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David B. Hill wears an “I am a Democrat” feather and speaks to William Jennings Bryan, who has a Democratic donkey in his pocket. Caption: Brer Dave Hill—Habn’t seen a stray donkey, hab ye? Brer Bill Bryan—Do you call it a donkey? I picked up what ‘peared to me a scared rabbit.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11
President Roosevelt rides a Republican elephant over Alton B. Parker and a Democratic donkey. The “prosperity” sun can be seen in the background.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-09
William Randolph Hearst paints a donkey yellow from a bucket of paint labeled “Riot & Rottenness.” He holds the donkey by a bridle labeled “Dem. State Machine.” A dog, with the countenance of Hearst’s able amanuensis Arthur Brisbane, plays Buster’s dog Tige in this cartoon.
Once the Yellow Journalist publisher and New York congressman William Randolph Hearst declared his interest in the 1906 gubernatorial contest as a Democrat, Udo J. Keppler and his Puck magazine fired weekly salvos against him.
A large donkey sits on its haunches, wearing a Rough Rider hat and spectacles, and smiling like Theodore Roosevelt at the diminutive figures of Alton B. Parker and William Jennings Bryan. Caption: The Democratic Donkey is beginning to look like somebody.
This Puck cover cartoon is typical of the best by Udo J. Keppler — a clever observation that stands the test of time; simplicity that requires few captions; and master caricatures.
The “Democratic Party” donkey and the “Republican Party” elephant sit on a porch. A stork carrying a bag labeled “Dr. Stork” is coming around the corner of the building. Caption: Will it be an elephass or a jackaphant?
A mid-summer cartoon — Puck almost palpably enjoyed a few weeks of politics, scandals, and muckraking on hiatus — addressing, with added humor, common speculation that the two political parties were growing similar to each other, or perhaps switching their identities.
The Democratic Donkey, as a woman, sits in a pew in a church with William Jennings Bryan preaching “Jeffersonian Simplicity” from a pulpit. On Bryan’s left are Alton B. Parker, Henry Watterson, and William Randolph Hearst, and among those on his right are New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr., former Representative Tom Watson of Georgia, Representative John Sharp Williams of Mississippi, and Senator “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman. All are preaching except Hearst, who righteously looks up to the heavens. In the background, the sun illuminates a stained glass window labeled “Our Thomas” and showing Thomas Jefferson. In a far corner of the church, Grover Cleveland is asleep. Caption: The Democratic Donkey (drowsily) — He-e-e Haw! What a lot of ways to be saved!
If “politics makes strange bedfellows,” the calendar can make them even stranger. Puck Magazine, generally and justly considered a Democratic journal for most of its life, placed itself in agreement with many of the policies of the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, after the assassination of President William McKinley. That is, until the presidential election year of 1904.
An elderly man labeled “Corporation Magnate” is sandwiched between the Republican Elephant and the Democratic Donkey, each holding out cups labeled, respectively, “Rep. Campaign Funds” and “Dem Campaign Funds”, seeking contributions. Caption: “Gentlemen, I cannot; my moral sense forbids!”
Joseph Keppler, Junior, in this cover cartoon from Puck, tweaks the generic plutocrat after an intense period of chastisement. The administration of Theodore Roosevelt began “trust busting” in its first months and seldom flagged in its zeal. For at least two years, the writers labelled Muckrakers (by President Roosevelt) had burned the pages of numerous magazines, newspapers, and books with exposes and revelations about corruption in big business. In the House of Representatives, a rising corps of Republican “insurgents” picked up where Democratic Populists left off (or effectively joined forces) and fashioned a program of regulatory reform, sometimes radical in nature, to counter elements of Big Business, Big Banking, and Trusts.
Judge Alton B. Parker pulls a donkey to safety across a bridge constructed of planks labeled “Conservatism, Sanity, Tariff Reform, [and] Anti-Trust.” Falling into the chasm are William Jennings Bryan, hanging onto the “Financial Plank,” and David B. Hill. The donkey’s bridle is labeled “Telegram.”
In 1904, presidential candidates did not attend their nominating conventions. The ritual included informing the candidate by telegram and the candidate’s acceptance by telegram, followed by transmission of the platform, and delegations visiting the candidates’ homes for the”formal” notifications and acceptance speeches.
An old woman labeled “Miss Democracy” rides on the Democratic donkey along a dirt road labeled “Political Pike.” A banner labeled “S and S” (Safe and Sane) hangs from the donkey’s neck. In the background, the Republican elephant labeled “G.O.P.”, ridden by George B. Cortelyou, is leaning against a tree. Caption: The Elephant — Well, gee whiz! Who’d have thought it?!
Cartoonist Pughe’s depiction of the Democratic Party’s happiness, and Puck‘s own confidence, over the transformation of Populist ideology and return of conservative values, reflected facts, but the reality was short-lived as well as futile. Theodore Roosevelt’s Republican Party was moving closer to reform views first advanced by William Jennings Bryan (the Democratic presidential candidate in 1896 and 1900) and, overall, was overwhelmingly popular with citizens.
Democrats and Republicans, capitalists, social reformers, political symbols, and others enjoy a summer outing at a park.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904-08-17
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.”
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.
The “Dem. Party” donkey with six followers places “Cleveland’s cradle 1884” into a river. Pyramids are visible in the background.
This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior mirrors very closely — down to the poses and scenery — a Puck cartoon by Bernhard Gillam almost exactly 20 years previous. In both cartoons, the Democratic Party was desperate for a Moses to lead from the political wilderness. The party in 1883 had been out of national power for 33 years; at the time of this cartoon they had not occupied the White House for six years. Grover Cleveland had been the only Democratic president since before Abraham Lincoln. In fact, it is Cleveland’s name inside the empty cradle.
A donkey labeled “Democratic Party” stares at a dog labeled “Bryan” with the face of William Jennings Bryan, lying on a bed of hay labeled “Nomination.”
William Jennings Bryan had twice led his party to defeat, in 1896 and 1900, as the Democrat standard-bearer. As such, however, he was still the nominal head of the national party, despite the partisans of former president Grover Cleveland and a scarce few others. In the mid-term elections of 1902 (this cartoon appearing in the midst of that campaign) Bryanites held sway, but poor electoral results, coupled with the immense popularity of President Roosevelt, would disabuse Bryan and his followers of a third straight nomination in 1904. A conservative presidential candidate, Judge Alton Brooks Parker of New York, was nominated for president and state tickets reflected a less Populist tone in platforms. The Democrats lost by record margins in 1904, and Bryan returned in 1908 as presidential candidate.
William Jennings Bryan stands with the Democratic Donkey with bandages labeled “1896” and “1900.” They are watching David B. Hill, sporting a feather in his cap labeled “I’m a New Dem.”, getting into an automobile labeled “The New Democracy” with passengers William C. Whitney, Perry or August Belmont, Jr., and driver Daniel S. Lamont.
Very seldom did cartoonists depict the Democratic donkey as something that could actually be ridden, or almost so. In Pughe’s cartoon the donkey of two-time standard-bearer William Jennings Bryan has two bad legs: his failed presidential campaigns. The cartoonist seizes upon the opportunity to depict a new-fangled automobile. What likely dismays Bryan is not only the “old versus the new”; three of the four “New” Democrats in the car are industrialists — William C. Whitney, one of the two Belmont brothers, and Daniel C. Lamont. Only David Bennett Hill is the traditional politcian; for two years the former governor aspired to be president — but when he dissented from Bryan’s populism, Hill famously declared “I am a Democrat” (and cartoonists thereafter drew him with a feather in his hat bearing that legend), which is here updated to “I am a NEW Democrat.”
A man, probably Perry Belmont, labeled “New Democracy,” wears a hat with plume labeled “1904” and holds a crossbow labeled “Jeffersonian Principles.” William Jennings Bryan sits on the Democratic donkey, speaking and gesticulating wildly with his hands. His hat labeled “Populism” hangs on a post on which is a note that states “Please Bow. W.J.B.”
Perry Belmont and his brother August H. Belmont, Jr., seldom were more than behind-the-scenes brokers in the Democratic Party. Their father, August Belmont, Senior (nee August Shoenberg in Germany and originally the American representative of the Rothschild banking interests) likewise was a quiet influence, although he had served as Chairman of the Democrat Party. In 1901 the Belmont brothers went public with criticism of William Jennings Bryan and the Populist influence on their party. Perry, likely Dalrymple’s subject, is wearing a feather labeled “1904,” but he never had electoral ambitions of his own: his public criticism at this time was focused on the fortunes of the national Democratic Party, specifically the 1904 presidential election. At this time there were movements of reform aimed at the self-described reformers in the Democratic Party, Bryanites and former Populists. At the time of this cartoon, Seth Low resigned as president of Columbia University to run for New York City mayor on the Citizens Union (Fusion) ticket, and attracted anti-Tammany Democrat support in his victory.
William Jennings Bryan stands in the stirrups of his mount, a donkey labeled “Democracy,” directing the honor guard led by Adlai E. Stevenson, and including Henry R. Towne, Joseph Pulitzer, and Carl Schurz carrying a large flag with a portrait of Emilio Aguinaldo under the heading “The George Washington of the Philippines.” Also included are Oswald Ottendorfer, Edwin Lawrence Godkin, William Bourke Cockran, John Peter Altgeld, and William Sulzer.
Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary campaigns for Filipino independence from Spain began in the 1890s, variously as a guerilla and conventional armed insurrection, through the Spanish-American War, ultimately with and against the victorious American liberators. As a rebel leader his forces sustained and committed atrocities. He was captured and then released by President Theodore Roosevelt as part of the United States’ general amnesty, a putative end of hostilities. Aguinaldo became a hero to his countrymen and a symbol for the cause of American anti-imperialists. Of William Jennings Bryan’s ragtag “army” on this political issue, their professions provide a hint of the American movement’s constituents: Stevenson was Bryan’s running mate, committed to the Democrat party plank; Pulitzer, Schurz, Ottendorfer, and Godkin were editors and publishers; Towne was an industrialst (Yale locks); Bouke Cochran a politician and orator of unorthodox consistency; Altgeld the radical Governor of Illinois (famous for partiality to the Haymarket bombers); Sulzer a New York politcian who eventually became Governor, only to be impeached. Cartoonist Pughe clearly considered the leadership of Bryan (on an undersized donkey) and the number and prowess of the “guard” to be targets of ridicule.
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.
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.”
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, 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.
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.
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.