The Cross of Gol speech was a speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speech advocated Bimetallism. At the time, the Democratic Party wanted to standardize the value of the dollar to silver and opposed pegging the value of the United States dollar to a gold standard alone. The inflation that would result from the silver standard would make it easier for farmers and other debtors to pay off their debts by increasing their revenue dollars. It would also reverse the deflation which the U.S. experienced from 1873-1896.