Bryan Campaign Song

DESCRIPTION: "Voters come and hear my ditty, What was done at Kansas City, David Hill, the New York Lion, Nominated Billy Bryan." "Get out of the way, you Grand Old Party, You're so old, you're getting warty." Other details of the 1900 convention are summarized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written in 1900)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1900 - William Jennings Bryan makes his second run for President against William McKinley. This song can be linked to the 1900 election because it refers to Kansas City as the site of the nominating convention and it says that David Hill of New York nominated Bryan. It also refers to "Mack and Teddy" -- William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt; Roosevelt was not on the ticket in 1896. Bryan however lost even more decisively than in 1896; in the 1896 election he won 47% of the vote and 176 electoral votes; in 1900, he won 46% of the vote and 155 electoral votes, taking only four states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada) that had not been slave-holding states before the Civil War
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 78-79, "Campaign Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Twenty, "More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1939, p. 20, "Campaign Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (tune)
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [112 words]: For some background on William Jennings Bryan, see "Free Silver," as well as "Bye, Old Grover." See also "Don't You Know (Way Over in Williamson)"
It is ironic to note, in light of the statement that the GOP was so old as to be "getting warty," that, in 1900, the Republican party was only 46 years old -- hardly ancient. Whereas the Democratic Party certainly would have to be traced back at least to Andrew Jackson's campaign of 1824, making it 76 years old. Many people remembered the founding of the Republican Party; few remembered the founding of the Democrats! But perhaps this song was written by a supporter of one of the smaller parties such as the Populists. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Wels078B

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