But you can’t make him drink
Subject(s): Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925, Democracy, Democratic donkey (Symbolic character), Missouri, Political conventions, Political parties--Platforms, Populism, Presidents--Election
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William Jennings Bryan, his hat falling to the ground and with one foot braced against a water trough, tries to pull a donkey labeled “Democracy” to the trough where the water is labeled “Bryanism,” the trough is labeled “Kansas City Platform,” and the pump is labeled “Populism.”
Comments and Context
This simple cartoon by Joseph Keppler encapsulates the situation the Democratic Party found itself in between the presidential elections of 1900 and 1908. Very simply, William Jennings Bryan, the young Nebraska congressman, had dominated the party and its councils since his “Cross of Gold” speech electrified the nominating convention in 1896 and catapulted him into the presidential candidacy. The force of his personality, and his startling agenda of Populist reforms, likely played equal roles in his leadership.
These factors, however, did not lead to success at the polls. In fact Bryan, who added anti-expansionism to his personal platform, was beaten badly by William McKinley, twice. And the party’s prospects looked no brighter for 1904, with Theodore Roosevelt as the likely Republican opponent.
Conservative Democratic leaders who never softened to Bryan’s views regained much of the party machinery by the time the convention assembled in 1904. Bryan reluctantly withdrew from the field of candidates, and his replacement of sorts was the newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, then a radical in Bryan’s mold (on monetary and other issues; not on Imperialism, ass Hearst had been a booster of the Spanish-American War).
Hearst was second in the balloting, but the party’s nomination went to the reclusive jurist from New York State, Alton Brooks Parker. He lost by an unprecedented margin in the Fall to Theodore Roosevelt.
Pughe’s cartoon illustrates that after eight years, the Democratic Party had lost its taste for Bryan’s Populist water. In the background, laughing at the scene, was longtime Democrat leader Senator Arthur Pue Gorman of Maryland, who made his last futile attempt for the presidency in 1904, but was a force at the convention.
Gorman, in his early 20s, was star player and eventual owner of one of the first organized baseball teams in the United States, the Washington Nationals. He held various positions in state and national governments until was elected senator from Maryland. A virulent opponent of blacks, he disenfranchised many in Maryland, because they were reliable Republican voters. Always a leader of the “Bourbon” (conservative) Democrats, Gorman’s politics were malleable enough, to ally himself with opponents of President Roosevelt’s acquisition of the Panama Canal rights.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1904-02-03
Creator(s)
Period
U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
But you can’t make him drink. [February 3, 1904]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277694. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956. But you can’t make him drink. [3 Feb. 1904]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 26, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277694.
APA:
Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956., [1904, February 3]. But you can’t make him drink.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277694.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 26, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
