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Justice, wearing a crown labeled “Law” and carrying a sword and scales, rides on the back of a snail, climbing a steep hill strewn with bolders labeled “Certificate of reasonable doubt, Appeals, Change of venue, Injunction, [and] Stays” toward the “Hall of Justice” at the top of the hill.
Comments and Context
Puck Magazine and other reformist but conservative Democratic journals, in the run-up to the 1904 presidential campaign, continued to oppose William Jennings Bryan, but cast about for a national Democrat with gravitas and appeal in the mold of former president Grover Cleveland.
The magazine and its cartoonist has been subtly turning the spotlight on an otherwise unknown and modest jurist from New York State, Judge Alton Brooks Parker. Indeed he became the Democrats’ standard-bearer in 1904 (only to suffer major defeat the hands of the incumbent Theodore Roosevelt).
The policies of Cleveland, Parker, and conservative “”Bourbon” Democrats of the day, also called Liberalism or Manchester Liberalism after the British political economists led by Adam Smith, David Hume, and Benjamin Disraeli — laissez-faire and small-government theorists. Their descendants today would be libertarians or conservatives.
Terminologies and labels change in politics, as do the pages of calendars. Although Judge Parker is not named nor depicted in Ehrhart’s cartoon, the dilemmas inherent in “due process” were the subject of an article by Parker in 1903, that had excited public debate. He advocated more courts, not “streamlined” justice, as a remedy; and in the same way he advocated a policy, no matter how bulky, of states adopting similar laws addressing social problems, rather than the passage of federal laws or federal, bureaucratic, regulations.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1903-12-23
Creator(s)
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937
Period
U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
“Due process of law”. [December 23, 1903]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277680. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937. “Due process of law”. [23 Dec. 1903]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277680.
APA:
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937., [1903, December 23]. “Due process of law”.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277680.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
