LAD#20

The speech made by William Jennings Bryan, could be called the most famous speech of this period in American history. It was delievered at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Bryan begins by asserting the importance of the financial issue in America at this time. Byran transitions into talking about the importance of the actual worker in American by saying, "the man who is employed for wages is as much a businessman as his employer". Through this statement, it is clear that he represents the working people of America and his views will hence look out for the best interests of those who are working in America. Subsequently, Bran discusses his views on the vitality of the income tax and next how it is true that he does disagree with national bank currency- but perhaps this is a credible position considering men such as Jackson have also stood in the same position. However the primary issue of this entire piece is the backing of money in our country. Bryan decided that the most important reform to take place was the reform that would standardize the value of money by backing it through silver means instead of teh gold standard. This could lead to a larger circulation for the money and in turn this could solve a great deal of other problems that were surfacing at this time. The deflation could be solved, and other issues could be brought to the front burner by settling this one issue of standardizing money. Bryan's speech was powerful and logical, it is no wonder this speech is still well known today.

LAD#19

Populists Party Platform:
The Populist Party was founded on the princible of reform for unjust business practices. At a time when laissez faire ruled the land, it is reasonable for these workers to assume the big businessmen of our country are actually running the country. And being so powerful, these men were able to take advantage of the "lowly" worker if they felt it necessary. So in order to prevent these actions and assure their security, this party was founded. Firstly, they want a permanent union of laborers in the United States. Next they wanted to insure that the people would earn the money that is rightfully theirs. And this would be insured by making any money illegally taken from the workers, called a robbery. Finally, they wanted the government to intervene on who owned the railroads. For the most part the latter idea was because it would cut down significantly the net power of the big businessmen in the country. Overall by seeking for the improvement of working conditions, these party members were able to alert the nations people of the corrupt business measures.

LAD#21

This act was highly influential to American history. This act begun the reservation process in American. At a time when the United States was land hungry, the government used their influence to force Native Americans to move onto reservations. While the cruel treatment of Indians has been a mark on United States history, this particular act was sort of on the same line as the previous treatment. This act forced people to move onto foreign lands that were alloted based on your position in a family and how old you were. The government also always held that they could remove more land if they felt it was necessary. Additionally, with each new section that was introduced to this act, less rights were provided for the Native Americans. These lands were appropriated through patents made by the government for a period of twenty five years. But during this time the land was still under the Untied States name, which meant that in any particular instance we had control over a situation. This made sense for America's government because this was a time when relations with the Indians were not desired.

LAD#18

When McKinley addressed Congress, he was very concerned about the situation between Spain and Cuba. For one thing this war had begun taking its toll on the trade relations of the United States. Since a great deal of trade was conducted with these nations, the matter was pressing. McKinley later asks the Congress for support to defend Cuba for several reasons. Mainly these reasons are Cuba is an American neighbor, it is effecting our trade, American lives were lost and America feels a particular duty to protect Cuba.