William Jennings Bryan had a job.
William Jennings Bryan . In the intensely fought 1896 and 1900 elections , he was defeated by William McKinley but retained control of the Democratic Party . With over 500 speeches in 1896 , Bryan invented the national stumping tour in an era when other presidential candidates stayed home . President Wilson appointed him Secretary of State in 1913 . After 1920 , he turned to Christian fundamentalism ; he supported Prohibition and attacked Darwinism and evolution , most famously at the Scopes Trial in 1925 in Tennessee .