</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Against</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Gave free silver little support</td>
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<p>Sources: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>.</p>
<h2>From the Crime of 1873 to the Panic of 1893</h2>
<p>Free silver grew out of 20 years of fights over coinage. Each law below has its own guide. This list keeps to one line each.</p>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1873</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/crime-of-1873">Coinage Act</a> drops the silver dollar and ends free coinage of silver.</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1878</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/silver-purchase-acts">Bland-Allison Act</a> brings back the silver dollar, with limited silver buying.</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1890</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/silver-purchase-acts">Sherman Silver Purchase Act</a> raises the Treasury’s silver buying.</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1892</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The Populists adopt their first national platform and demand free silver.</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1893</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Falling Treasury gold sets off a panic, and Congress repeals the Sherman Act.</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">After 1893</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Pamphlets and silver clubs spread the cause.</td>
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<p>The 1893 repeal split the Democrats. President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, stood with gold. Farmers in the South and West blamed “the greed of eastern bankers” for hard times. They renewed their call for free silver (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>).</p>
<h2>William Jennings Bryan and the Cross of Gold Speech</h2>
<p>William Jennings Bryan became the face of the free silver movement when he gave his Cross of Gold speech. When he made that speech, he was a 36-year-old former congressman. The speech gave the movement its most famous line, and it propelled William Jennings Bryan to a viable presidential consideration.</p>
<h3>Who Was William Jennings Bryan?</h3>
<p>Bryan was a lawyer from Lincoln, Nebraska. Voters elected him to the House of Representatives in 1890. He served two terms as a congressman. Then, in 1894, he lost a Senate race. No longer a sitting congressman, Bryan took a position as editor of the Omaha World-Herald and worked as a popular public speaker (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Jennings-Bryan">Britannica</a>).</p>
<p>Bryan did not hold any office in 1896, but his speeches and writings led many to consider him the national leader of the free silver movement.</p>
<h3>The 1896 Democratic Platform</h3>
<p>Democrats met at the Chicago Coliseum from July 7 to 11, 1896 to decide their election platform (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Democratic_National_Convention">Wikipedia</a>). At that convention, Silver Democrats took over the party. Despite heavy opposition from President Grover Cleveland, Silver Democrats managed to make free silver the main plank of the platform (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>).</p>
<p>The plank read: “We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation” (<a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/1896-democratic-party-platform">UCSB American Presidency Project</a>). Our <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/bimetallism">bimetallism guide</a> explains that ratio. The same platform called the gold standard “not only un-American but anti-American.”</p>
<h3>Cross of Gold Speech Summary</h3>
<p>Bryan spoke for free silver during the platform debate on July 9, 1896 (<a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-cross-of-gold-speech/">Teaching American History</a>). Bryan had a simple set of arguments:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Free silver was a moral cause.</strong> He called it a cause “as holy as the cause of liberty.”</li>
<li><strong>The country rested on its farms.</strong> “Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic.”</li>
<li><strong>He spoke for working people.</strong> He claimed to have “the producing masses” behind him.</li>
<li><strong>America should not wait for Europe.</strong> “If the gold standard is a bad thing why should we wait until some other nations are willing to help us to let it go?”</li>
</ul>
<p>You can read the <a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-cross-of-gold-speech/">full text</a> at Teaching American History or view the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/09032448/">Library of Congress copy</a>.</p>
<h3>“You Shall Not Crucify Mankind Upon a Cross of Gold”</h3>
<p>In the <a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-cross-of-gold-speech/">Teaching American History text</a>, the speech ends with this line: “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Bryan used the image of the crucifixion to depict the gold standard as a profound burden on working people.</p>
<p>After Bryan gave this speech, the Democratic Party nominated him for president as the party candidate. He was 36 years old at the time. The Populists and the National Silver Party nominated him too (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Jennings-Bryan">Britannica</a>).</p>
<h2>The Elections of 1896 and 1900</h2>
<p>Free silver lost both times it went before voters. William McKinley, a Republican who backed gold, beat Bryan in both the 1896 and 1900 elections.</p>
<h3>Two Very Different Campaigns</h3>
<p>Bryan took his case on the road. He traveled more than 18,000 miles through 27 states (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Jennings-Bryan">Britannica</a>). He gave about 600 speeches (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley_1896_presidential_campaign">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<p>McKinley stayed home in Canton, Ohio. There, he spoke to crowds that gathered around from his own front porch. A great deal of support came from the efforts of the Republican industrialist Mark Hanna. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1896">According to Britannica</a>, Hanna “tapped big businesses for enormous campaign contributions,” while other Republicans heralded McKinley as the “advance agent of prosperity.” In contrast, the Republicans painted Bryan as a dangerous radical.</p>
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<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Bryan (Democrat)</th>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Money stance</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Free silver</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Gold standard</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Campaign style</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Toured 27 states, over 18,000 miles</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Spoke from his porch in Canton</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Speeches</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">About 600</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">About 300, to some 750,000 visitors</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Funding</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Poorly funded</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">As much as 10 times Bryan’s</td>
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<p>Sources: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1896">Britannica</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley_1896_presidential_campaign">Wikipedia</a>.</p>
<h3>Results</h3>
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<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Election</th>
<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">McKinley electoral votes</th>
<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Bryan electoral votes</th>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1896">1896</a></td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">271</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">176</td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1900">1900</a></td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">292</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">155</td>
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<p>In 1896, McKinley also won a majority of the popular vote. He was the first president to do so since 1872. Bryan swept the South and most of the mountain West. McKinley carried the North and the Pacific West (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1896">Britannica</a>).</p>
<p>In 1900, Bryan ran on silver again. He lost by a wider margin, and the issue faded after that (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<h2>Why Did the Free Silver Movement Fail?</h2>
<p>Free silver failed because it never won over city voters or the industrial North. Then new gold supplies ended the falling prices behind the movement. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 settled the question in law.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Cities said no.</strong> City voters, especially German Americans, feared free silver would bring “economic disaster, unemployment, and higher prices” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</li>
<li><strong>Bryan was outspent.</strong> Hanna raised far more money and ran a large network of speakers (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1896">Britannica</a>). One estimate puts McKinley’s funds at up to 10 times Bryan’s (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley_1896_presidential_campaign">Wikipedia</a>).</li>
<li><strong>Farm prices turned.</strong> Wheat prices rose in the last weeks of the 1896 race. That cooled some farm support for free silver (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley_1896_presidential_campaign">Wikipedia</a>).</li>
<li><strong>New gold did what silver promised.</strong> Gold finds in the 1890s brought “a gradual inflation.” Rising gold output “reversed the deflationary trend.” That “ended the call for a bimetallic money standard” (<a href="https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/resources/lessons/lesson–free-silver-movement-and-inflation.pdf">St. Louis Fed lesson</a>).</li>
<li><strong>The Populists lost their voice.</strong> Backing Bryan in 1896 marked the end of the Populists as an independent party (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</li>
<li><strong>The law closed the door.</strong> The final nail in the coffin was the Gold Standard Act of 1900, which made the gold dollar “the standard unit of value” (<a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-31/pdf/STATUTE-31-Pg45.pdf">govinfo</a>). Our <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/what-is-the-gold-standard">gold standard guide</a> covers what came next.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Was Free Silver a Good Idea?</h2>
<p>Historians and economists still debate it. The answer depends on who you ask and which year you judge.</p>
<h3>The Case For</h3>
<p>Falling prices hurt people in debt, and many farmers carried debt. More money would have raised prices and made those loans easier to repay (<a href="https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/resources/lessons/lesson–free-silver-movement-and-inflation.pdf">St. Louis Fed lesson</a>). To its backers, silver was “the People’s Money” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<h3>The Case Against</h3>
<p>Gold backers said free silver would cheapen the dollar. Silver was worth less on the open market than the Mint’s fixed rate claimed. Most economists warned that cheap silver coins would drive gold coins out of circulation. Our bimetallism guide explains why that happens.</p>
<p>There were reformers who also disliked it. One progressive writer, Henry Demarest Lloyd, called free silver “the cowbird of the reform movement” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>). A cowbird lays its eggs in other birds’ nests. Lloyd used this analogy to suggest that free silver took over a reform movement that others had built beforehand.</p>
<h3>A Later Verdict</h3>
<p>Milton Friedman, a leading figure of the Chicago School of Economics, looked back at the Coinage Act of 1873. From his vantage point in 1990, he called it “a mistake that had highly adverse consequences.” But he stressed that this was “a judgment about 1873, not 1896.” By the time Bryan ran, Friedman wrote, “it was too late to undo the damage” (<a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/v98y1990i6p1159-94.html">Journal of Political Economy</a>).</p>
<p>In short, Friedman thought silver had a case when the Coinage Act of 1873 passed. However, by the time of Bryan’s 1896 election run, the chance to recover silver had long passed.</p>
<h2>Free Silver Campaign Culture and Artifacts</h2>
<p>Free silver was more than a policy debate. There was a whole culture surrounding it, including its own books, clubs, songs, and even joke money. Some of these pieces survive today.</p>
<h3>Coin’s Financial School</h3>
<p>After the Panic of 1893, William H. Harvey put out a popular pamphlet called Coin’s Financial School. It argued that silver would reopen closed factories and relight cold furnaces (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<h3>Silver Clubs</h3>
<p>Three silver clubs grew in the mid-1890s. They were the Freemen’s Protective Silver Federation, the Silver Knights of America, and the Patriots of America. Harvey founded the Patriots of America. All three faded after 1896 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
<h3>Songs and a Silver Fife</h3>
<p>Bryan’s campaigns had their own music. Some songs include “Free Silver March” and “Upon a Cross of Gold.” One fife and drum group owns a silver fife that looks handmade. The words “Free Silver Bryan” are carved into its side (<a href="https://companyoffifeanddrum.org/news/from-the-archives/silver-fife">Company of Fifers & Drummers</a>).</p>
<h3>Bryan Money</h3>
<p>Free silver’s critics mocked it with pieces now called “Bryan Money.” Some were struck in coin silver to show how big a silver dollar would have to be under Bryan’s plan. Some set that size next to a smaller Morgan dollar. Others were cheap tokens with jokes like “In God We Trust, In Bryan We Bust” (<a href="https://www.money.org/tales-from-the-vault-bryan-money/">American Numismatic Association</a>).</p>
<p>Morgan dollars from the free silver era still trade today. You can browse <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver/silver-dollars/morgan-dollars">Morgan silver dollars</a> at Money Metals.</p>
<h3>Myth Check: Was The Wizard of Oz About Free Silver?</h3>
<p>You may hear that <em>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</em> is a hidden story about free silver. In the book, Dorothy walks the Yellow Brick Road in silver shoes, unlike the famous ruby slippers of the 1939 film adaptation. A teacher named Henry Littlefield first made the case in 1964 (<a href="https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/so-was-the-wizard-of-oz-an-allegory-for-populism">History News Network</a>).</p>
<p>The evidence is thin. Author L. Frank Baum said he wrote the book “solely to pleasure children of today.” He also backed McKinley in 1896. Littlefield later said there was “no basis in fact” to call Baum a Populist (<a href="https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/so-was-the-wizard-of-oz-an-allegory-for-populism">History News Network</a>). Treat it as a fun classroom theory, not proven history.</p>
<h2>Free Silver: APUSH Definition and Significance</h2>
<p><strong>Free silver (APUSH definition):</strong> a late-1800s movement of farmers, miners, and Populists to have the U.S. Mint coin silver without limit, so the money supply and prices would rise.</p>
<p>Why it matters:</p>
<ul>
<li>The movement linked Populists and Democrats in common support for Bryan in 1896 (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Jennings-Bryan">Britannica</a>).</li>
<li>It showed the Gilded Age split between farmers in debt and lenders in the East (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</li>
<li>The conflict ended with McKinley’s presidential victories and the passage of the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-31/pdf/STATUTE-31-Pg45.pdf">Gold Standard Act of 1900</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Silver After Free Silver</h2>
<p>The free silver fight ended in 1900, but silver stayed in American pockets. U.S. dimes, quarters, half dollars, and silver dollars held silver for decades after (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>). Collectors still seek those coins today. Browse <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver/coins/collectible-silver-dollars">collectible silver dollars and half dollars</a> or <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver/silver-dollars/morgan-dollars">Morgan silver dollars</a> at Money Metals.</p>
<h3>Free Silver Movement FAQ</h3>
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<p>The free silver movement was a late-1800s campaign to have the U.S. Mint coin silver without limit. That had previously been the law from 1792 until 1873. Its backers wanted more money in circulation to raise farm prices and ease debts (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>).</p>
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<p>It meant free coinage: anyone could bring silver to the Mint and have it made into coins. That was a right gold owners already had. It never meant silver given away (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
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<p>Falling crop prices cut farm income, but loan and mortgage payments stayed the same. More silver money promised higher prices and lighter debts (<a href="https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/resources/lessons/lesson–free-silver-movement-and-inflation.pdf">St. Louis Fed lesson</a>).</p>
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<h4 class="text-xl font-semibold"><button id="controlsAccordionItemFour" type="button" class="flex w-full cursor-pointer items-center justify-between gap-2 bg-slate-200 p-4 text-left underline-offset-2 duration-200 hover:bg-slate-100 focus-visible:bg-slate-50 focus-visible:underline focus-visible:outline-hidden" aria-controls="accordionItemFour" x-on:click="isExpanded = ! isExpanded" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'font-bold' : 'font-medium'" x-bind:aria-expanded="isExpanded ? 'true' : 'false'"> <span>Why did the free silver movement fail?</span> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" class="size-5 shrink-0 transition" aria-hidden="true" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'rotate-180' : ''"> <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M19.5 8.25l-7.5 7.5-7.5-7.5"></path> </svg> </button></h4>
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<p>It never won city voters or the industrial North, and Bryan lost to McKinley in <a href="https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1896">1896</a> and <a href="https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1900">1900</a>. Then gold finds in the 1890s eased falling prices, and the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-31/pdf/STATUTE-31-Pg45.pdf">Gold Standard Act of 1900</a> settled the question.</p>
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<p>Those who supported the movement saw it as a relief from falling prices. Critics, however, warned that it would drive gold out of circulation (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>). Milton Friedman, a famous 20th century economist, argued in 1990 that the real mistake came in 1873 with the end of the bimetallic system (<a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/v98y1990i6p1159-94.html">Journal of Political Economy</a>).</p>
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<p>The Cross of Gold Speech was the famous William Jennings Bryan speech given at the Democratic convention of 1896. It attacked the concept of a gold standard and ended with the line that became a leading slogan of the movement: “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” (<a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-cross-of-gold-speech/">Teaching American History</a>).</p>
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<h4 class="text-xl font-semibold"><button id="controlsAccordionItemSeven" type="button" class="flex w-full cursor-pointer items-center justify-between gap-2 bg-slate-200 p-4 text-left underline-offset-2 duration-200 hover:bg-slate-100 focus-visible:bg-slate-50 focus-visible:underline focus-visible:outline-hidden" aria-controls="accordionItemSeven" x-on:click="isExpanded = ! isExpanded" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'font-bold' : 'font-medium'" x-bind:aria-expanded="isExpanded ? 'true' : 'false'"> <span>Who is the youngest presidential candidate?</span> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" class="size-5 shrink-0 transition" aria-hidden="true" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'rotate-180' : ''"> <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M19.5 8.25l-7.5 7.5-7.5-7.5"></path> </svg> </button></h4>
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<p>William Jennings Bryan was 36 when the Democrats nominated him in 1896. He is the youngest major-party presidential nominee in U.S. history (<a href="https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102765">UCSB Library</a>).</p>
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<p>Silverites were free silver supporters, mostly Western miners and farmers in the South and on the Plains. Their rivals, who backed gold, were called gold bugs (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_silver">Wikipedia</a>).</p>
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<h4 class="text-xl font-semibold"><button id="controlsAccordionItemNine" type="button" class="flex w-full cursor-pointer items-center justify-between gap-2 bg-slate-200 p-4 text-left underline-offset-2 duration-200 hover:bg-slate-100 focus-visible:bg-slate-50 focus-visible:underline focus-visible:outline-hidden" aria-controls="accordionItemNine" x-on:click="isExpanded = ! isExpanded" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'font-bold' : 'font-medium'" x-bind:aria-expanded="isExpanded ? 'true' : 'false'"> <span>When did the free silver movement end?</span> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" class="size-5 shrink-0 transition" aria-hidden="true" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'rotate-180' : ''"> <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M19.5 8.25l-7.5 7.5-7.5-7.5"></path> </svg> </button></h4>
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<p>It faded after Bryan’s second loss in 1900. That same year, the Gold Standard Act made gold the sole standard for U.S. money (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Free-Silver-Movement">Britannica</a>).</p>
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