Q: Why is Missouri called the “Show-Me State”?
A: Every standard-issue license plate in the state carries the “Show-Me State” nickname, but many don’t know how it came to be. While theories abound, most of the credit goes to late Missouri U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver and a speech he gave in 1899. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, he attended a banquet in Philadelphia and declared in a speech, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Since then, the nickname has been used to represent Missourians as strong and conservative people who take pride in being plain spoken and using common sense.
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