After he resigned, William Jennings Bryan and his wife moved to Villa Serena in Miami, Florida, where Bryan contributed to the community by speaking, teaching Bible classes, and supporting the Men's Club and YMCA. Woodrow Wilson began to advocate "preparedness" for the war while Bryan traveled speaking against the war. When Germany promised to search vessels for civilians before destroying them, Wilson started to advocate peace again, allowing the Democratic Party to settle disputes and have their convention. Bryan delivered a speech at the convention and agreed to help campaign for Wilson's reelection. But when Germany took back their promise and Wilson's request for "peace without victory" was rejected, Congress voted to declare war on Germany (Kazin 2006, 252). Wilson then asked Bryan to sell the war to the people, which Bryan did by telling people to conserve food and criticizing those who sought to profit from the war. The war allowed Bryan to push the prohibitionist movement more as well as the women's suffrage movement, which his wife also took part in. At the end of the war, Bryan was upset that Wilson did not allow him to partake in the Paris peace conference, so he became a skeptic regarding Wilson's future plans for the League of Nations. But he did advocate the idea of the League as "the greatest step toward peace in a thousand years" (Kazin 2006, 259). As many intellectuals started to suggest radical change, Bryan thought up his own "Constructive Program" that involved matters such as government ownership of railroads and voters' decision to declare war.
Key Terms
John Reed
The Great War
League of Nations
"Constructive Program"
Fascism
Nazism
Bolshevism/Bolshevik Revolution
Questions
Why did the war cause more people to support prohibition?
Why did Bryan decide to go from anti-war to defending the war?
What problems did Bryan have with Wilson's plans?
How did moving to Florida affect his political career geographically?
Villa Serena
Fishbaugh, W. A. Villa Serena, winter home of William Jennings Bryan, 1922. Photograph. from Florida Memory, accessed March 12, 2015, https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/23966.
Kazin, Michael. "Moralist in Retreat." In A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, 243-261, New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2006.
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