It must be traced to a persistence of the old Democratic prejudice that administrative specialization, like other kinds of expert service, implied a discrimination against the average Democrat.
After the revival of prosperity among his own people had shown that partial repudiation was not the only cure for poverty, Mr.Bryan fought his second campaign chiefly on the issue of imperialism, and again met with defeat.

But in this instance his platform was influenced more by Jeffersonian than Jacksonian ideas.

The Jacksonian Democracy had always been expansionist in disposition and policy, and under the influence of their nationalism they had lost interest in Jefferson's humanitarianism.
In this matter, however, Mr.Bryan has shown more sympathy with the first than with the second phase of the Democratic tradition; and in making this choice he was undoubtedly more faithful to the spirit and the letter of the Democratic creed than were the expansionist Democrats of the Middle Period.

The traditional American democracy has frequently been national in feeling, but it has never been national in idea and purpose.

In the campaign of 1900 Mr.Bryan committed himself and his party to an anti-national point of view; and no matter how well intentioned and consistent he was in so doing, he made a second mistake, even more disastrous than the first.