About this series
Leading up to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, the Rocky is combing its archives to pull out the political news of 100 years ago, when the city hosted its first Democratic National Convention from July 7 to 10, 1908.
Headlines from 100 years ago
PEPSI CENTER -- The controversial vote has been the sticking point between the Obama and Clinton camps throughout the convention.
The Democratic Party, which met in Denver 100 years ago as the party of Jim Crow and ardent segregationists, is reconvening here to nominate a black man for president of the United States.
Front Page July 12, 1908: The Rocky Mountain News believes that the city of Denver should recognize the people who fought to bring the Democratic National Convention to Denver. The benefits to having the convention in the Queen City have clearly been a success, with nearly every visitor proclaiming how great of a city it is. The convention has marked a new epoch in the city of Denver and the state of Colorado whereas future conventions of every nature will flock west to the Queen City of the Plains.
Front Page July 11, 1908: William Jennings Bryan of Fairview, Neb., has been nominated to be the Democratic candidate for the presidency for the third time. Sen. John W. Kern of Indiana has been nominated as his running mate to complete the 1908 Democratic ticket. The supporters of Minnesota Gov. John Johnson and Delaware Judge George Gray were the first to pledge their total to support to Bryan and Kern.
Front Page July 10, 1908: Rocky Mountain News writer Damon Runyon interviews William Jennings Bryan, the likely choice for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
Front Page July 9, 1908: The speech by Sen. Thomas Gore of Oklahoma to the delegates at the Democratic National Convention yesterday caused cheering and shouting that lasted for nearly an hour and a half.
Front Page July 8, 1908: Temporary Chairman Theodore Bell in his keynote address to begin the Democratic National Convention engaged in a bitter dispute with Standard Oil representative James Guffey.
Front Page July 7, 1908: Theodore Bell of California is determined to be temporary chairman of the Democratic National Convention when it begins at noon today. Bell began his trip yesterday from Lincoln, Neb., and used a handcart to travel eight miles down the tracks, using just his arm power, to a special train that should get him to Denver today.
Front Page July 5 & 6, 1908: The states that Democratic presidential candidates Judge George Gray and Gov. John Johnson said were locks to vote against presumptive nominee William Jennings Bryan actually look to be solid for the commoner. Polls of supposed opposition stronghold states Massachusetts, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey and New Hampshire found that all of the states would nominate Bryan, with very few delegates opposed to him.
Front Page July 4, 1908: Charley Murphy, the “Great Chief” of Tammany Hall, has repudiated Judge Alton Parker, who traveled with the Chief, for trying to question Bryan’s policies in the resolution honoring the late President Grover Cleveland.
Front Page July 3, 1908: New York Judge Alton B. Parker, the 1904 Democratic presidential candidate, drafted a resolution for the Democratic National Convention eulogizing the late Grover Cleveland, the last Democratic president, who died last week.
Front Page July 2, 1908: The Denver Convention League had asked for 8,000 tickets for local people to be able to witness the convention, but the National Committee has only released 1,550 tickets to the city.
Front Page July 1, 1908: Extensive preparations are being made by the various local reception committees to see that the delegates and visitors to the Democratic convention next week are given such a welcome as was never before accorded those who attended a political convention.
Front Page June 30, 1908: Judge Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate for the 1904 election, wires that he will be in Denver Wednesday to lead the fight for a "conservative" platform similar to the one he ran on four years ago.
Front Page June 29, 1908: James Manahan from Minnesota has arrived in Denver and is intent on ending the Johnson boom that has threatened to arise at the Convention.
Front Page June 28, 1908: "Denver is ready for the Democratic national convention," says Charles W. Franklin, chairman of the arrangements committee of the Denver Convention League. "
Front Page June 27, 1908: The fact that Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, succeeded in electing an anti-Bryan delegation from Georgia has given fresh courage to the supporters of Gov. John Johnson of Minnesota, who are now bending every effort to defeat the commoner on the first ballot.
Front Page June 26, 1908: All notion of a contest against William Jennings Bryan in the Democratic convention that might have existed in the minds of followers of Gov. John Johnson of Minnesota and Federal Judge George Gray of Delaware was dissipated yesterday.
Front Page June 25, 1908: The Jane Jefferson Club of Colorado plans to go to the Democratic National Convention in order to secure recognition as a national organization. The women discussed the plan at the Savoy hotel, and also talked about providing entertainment during the Convention.
Front Page June 24, 1908: Mrs. Roger Sullivan, the wife of prominent Chicago politician Roger Sullivan, is content to stay away from politics, and believes more women should follow her example.
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