Cartoon in the Washington Star

Joseph Gurney Cannon looks at William Jennings Bryan seated on a chair and says, “You remind me of Joab of the Old Testament.” Bryan opens a Bible and replies, “Just you wait! I’ll find a name that’ll fit you!” A donkey in the background says, “Bill knows his book all right!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Clifford Kennedy Berryman’s cartoon characterizing a speech by Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon illustrates several aspects of an earlier time in American history. The speech by Cannon criticized Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

In the first place, reference was made in a speech by a major politician, and is the context of a cartoon in major newspaper, from a relatively minor incident in the Old Testament, and a fleeting reference at that. It was expected that Cannon’s audience, and average newspaper readers, knew the Bible well enough not to need explanations, which would not likely be case a century later. When Cannon caustically wondered whether the Democratic would more appropriately be known as William Joab Bryan, everyday people knew what was meant.

There also is a subtext to the cartoon, as Bryan flips through his Bible. Berryman was making the point of “tables being turned.” Bryan was a lay preacher, a popular speaker at religious gatherings like Chautauqua camps, and claimed to use the Bible as his political and policy guide (for instance, about Prohibition and evolution). For the cartoon to show Bryan feverishly searching scripture for a riposte was to tweak the candidate in a special way.

Cannon has lived in history as a rough-hewn, cigar-smoking czar of the House of Representatives, but this speech reveals him as a clever partisan (he had recently allowed his name to be forward at the presidential nominating convention who knew his Bible; but also could construct a sophisticated argument.

Excerpts of Cannon’s speech in the section where he mocked the Democratic platform’s section on the judiciary, and quoted its language that “the courts are the bulwarks of our liberties, and we yield to none in our purpose to maintain their dignity.” He said, according to newspaper accounts, that “Bryan’s platform renewed the pledge of 1896 [the radical Populist-tinged platform] to compel the federal courts to grant jury trials in contempt cases.”

“This attitude of Mr. Bryan and his party may be illustrated by the story of Joab and Amasa which we find in the Old Testament: ‘And Joab said to Amasa, “Art thou in health my brother?” and Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and spilled out his bowels to the ground.’

“So Mr. Bryan would follow the example of Joab with the Supreme Court. The federal judiciary Is a co-ordinate department of the government, so declared by the Constitution, the writ of injunction and the power to punish for contempt are older than our Constitution. The Constitution recognizes the independence of the judiciary and declares: ‘The Judicial powers shall extend to all “cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution.’

“The difference between the Democratic declaration of 1896 and that of 1908 is only in words; the meaning is the same. In 1896. Mr. Bryan said in his platform just what he meant. This year he seeks softer phraseology and employs the diplomacy of Joab, giving the kiss while he wields the sword. We might appropriately change the name of the Democratic candidate to William Joab Bryan.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-11

Creator(s)

Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949

Language

English

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Page Count

1

Production Method

Printed

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation