Richard P. Bland

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Richard Parks Bland (August 19, 1835 - June 15, 1899) was an American politician, lawyer, and educator from Missouri. A Democrat, Bland served in the United States House of Representatives from 1873 to 1895 and from 1897 to 1899, representing on various occasions in the fifth, eighth and 11th congress districts of Missouri. Nicknamed "Silver Dick" for his efforts to promote bimetallism, Bland is best known for the Bland-Allison Act.

Born in Kentucky, he founded legal practice in the Utah Territory after working as a miner and a school teacher. He served as Carson County treasurer from 1860 to 1864 during the peak years of the Comstock Lode mining rush. He settled in Missouri in 1865 and established a legal practice in Lebanon, Missouri. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1872 and quickly proved himself a major supporter of the free silver movement. He sponsors the Bland-Allison Act, which requires the US Treasury to buy some silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars. He also proved himself to be anti-imperialist. Bland lost the re-election in the 1894 election but won the seat back in 1896.

Bland was the prime candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896, although he expressed his reluctance to run for president. Her marriage to a Catholic woman sparked opposition from the party's anti-Catholic elements. Bland received the most votes on the first three ballots of the 1896 Democratic National Convention, but not enough to win the required majority. William Jennings Bryan, who also liked bimetallism, won the Democratic nomination for the fifth vote and then lost to Republican William McKinley in the presidential election in 1896. After the service, Bland served at the House from 1897 until his death in 1899.

Video Richard P. Bland

Early life and education

Bland was born near Hartford, Ohio County, Kentucky to Stoughton Edward and Mary P. (Nall) Bland. His father was a descendant of one of Virginia's First Families, including statesman and member of the Continental Congress, Richard Bland. Blands and Nalls were among the early families to emigrate from Virginia with Daniel Boone to the desert of Kentucky. Despite the family lineage and wealth in Virginia, Richard and his three siblings were raised in relative poverty on his parents' small farm. In 1842, when Richard Bland was seven years old, the situation was exacerbated by the death of his unexpected father. His mother's death occurred in 1849, leaving the orphaned teenagers and forcing Bland to hire himself as a farm laborer to survive. Despite growing poor, he was able to attend Hartford College and graduate with a teacher certificate. Bland then taught school in his hometown for two years before moving to Wayne County, Missouri at the age of 20, in 1855.

The first time he lived in Missouri briefly, Bland taught only one term at a school in Patterson, Missouri before heading further west to California. While there he began to study law. He then moved to the western part of the Utah Territory, part of western Nevada today, where he taught the school, and tried his hand at prospecting and mining. It seems, from a speech delivered in Congress, that while in West Bland was also involved in conflict with Native Americans on several occasions, although some details are known. While teaching at school, he continued to study law and after passing the bar started practicing in Virginia City and Carson City. It was during his time in California and Nevada he developed a lifelong interest in mining, silver in particular.

Maps Richard P. Bland

Political career

The first elected office of Richard P. Bland was the treasurer of Carson County, Utah Region from 1860 to 1864, the mining altitude of the Comstock Lode mine. Left unemployed after the state of Nevada and governmental arrangement, in 1865 Bland returned to Missouri and began legal practice with his brother Charles in the city of Rolla. His siblings continued to practice together until 1869 when he moved to Lebanon, Missouri, seeing the city more commercially viable as the predecessors of St. Louis and the San Francisco Railroad had recently passed through the city.

In 1872, he was elected a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives at the 43rd Congress. From the beginning of his tenure, silver would be a very important issue for Bland. Panic of 1873 and the Coinage Act of 1873 hit Missouri and other Midwestern farmers very hard, leading to the seizure and closure of agriculture-dependent businesses. In 1878, along with Iowa Republican William Allison he sponsored the Bland-Allison Act. The law mandates the use of gold and silver as the US currency and allows silver to be bought at market prices, the metal to be printed in silver dollars, and requires the US Treasury to buy between $ 2 million and $ 4 million of silver every month from the west. mine. Diveto by President Rutherford Hayes, the Congress again voted on a size that ruled out the President. The move stood until President Grover Cleveland withdrew the action in 1893.

The Bland nickname - "The Great Commoner" and "Silver Dick" - reflects his efforts to help ordinary men and silver miners. The 25-year campaign for bimetallic standards makes it a friend and advocates agriculture and western miners. However, Bland is much more than an issue legislator. He is often involved in debates on tariff issues, government bonds, and the taxation of citizens. Bland strongly opposed the Reconstruction Era Election Commission and strongly opposed the use of US Marshal or Federal forces at the polls. In foreign policy matters, Bland is anti-imperialist.

He was re-elected to the House ten times, narrowly defeated in 1894, retook his seat in 1896, re-elected in 1898, and died in office in 1899. While a member of the House he was chairman of the Mining and Mining Committee at the 44th Congress. Bland is chairman of the Coinage, Weight, and Size Committee at the 48th Congress, the 49th Congress, the 50th Congress, the 52nd Congress, and the 53rd Congress.

Selection year 1896

Richard Bland was a strong candidate, if reluctant, for the President of the United States in 1896. He was quoted as saying "I have no desire in this direction." I have no ambition for this nomination and I am afraid of my friends, thrusting me a personality in this contest can confuse a bigger question. ". The question of course, as most closely related to Bland, is currency and bimetallism. Instead of traveling to the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Illinois Bland chose to stay on 160 hectares of farmland near Lebanon, Missouri when the political drama was played. At first, the convention vote seemed to go the way Bland wanted. He defeated William Jennings Bryan 236 to 137 in the first vote, 281 to 197 on the second, and 291 to 219 on the third. However, none of the two-thirds of margin to secure a direct nomination. At the moment, the full impact of Bryan's Gold Cross speech is beginning to be felt and understood by delegates. Bryan leads on the fourth ballot of 280-241. Bland, not wanting to risk a split party, sent a telegram to his supporters in Chicago throwing his support behind Bryan saying "Put the cause on top of the guy." With that, the fifth vote was a mere formality, with Bryan claiming victory 652-11. There is still the possibility of Bland on the ticket as a Vice Presidential candidate. He lags far behind in the first vote, but gains the power to win the second and third ballots, albeit again with not enough margin to earn nominations. Bland is currently, never enamored with the idea in the first place, refusing his name to be considered in a further vote, paving the way for Arthur Sewall to become Bryan's ticketing ticket.

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Death

Richard P. Bland died at his home in Lebanon, Missouri on June 15, 1899. He had failed health for several years, and in the spring of 1899 returned to Lebanon from Washington, DC to recover from a severe throat infection, but his condition only worsened. She is buried in the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Lebanon, Missouri. A crowd of several thousand people flocked to the small town of Missouri Ozarks to attend Bland's funeral.

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Personal life

Richard Bland married Virginia Elizabeth Mitchell from Rolla on December 19, 1873. Ny. Bland is the daughter of Confederate General Ewing Young Mitchell. The couple had a total of nine children, six who were alive at the time of his death: Theodric, Ewing, Frances, John, George, and Virginia. Blands marriage was rather unusual for a period of time, he became a Protestant and the son of a trained Presbyterian minister, and he became a Catholic. Children were raised in the Catholic faith, something that along with his marriage caused criticism and bigotry by opponents during the year 1896 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. To reply to the critics, Bland states: "Yes, my wife is a Roman Catholic and I am a Protestant, and will live and die, but my regret is that I am not half Christian like the woman who bears my name and is the mother of my children."

Bland is a Freemason, a member of the 231 Lodge in Rolla, Missouri. One of his siblings, Charles C. Bland's brother, was also involved with a legal profession, which eventually served as a judge at the 18th Missouri Court of Justice. Bland Ewing's younger brother Mitchell, Jr., with his help being a US Senate page in 1886 and will remain in politics for the rest of his life, eventually became Assistant Minister of Trade under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.