Napoleon Of The Everglades

Rumors floated throughout the summer of '08. Would Florida's popular governor become his party's vice presidential nominee?

Alas, as so often happens, the political gods denied Florida's place in the sun. The year was 1908, and the touted politician was Democratic Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward.

Endowed with an irresistible name and imbued with a storybook resume, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward's history seemed like a script written by central casting. But the real life biography of the former sheriff and gun smuggler needed few cinematic flourishes.

Born in Jacksonville in 1857, the descendent of French Huguenots, Broward's earliest memories were scarred by the sight of Union troops torching his home; the deaths of his parents; and the hardscrabble life following military defeat.

By the time Broward reached age 50, he had been a rail splitter, riverboat captain, county sheriff, an intrepid smuggler of arms to Cuban freedom fighters, and governor of Florida.

Broward fought the state's powerful railroad interests and earned a reputation as a populist Democrat, but one issue captured the public imagination: a crusade to drain the Everglades.

"Yes, the Everglades is a swamp," he allowed, then added, "So was Chicago 60 years ago!"

To Broward's thinking, Florida's problem was simple: The state had too few farmers and too much water. The solution was also simple: dredge canals and gravity will carry the water toward the oceans. Standing near the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, he pointed south and proclaimed famously, "Water will flow downhill."

In 1906, the first canal was dug from the New River in Fort Lauderdale to the Everglades. The newly exposed muck land, officials predicted, would lure yeoman farmers who would turn South Florida into an agricultural paradise.

Broward's reputation soared. The press touted Broward as a perfect running mate for Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Bryan, "The Great Commoner" and "Prairie Populist" had already lost presidential contests in 1896 and 1900, but party faithful were certain that the stars were aligned for the Democrats to defeat the courtly and portly Ohio Republican William Howard Taft.

When Democrats gathered in Denver in July 1908, a Bryan-Broward ticket seemed possible, but not everyone in Florida approved. When the Tallahassee Sun found out that Broward planned to be in Denver, an editor pointed out the governor's fondness for travel.

"Please don't blame the governor for going," he wrote. "He has been bitten by the migratory microbe and has wanderlust."

En route to Denver, Broward stopped in Lincoln, Neb., to pay homage to the party's standard bearer and enjoy a fried chicken picnic at the Bryans' home. Aboard the train, the Southern delegation whooped and hollered when they entered Denver and saw a banner: "BRYAN, BROWARD, AND BREAD."

As an Old South stalwart, Broward was especially popular in Dixie. In his April 1907 state-of-the-state address, the governor had urged the mass removal and recolonization of African Americans.

"The educated Negro can look back with no pride upon the past history of his race," he contended. "Nor can he look forward to a time when his race can hope to control the politics of the country or regulate society."

But Bryan decided he didn't need Broward to win the Solid South, so he picked Indiana Sen. John W. Kern to join the Democratic ticket. But Taft, riding a wave of Republican prosperity, won the election.

A century after Florida Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward narrowly missed becoming a vice presidential candidate, the Democratic Party nominated Barack Obama in Denver, the very place that the white supremacist Broward had been thwarted.

Broward, disappointed but unbowed, entered Florida's U.S. Senate race in 1910 and won the primary. A victory in the Democratic primary was tantamount to election, so he looked forward to becoming the first Floridian to be elected governor and U.S. Senator.

But fate intervened. Resting at the family home on Fort George Island, he suffered a severe attack of gallstones. His condition worsened and he died in October 1910.