Your TR Source
Amidst a grouping of trees, President Roosevelt kicks a “3rd term” coyote off the cliff.
Cartoonist Floyd W. Triggs simultaneously depicted a fact of current events — President Roosevelt’s firm declination of a third term, to succeed himself in 1908 — and seized upon an opportunity to lampoon Roosevelt’s famous hunts, popular written accounts, and his persona as an outdoorsman.
President Roosevelt walks through a forest and is about to step on a “rate bill” animal trap. “The Senate” watches from behind the trees. Caption: Senator Rayner—”But I do say, and I say it again with the greatest respect and reverence for the President, and that the President is so constituted that he cannot look at a trap without fooling with the spring!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-15
President Roosevelt tells stories around the campfire to several young children. He says, “Then that bear stood right straight up on his hind legs and opened his mouth to roar. He had tusks like a walrus and his eyes glowed like coals of fire. His claws—” Caption: The President and ten of the youngsters belonging to the several Roosevelt families have been camping out at the Cape of Happy Chance, near Oyster Bay.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-20
President Roosevelt sits in a chair by the fire and reads a newspaper. A bear skin rug underneath him says, “If mother could see me now!” There are antlers and skins of various animals on the wall. Caption: When the president’s vacation is ended.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-04-23
Alton B. Parker wears a “I am a hero” feather as he attempts to step from “Esopus” to the White House. In the water, there are equations: “open shop = union shop,” “free trade = protection,” “gold = silver,” “trust = anti-trust,” “positive = negative,” and “yes = no perhaps.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-19
On the left hand side of the cartoon, Uncle Sam holds up a “Depart. of Commerce and Labor” blackboard that reads, “cost of living increased 15.5%” A Democratic donkey holds a “calamity” horn and starts to cheer. On the right hand side, Uncle Sam flips the blackboard and hits the donkey on the head. The other side reads, “wages increased 16.6%.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-03
This cartoon shows Alton B. Parker at the voting booth in 1896, 1900, and 1904. In 1896 and 1900, he holds a “ballot (for free silver).” The captions for the first two read, “I voted for Bryan and Free Silver in 1896—” and “And again in 1900—” The last caption for 1904 reads, “But of course I regard the Gold Standard as irrevocably established.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-26
“The trusts” sits at a desk and holds a newspaper with the heading of “Root’s Chicago Speech” as a telephone says, “York for Roosev.” Newsboys bring various newspapers: “Instructs for Roosevelt,” “Penn instructs,” “Indiana instructs for Roosevelt,” “Ohio instructs for Roosevelt,” and “Michigan.” Above the desk is a sign that reads, “Anything (even money) to beat Roosevelt.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-02-25
Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna wears a sign that reads “I am not a candidate” on the front and “But I am willing to be one; trust contributions received here” on the back.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-14
President Roosevelt dives on the “canal treaty” football as an “anti-imperialist” and a “copperhead” attempt to tackle him or slow him down. Alabama Senator John Tyler Morgan jumps in the background. The crowds, meanwhile, chear in favor of Roosevelt, shouting: “Rah” and “He’s all right.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-12
South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman covers his eyes with his left hand and holds up a broken pitchfork in his right as he stands on a pedestal. Caption: Posed by Senator Tillman–Suggested to President Roosevelt’s New Art Commission.
Senator Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina held a pitchfork in cartoonist Floyd W. Triggs’s statue because the senator (proudly) had earned the nickname “Pitchfork Ben” after once wishing to stick President Grover Cleveland, a fellow Democrat, with a pitchfork into a sack of beef fat. During a long career in politics he proudly admitted to scheming the disenfranchisement of blacks, and advocating lynching. In much of the country he was odious, except, obviously, in his home state.
In the first section of the cartoon, “Congress” holds a “public business” basket of eggs, and sticks his tongue out at President Roosevelt. In the second section, the basket is on the ground with a number of broken eggs, and both Roosevelt and “Congress” walk away. “Congress” says, “He’ll never sass me again,” while Roosevelt says, “I beat him to a frazzle.”
This cartoon conveys a message of “a pox on both houses,” revealing bias in favor of neither President Roosevelt nor Congress.
In the upper left, there is a “coat of arms.” There is a gloved hand holding a lantern above a banner that reads, “I turn on the dark lantern.” Underneath is a masked, bearded face and a big stick breaking a pitchfork. The coat of arms says, “All men are liars.” In the upper right, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a President Roosevelt doll. Caption: Foraker takes his turn. On the bottom, South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman uses his pitchfork to remove the lid of the “White House” pot. Caption: Tillman threatens to lift the lid.
Cartoonist Floyd W. Triggs, in the short-lived New York Press, tried his hand at a “turn-about” cartoon then popular as a genre with political cartoonists of the day: unlikely scenes, unexpected results, and so forth. His focus in this cartoon, drawn as the Administration of President Roosevelt was in its last weeks, was on the general theme of the president and his opponents, and his ready tendency to brand people as liars.
Uncle Sam applauds as President Roosevelt leaves the stage. The sign reads: “Monologue: T Roosevelt in the Farewell Message–Next number: Congress in knockabout act.”
The clear point of Floyd W. Triggs’s political cartoon, published after the delivery of President Roosevelt’s Annual Message (now called the State of the Union Address), is approbation — Uncle Sam’s and his own. And, by implication, a censorious prediction of Congress’s reaction to its themes and prescriptions.
President Roosevelt holds a “toga” and a copy of The Outlook magazine in his back pocket with the caption: “Now is the time to subscribe.” Meanwhile, a man says, “I can remember when legislatures used to elect senators.”
During the waning days of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, speculation had been rife, especially in the political class and among cartoonists and writers, just what the man would do with himself after the White House. More pointed was speculation about what the nation would in effect do with the young (fifty-year-old) Roosevelt.
On the eve of the election, vignettes on New York and presidential politics are presented. At the upper left, candidate for Governor of New York Lewis S. Chanler stands tall as two men, including Charles Francis Murphy, look on and say, “Hero.” Caption: Chanler takes a stand at last: He says he is opposed to the shot-gun license law. Opposite this, a banner reads: “We are willing to be regulated but not by Governor Hughes. Charlie Murphy is good enough for us. The Franchise Grabbers’ Anti-Hughes Club.” At the bottom, John D. Rockefeller with a “$29,000,000 fine” tag says, “I think I’ll vote for you, Mr. Taft.” William H. Taft raises his hands in the air and says, “Don’t.” Looking on, William Jennings Bryan smiles and says, “Oh I’m so happy” while President Roosevelt says, “Don’t let him tell you that, Bill. Soak him one. It’s a plot.”
Arcane issues of 1908 presidential politics, and even the minutia of New York State affairs, permeate this informal but clever group of vignettes by Floyd W. Triggs, published on election eve.
William H. Taft is the catcher as he catches a ball “from T.R.” William Jennings Bryan swings and misses the pitched ball at the plate. The crowd has various responses: “Oh! Rotten,” “Whoof!!!” “Did Haskell touch 2nd,” “Aw go back t’ the bush league,” and “Who d’ye think y’are? Mike Donlin?”
The baseball setting in this cartoon by Floyd W. Triggs during the 1908 campaign features a memorable caricature of Democratic candidate Bryan missing the ball presumably pitched by President Roosevelt; at least the dark ball in the mitt of catcher William H. Taft, the Republican candidate, is labelled “from T.R.”
President Roosevelt shoots a revolver at William Jennings Bryan’s feet as Bryan jumps up to avoid the shot. He says, “Oh, I say! This isn’t fair, is it?”
Floyd W. Triggs’s cartoon “The Tenderfoot” is brilliant in its simplicity, conveying both the contrast between the personalities of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan and President Roosevelt. He made his point without even having to depict Roosevelt except for the label on the pistol, probably superfluous. Oddly, the caricature of Bryan resembles the Bryan of the Wilson years or even of the Scopes Trial fame, more than the relatively robust candidate of 1908.
Alton B. Parker jumps off a cliff to grab “the Constitution” from President Roosevelt who holds a knife to it. “Members of the Constitution Club” watch in horror outside “the Old Mill.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-30
On the left side, D. Cady Herrick is depicted as an angel. Caption: Herrick, the candidate. On the right side, Herrick wears a suit with a number of tags: “a desperate political operator” (The Sun), “an impropriety, a scandal,” (The Times), and “the associate of low and disreputable ward politicians” (The World). A “stuffed ballot box” runs after him and says, “You can’t lose me, D-Cady.” Caption: Herrick, the boss. The Angelic Herrick refuses to shake the hand of the political boss, who asks “What! Have you forgotten ME?”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-03