CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BRYAN NAMES MURPHREE FOR THE PRESIDENCY
 "I was born an American; I lived an American; I shall die an
 American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me
 in that character to the end of my career. What is the individual
 man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison
 with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the
 midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate? Let
 the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can
 sufer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he
 fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country."
 -DAmE WEBSTER.

 aLY in 1924, Col. William Jennings Bryan, the
 great Commoner who had served as standard
 bearer for the Democratic party in three races for
 the presidency of the United States, electrified
Florida and the entire south by announcing that he was going
to support Dr. A. A. Murphree, president of the University
of Florida, for president of the United States. Mr. Bryan had
moved his home from Nebraska, where he had won fame as
"The Boy Orator of the Platte," and which state he had hon-
ored as an outstanding citizen for nearly a generation. He
was now located on his beautiful estate at Miami. While it
was evident to all who followed national affairs that the leader-
ship of William Jennings Bryan in the Democratic party had
passed its zenith some years before, yet he was still a power
with which to be reckoned.
 When the sudden announcement came that Dr. Murphree
was Bryan's choice, more than one paper recalled that in 1912
Bryan had faced a deadlocked national Democratic conven-
tion on behalf of a certain university professor and president,
and had seen him nominated to become one of America's great-
est presidents. That Mr. Bryan was sincere in his announce-
ment, there could be no doubt. His statement of the matter,
as given wide publicity by the Associated Press, was as fol-
lows: