What is William Jennings Bryans legacy as a public speaker?
Bryan is one of the truly great orators in American history, but his reputation has been damaged by the Scopes trial. His cross-examination by Clarence Darrow made people who were not fundamentalists see him as small-minded and uneducated. He was at the very end of his career, and the end of his life. He was ill — he suffered from diabetes. He didn’t look good. He didn’t handle himself well in the cross-examination. That cross-examination, and its subsequent portrayal on stage and on screen, have fixed posterity’s image of Bryan for the worse. And that was nothing like his early career. What was he like, earlier in life? “The Boy Orator of the Platte” was tall and handsome. He had a phenomenal voice. Speaking before the invention of microphones, he could reach an audience of 30,000 people without any amplification. He could be heard clearly and distinctly in every seat. In the art of classical oratory, one learned breath control and projection, like an actor — and some people simply
