Golden Silence

William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party's candidate for President on three occasions and a serious contender for the nomination at several other party conventions. But by 1920 his influence was waning. At the convention in San Francisco that year, Bryan proposed five planks for the party platform, and all were defeated. His most serious effort was to get the party to endorse prohibition. The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution about prohibition had been ratified on January 16, 1919, and became effective on the same date in 1920. In a sense, his plank was meaningless since prohibition was the law.

In this image, cartoonist Clifford Berryman shows a mourning Bryan, top hat in hand and a "dry plank" under his arm, at a tombstone inscribed "the love of W. J. Bryan done to death at Frisco 1920."

Berryman was one of Washington, DC's best-known cartoonists in the early to mid-1900s. He drew for the Washington Post and Evening Star newspapers. His cartoons touched on a variety of subjects including politics, elections, and both World Wars.