Indeed, Bryan supported the so called Free Silver movement that proposed the unrestricted coinage of silver with a defined value of 16:1 oz. (silver:gold). This was of course about twice the fair market value which was 32:1. The object of the silverites was to debase the currency and spark inflation which would have effectively reduced by at least half existing debt, both personal and public, by forcing creditors to accept 50 cents on the dollar in real money. It would have driven gold out of circulation since no one in their right mind would trade one ounce of gold for 16 of silver. Foreign creditors saw this as a threatened repudiation of US sovereign debt since at the time US Government bonds were explicitly backed by gold and creditors had loaned gold when buying American bonds.
Good detail.
The McKinley campaign used the strategy of claiming Bryan’s ‘free coinage of silver’ meant Bryan was in favor of ‘free trade’.
Bryan and the Democrats lost the election because ordinary working people feared that their employer-fixed wages would lose lots of buying power.
Today that free silver position seems almost quaint and outrageously conservative compared to the solid raping Federal Reserve gives us today.