Davis Hanson Waite (April 9, 1825 – November 27, 1901), U.S. Populist Party and Democratic Party politician, served as Governor of Colorado from 1893 to 1895. He was born in Jamestown, New York, and served in the state legislatures of Wisconsin in 1857, and Kansas in 1879, before eventually moving to Colorado, where he started the local newspaper in Aspen, Colorado and was secretary in the local assembly of the Knights of Labor.
A passionate supp...
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Davis Hanson Waite (April 9, 1825 – November 27, 1901), U.S. Populist Party and Democratic Party politician, served as Governor of Colorado from 1893 to 1895. He was born in Jamestown, New York, and served in the state legislatures of Wisconsin in 1857, and Kansas in 1879, before eventually moving to Colorado, where he started the local newspaper in Aspen, Colorado and was secretary in the local assembly of the Knights of Labor.
A passionate supporter of the Populist Party's Omaha Platform, he was nicknamed "Bloody Bridles" for an 1893 speech, in which he proclaimed, "It is better, infinitely better that blood should flow to the horses' bridles rather than our national liberties should be destroyed."
As governor, Waite supported the Western Federation of Miners in its successful 1894 Cripple Creek Strike and that same year the American Railroad Union during the national Pullman Strike. He was also instrumental in the passage of women's suffrage in Colorado during his governorship. He...
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