Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925

William Jennings Bryan attempts to tear down American flags in Cuba and the Philippines. The spirit of General Henry Ware Lawton, who was killed in the Philippines, orders Bryan to “Halt!” The stripes on the American flag in the Philippines are labeled “Honor, Patriotism, Commercial Progress, National Dignity, Glory, Duty to Humanity, [and] National Self-Respect.” A headstone on the bottom right reads, “The American Soldier, who died for his country after planting this flag.”

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This cartoon that was dated after the presidential election of 1900, but drawn and printed beforehand. Cartoonist Louis Dalrymple was obliged to draw a general-theme commentary on a major theme of William Jennings Bryan’s campaign: anti-Imperialism. Puck had been a proponent of the war, and supported American expansionism.

Richard Croker, looking pleased with himself, holds a large knife labeled “Tammany Vote” behind his back. Hobbling down the road in the background is a wounded William Jennings Bryan.

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“Boss” Richard Croker was perhaps the most coarse of Tammany Hall’s leaders through the years. He was likely as corrupt as any of the Democrat power-brokers in that role, and none were were more brutal. He survived a trial for killing a man, and typically made millions of dollars from salaries that officially were meager. In 1900 he had little enthusiasm for William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic presidential candidate, yet dutifully supported the ticket. Tammany’s candidates vastly outperformed Bryan, somehow, in the city’s wards. In the few subsequent years Tammany candidates fared less well, and Croker moved to Ireland, the land of his birth. By that time he parlayed his successful business of breeding racehorses, scoring notable victories in England, Ireland, and the United States. This cartoon depicts the wealthy Croker, attired in pretentious garb with Irish touches, holding a knife of a treacherous “ally,”as the wounded Bryan limps into the sunset.

Uncle Sam holds a rifle labeled “Prosperity” in his right hand and a hammer in his left hand. He has just nailed a fox pelt labeled “Bryanism” to the wall of a log cabin.

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As a summary, a simple post-mortem, of the 1900 election, by the end of November Puck expressed the situation, and the hope, that “Bryanism” was dead. William Jennings Bryan ran again in 1908, and served as king-maker, and Secretary of State, in Woodrow Wilson’s political career in 1912 and afterwards, but Keppler’s cartoon expressed the current situation. Perhaps unknowingly, for all the issues enunciated by Bryan, it was prosperity that made his economic cure-alls practically irrelevant. Ironically, “Bryanism” itself did not wholly die, as Theodore Roosevelt and others eventually transformed or absorbed many of its aspects into their programs.

President William McKinley, standing, leads a toast to a dejected William Jennings Bryan, who is sitting in a chair labeled “Guest of Honor.” Seated around the table are, among others, Governor “Teddy” Roosevelt, Senator Mark “Hanna,” Benjamin B. “Odell,” Jr., and “Tim” Woodruff. Caption: Toastmaster McKinley. — Let us conclude our Thanksgiving Dinner with a toast to the man who made it so easy for us!

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The defeated Democrat presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, drawn in exaggerated vertical aspect, is “honored” as being the chief cause of the Republican celebration: his policies were toxic to voters. Other celebrants depicted include New York senators Chauncey Depew and Thomas Collier Platt, New York’s former governor Frank S Black, and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. The depiction of Theodore Roosevelt is uncharacteristic — he never was known to have smoked, and he was a famous teetotaler. 

The Democratic Party platform is in flames with a donkey labeled “Democratic Party” rising from the flames as the mythological phoenix. Eleven Democratic Party members have gathered around the fire to supplicate the supernatural being. Caption: The Democratic Phoenix. — If they’d just keep that Bryan boy from playing around me with matches I wouldn’t have to do this stunt every four years.

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The caption of Keppler’s cartoon is cynical, sarcastic, and true. The Democratic Party had been for years its own worst enemy, in electoral terms. Some of the leading Democratic politicians and journalists praying for the scruffy Phoenix to rise include former cabinet member William C. Whitney, Senator John T Morgan of Alabama, U.S. Representative Bourke Cochran, former Governor David Bennett Hill of New York, Senator Arthur Pue Gorman of Maryland, and Henry Watterson, Editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. 

Former president Grover Cleveland is a doctor at a bedside, attending to a donkey labeled “Dem. Party” suffering from an undisclosed illness (Bryanism or the failure of the Democratic Party in the presidential election). On a table is a spoon and bowl labeled “First principles of Democracy.”

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In his post-presidential years, Grover Cleveland was reluctant to speak or write on public subjects. Beginning in 1900, driven partly by financial considerations and by public entreaties, he selectively spoke and wrote on public issues. In 1901 he yielded to invitations to opine on the health and future of his Democratic Party, so brutalized after two unsuccessful presidential campaigns of William Jennings Bryan, and by the McKinley Prosperity that had eclipsed the Depression in Cleveland’s second term. This cartoon likely comments on Cleveland’s role as political oracle, commencing in a series of articles for The Saturday Evening Post.

William Jennings Bryan pulls on strings attached to a skeleton labeled “16 to 1” trying to make it jump like a wooden toy. Caption: Bryan–They say it’s dead! Can’t you see it move?

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William Jennings Bryan, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, where he would be nominated for President a second time, is depicted by cartoonist Keppler as relatively dignified, but continuing to be the political charlatan Puck always considered him to be. Despite a mild anti-Imperialist focus to his speeches and the party platform taking shape, Bryan continued to argue for an issue largely extinct: the free coinage of silver to gold at a ratio of 16 to 1, his 1896 theme.

William Jennings Bryan, standing in the “Presidential Sea,” pulls on a rope tied to a shipwreck labeled “Democracy” which was “Stranded 1896” on rocks labeled “16 to 1,” “Bryanism,” and “Bourbonism,” while a bearded old man labeled “Populist,” wearing overalls, is trying to help, using a large hook to pull the ship off the rocks.

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In a cartoon that was about as sympathetic to Williams Jennings Bryan as Puck could muster, “the Commoner’s” plight is depicted abstractly, except for the silent irony that one of the rocks on which the Democratix Party foundered in the previous campaign was “Bryanism” itself. In fact, the situation pictured in J. S. Pughe’s cartoon was prophetic. The renominated candidate was trounced by President McKinley and the Republicans.

William Jennings Bryan, with a huge smile, sits on the Democratic donkey labeled “Democracy” with a long, sad face. Bryan is gleefully waving his hat in the direction of a violent riot involving street railroads and an angry mob, with gunshots and explosions as the crowd overturns a streetcar.

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On the very week that the Democratic Party met in Kansas City to nominate a presidential ticket, Puck tweaked the party (“Democracy”) and its predicted candidate William Jennings Bryan over the logical extension of its previous national platform (Chicago convention, 1896) — labor strife. Over the summer of 1900, a violent streetcar workers’ strike smoldered in St Louis, at the other end of the state. By the time it ended, 14 people had been killed and more than 200 injured. Bryan’s views on labor and unions were indicted in Pughe’s cartoon.

William Jennings Bryan is a large snake labeled “Populist Party” entwined around a donkey labeled “Democratic Party.” The snake is about to swallow the donkey.

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Despite the Populist Party being a shadow of its once-disruptive self in 1900, and no longer an influence on American party politics, largely the result of its own success, principally the dominance of its ally William Jennings Bryan, Puck strongly makes the point that Populist principles had subsumed the traditional identity and positions of the Democratic Party.

William Jennings Bryan leads a donkey labeled “Dem” carrying a heavy load, including the “Democratic Platform” strewn with bunting, boxes labeled “Anti-expansion,” “Anti-trust,” and “Free riot,” two bars of silver labeled “16 to 1” and “Free silver,” a millstone labeled “Populism,” and a bomb labeled “Dynamite.” They are about to enter a large ear horn or trumpet labeled “To the White House,” which is visible in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-07-18

At a table set for a meal, President William McKinley, on the left, and William Jennings Bryan, on the right, each offer up a steaming plate of bloated male figures labeled “Commercial Trusts,” to a much larger man sitting between them. The man wears a napkin tied around his neck labeled “Labor Trust” and holds a knife and fork. Caption: Both candidates promise to serve up the little trusts to the big one.

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This cartoon shows a familiar scenario in American politics at the mid-point in presidential elections. The issues and figures change, but rivals often make appeals to — or pander to — the same potential voting groups. Laborers, the rising middle class in 1900, represented a sizable portion of the electorate, even if individual or industries had influences in their spheres. 

An elderly German American man, with one hand pointing to his head and the other pointing to a coin bank labeled “Savings Bank” on a table, winks to reinforce that he thinks his investments in the “U.S. Bonds” protruding from his vest and his savings are wise decisions. On the left is a poster showing a bust portrait of President William McKinley labeled “Expansion” and captioned “Gold Standard and Sound Money,” and on the right is a poster showing a bust portrait of William Jennings Bryan labeled “Anti-Expansion” and captioned “Repudiation and 16 to 1.”

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The readership of Puck was reliably and generally regarded as German-American, above any other affiliation. It began as a German-language weekly and still published a German edition when this cartoon was published. Usually Democratic in its political views, except in years that William Jennings Bryan was not a candidate, this cartoon posed a question but strongly implied the answer: wise, thrifty, and sober German-Americans would support President William McKinley (as Puck did, editorially, that year.)

William Jennings Bryan, with a prosthesis labeled “Anti-Expansion” attached to the knee on his right leg, which is labeled “16 to 1,” walks with the aid of a wooden cane labeled “Populism.” In his left hand, he carries a small receptacle labeled “votes.”

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This cartoon is brilliant in its simplicity and iconography. Cartoonist Keppler executes a masterful caricature of a morose Democrat Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan. The issue on which he was defeated four years earlier is the lame limb labeled with the slogan of Free Silver, 16 To 1. The prosthesis, 1900’s thematic hope of the Democrats, is a weak crutch labeled “anti-expansion.” Bryan had volunteered and was named a Colonel in the Nebraska National Guard during the Spanish-American War, so even those views were suspect. In a final touch, the cartoonist replaced the beggar’s tin cup with a traditional ballot box of the day.

William Jennings Bryan carries a banner that states “16 to 1 will help you,” and Adlai E. Stevenson carries a banner that states “I ran with Cleveland, vote for me.” They stand in front of a gigantic farmer who has swelled to enormous proportions on profits from wheat, cotton, and other farm produce.

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In 1896, with a devastating depression in recent memory, the Presidential campaign arguments of Democrats and Populists were largely economic. However, they lost in large numbers to the Republican Party. Again the nominee, William Jennings Bryan found his old message irrelevant in the face of the McKinley prosperity. Cleveland’s second Vice President, Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, was put on Bryan’s 1900 ticket, in hopes of appealing to more conservative Democrats.

President William McKinley stands on the steps to the U.S. Capitol, holding up two flags, one labeled “Expansion” and the other labeled “Sound Money.” Tiny figures at the foot of the steps show William Jennings Bryan and his “Anti-Expansion” and “16 to 1” followers trying to dislodge the flag poles.

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Puck never shed its Democratic roots more than in campaigns where William Jennings Bryan was its party’s nominee, especially in 1900. The portrait of McKinley virtually is hagiographic. Even with two major issues, the Democrats found scarce traction with voters. The Anti-Expansion “pigmies” include Carl Schurz, left; and Joseph Pulitzer, right. Two of the “16 to 1” (free silver) opponents are Senator George Frisbie Hoar, left; Adlai E. Stevenson, with the straw hat; and Bryan, with the banner.

William Jennings Bryan offers his small, ineffective umbrella labeled “16 to 1,” “Anti-trust,” and “Anti-Expansion,” to a woman labeled “Columbia” who is carrying a more effective umbrella labeled “Prosperity.” Caption: Bryan. — Won’t you come under my umbrella?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-09-05

Members of the Democratic Party labeled “Sound Money Democrats” cast votes for President William McKinley and show their support for the “Sound Money” platform of the Republican Party. On the left is a little man representing a faction of the Populist Party, flying a banner with a portrait of William Jennings Bryan; and in the background is the deserted Democratic Party Platform, flying a banner labeled “Democrat No Nomination.”

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The man under the Populist banner is Senator William A. Peffer of Kansas, one of six Populists to serve in the United States Senate. He served one term, 1891-1897, but maintained political ambitions, and Populist ideals. Among the “Gold Democrats’ who stayed loyal to President Cleveland in 1896 and declined to support William Jennings Bryan, some continued to support Republican President McKinley in 1900. This cartoon seems more appropriate for 1896, but shows how shunned Bryan was among some Democrats with long memories and “Sound Money” principles. They are not labeled, but some of Democrats shown voting for McKinley are (foreground) John M. Palmer, the so-called National Democratic Party candidate for President in 1896; and (background, with shaded spectacles) William C. Whitney, who had been President Cleveland’s Secretary of the Navy. Whitney was a hunting partner of Theodore Roosevelt, and whose son Harry married Gertrude Vanderbilt, founder of the Whitney Museum of Art; and whose other son William married Helen Hay, poet and daughter of Roosevelt’s Secretary of State John Hay. The daughter of Harry and Gertrude was Flora Payne Whitney, who engaged to be married to Theodore’s son Quentin when the latter was killed in aerial combat in World War I.

William Jennings Bryan stands in front of a tree labeled “Business,” looking up at three men, labeled “Manufacturing Trust,” “Labor Trust,” and “Farmer Trust,” on a limb labeled “Combination” that they are cutting off with a saw labeled “Agitation.” The “Manufacturing Trust” is furthest out on the limb, but both the “Labor Trust” and the “Farmer Trust” are also on the side of the limb being cut off. Caption: Bryan–Hurry up with the saw and give that fellow a fall!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-01-24

Illustration showing Admiral George Dewey as a circus clown, with William Jennings Bryan on a donkey labeled “Dem Party” and William McKinley on an elephant labeled “GOP” under the big top of a circus. Puck, as the ringmaster, stands in the background.

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Admiral George Dewey was the Hero of Manila Bay. After following the orders of Acting Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt and moving America’s Pacific Fleet to the Philippines in contingency of war with Spain, when war came, the fleet completely destroyed Spain’s fleet with virtually no damage to the American Naval force. Dewey returned to America a popular man whose political prowess was less astute. He accepted the gift of a public-subscribed house and then signed it away to his new wife, a divorced Catholic woman, offending many groups of that day. He allowed himself to be drawn into politics — at least to dabble — by a brother-in-law who wound up abandoning Dewey’s ambitions. In the space of a year the hero widely was seen as an inept clown indeed. It took a lot for Puck to depict William Jennings Bryan, the ultimate Democrat nominee, as reasonably dignified, but the contrast was marked.