Willard_Vandiver
Willard Duncan Vandiver
American politician
Willard Duncan Vandiver (March 30, 1854 – May 30, 1932) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Missouri. He is popularly credited with the authorship of the famous expression: "I'm from Missouri, you've got to show me," which led to the state's famous nickname: "The Show Me State".[1] In an 1899 speech, he declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me." This attribution is doubtful, however, as the phrase was current earlier in the 1890s, so it appears that Vandiver merely popularized it.[2]
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