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criticism by our opponents, and often used in a sense entirely different from the one intended by me.” Later Bryan biographers, too, have complained that the eastern press in particular ripped the phrase out of context “and pointed to it incessantly as proof of his hatred and fiendish intent toward the propertied classes.” Yet the context of the speech does not serve to make the phrase less explosive, and in truth, he was clearly echoing the widespread sentiment that followed his nomination, as expressed by Congressman Sibley: New York was the heart of the enemy’s country.

Even if the press had taken the phrase out of context, it was still an inexcusable and embarrassing slip by a candidate so early in the campaign. This was the drawback of continually speaking off-the-cuff and the exact sort of mistake McKinley sought to avoid through his carefully orchestrated front-porch campaign.

The casual reference to “enemy’s country” was also evidence that Bryan had yet to transcend his rural base and embrace a truly national political identity. While a national figure for years as a leader of the silver forces, he was nevertheless in many ways still a local politician, a man who had never represented a constituency larger than that of Lincoln, Nebraska. Even the silver issue was largely a regional issue, with little appeal for a national audience.

Bryan’s trip to New York was also a political journey. He now addressed crowds drawn not only from the rural populations of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, but from the cities and towns of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The experience of the reporters and national press pouncing on those two simple words must have deepened Bryan’s resolve to depart from his normal form and read his acceptance speech in Madison Square Garden.

Not all New York papers wielded Bryan’s words against him. Democratic papers like the New York Herald obviously relished depicting the upcoming campaign as a crusade against the moneyed interests. “Bryan Coming to Meet the Foe,” a Herald headline declared. “The candidate goes East to conquer.”

From Lincoln, Bryan’s train stopped in Omaha and then crossed the Mississippi to Council Bluffs, Iowa. It stopped at all the small towns along the way, and Bryan obliged the crowds by giving short speeches. In almost every town Bryan did his best to shake hands with everyone, starting with the ladies. It was hard, hot work, getting his hands pinched and grabbed while standing in the meager shade of the last car’s back platform. But Bryan was in his element, a natural campaigner who exuded sincerity and sympathy. “He wore his campaign hat of white felt,” one observer noted, “a handkerchief was loosely knotted around his neck, and a linen alpaca coat and the absence of a waistcoat gave him the air of an easy going traveler who was ready to meet everybody along the route just as one farmer could meet another and stop for a little while to talk about the crop and the weather.”

The effects of the heat were visible in Bryan’s very appearance. The handkerchief around the neck served to protect Bryan’s throat, while the absence of a waistcoat was a necessity. The heat wave that was settling on New York had already devastated the prairies and the Midwest. Before Bryan’s departure, Nebraska had seen the temperature hit 94 degrees. Long before arriving in New York, Bryan suffered the full effect of the heat wave.

Meanwhile in the enemy’s country, New York’s sound-money forces continued to desert Bryan. Senator David Hill refused to attend the Madison Square Garden meeting, one of many prominent New York Democrats who planned to stay away that night. Other Democrats began actively working against Bryan’s election. The Democratic Honest-Money League had established its headquarters at 15 West Twenty-Fourth Street and asked William Bourke Cockran to speak at a mass meeting on its behalf. The meeting would take place in Madison Square Garden just days after Bryan’s speech. The Bryan campaign could not have received worse news.

BY AROUND FRIDAY, August 7, Roosevelt must have made