 The American gold reserves dropped to just $60 million in January 1895, which, combined with the subsequent J. P. Morgan bond episode, in which Morgan, in cooperation with the European Rothschilds, sold gold directly to the U.S. treasury, causing the public’s worry for the gold standard to increase.Democratic and Populist party candidate William Jennings Bryan ran on the platform of "free silver", in which he implored Americans to drop the gold standard and reinstate the coinage of silver in order to inflate the American economy.Bryan was an orator who gave many speeches on the issue, the most famous being his "Cross of Gold" speech of July 9, 1896.