Bryan, William Jennings

Bryan, William Jennings (1860–1925), politician and secretary of state.Reared in Illinois, Bryan attended Illinois College and Chicago's Union College of Law. In 1887 he moved to Nebraska, entering Democratic politics as a champion of agrarian reform. Elected to Congress in 1890, defeated in a Senate bid four years later, he won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896 but lost to Republican William McKinley. He ran again in 1900 and 1908—both times unsuccessfully.

Having supported Woodrow Wilson in 1912, Bryan became his secretary of state. A pacifist and anti‐imperialist with no diplomatic experience, Bryan negotiated conciliation treaties with some thirty nations providing for the submission of disputes to investigative commissions.

The outbreak of war in 1914 tested Bryan's pacifism. Embracing Wilson's call for U.S. neutrality, he opposed loans to the Allies and travel on belligerent ships by U.S. citizens; he also called on U.S. vessels to observe Germany's U‐boat blockade of Great Britain. President Wilson, by contrast, saw the German blockade as a violation of neutral rights.

In May 1915, a German U‐boat sank the British liner Lusitania (heavily loaded with munitions), killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Wilson repeatedly demanded that Germany pay reparations, disavow U‐boat warfare, and accept his interpretation of neutral rights. Bryan resigned, believing Wilson was treating the German and British maritime blockades unequally; he also deplored the president's preempting of his role. He was succeeded by the colorless Robert Lansing, who proved highly favorable to the Allies.

Out of office, Bryan opposed the militaristic “Preparedness” campaign but endorsed Wilson in 1916. Personally opposed to U.S. entry into the war in 1917, he refused to speak out.

As a diplomat, Bryan shared Wilson's moralistic approach to world affairs, but the two men's basic principles differed: Bryan valued peace above all; Wilson insisted that Germany accept his view of neutral rights. Bryan's resignation reflected the conflict of wills that often ensues when a president seeks to conduct his own foreign policy—a conflict that has more than once upset the course of U.S. diplomacy.
[See also Lusitania, Sinking of the; World War I: Causes.]

Bibliography

Merle Curti , Bryan and World Peace, 1931; repr. 1969.
Paolo E. Coletta , Bryan: A Political Biography, 1971.
Kendrick A. Clements , William Jennings Bryan: Missionary Isolationist, 1982.

Paul S. Boyer