The Commercial Club of Washington

Nelson Aldrich sits on a throne as king of the “U.S. Senate,” with a diminutive Theodore Roosevelt kneeling before him bearing the “President’s Message.” Around them senators are reading ticker tape or enjoying the success of their investments. The surrounding vignettes show Chauncey M. Depew as a doorman welcoming a man labeled “The Trusts” into the “U.S. Senate”; John D. Rockefeller sitting at a desk pouring over “Reports” and “Expenditures”; Charles W. Fairbanks as an office boy stopping Uncle Sam at the top of the stairs demanding who he needs to see and why; and two men stuffing papers labeled “Esch-Townsend Rate Bill, Tariff Legislation, House Bill” and others into a trash can. Caption: Formerly known as the Upper House of Congress.

comments and context

Comments and Context

With only the political cartoonist’s traditional “license” to exaggerate, cartoonist J. S. Pughe fairly depicted the state of affairs regarding the United States Senate in 1905.

That the Senate was imperious, if not imperial, and more a fiefdom than the House of Representatives, roughly conformed to the intention of the Framers. However by 1905 it had become a rich man’s club. A famous 1889 cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Senior, in Puck, cemented the perception in his “Bosses of the Senate” — bloated moneybags, each representing a trust, lording over the chamber. For a generation it had been that rich man’s club, wealth entering with certain members, or wealth mysteriously accrued during senatorial terms. Many senators were understood to be under obligation to serve their home industries first and individual constituents second. Even that factor may be understood in the larger concerns to be responsible to healthy economies and productive citizens back home. Yet today, however, America continues to have “senators from Boeing,” or those who “speak for the farmers.”

But what changed by 1905, the time of this cartoon, was the larger state of American business, life, and politics. Nelson W.Aldrich, for instance, was a senator from Rhode Island, yet was the undisputed “king” of the Senate, more powerful than the Constitutional President of the Senate, the Vice President of the United States. Continuing portrayals in the cartoon, New York Senator Chauncey M. Depew, for all his prior and independent credentials, was clearly understood (including by himself) to be a virtual errand-boy and conduit for corporate elites and the politically powerful. And John D. Rockefeller’s influence over senators is cynically depicted by Pughe as the oil tycoon, himself, being the Senate’s virtual “board of directors.”

These criticisms were widespread and increasingly seen as valid. One aspect of the “Crime Of the Senate” (to use the phrase of Muckraker David Graham Phillips) was the inherently corrupting method of electing senators. In those days, and in much wisdom of the Framers, senators were elected by state legislatures. But as the Gilded Age’s ethos took hold, wealthy interests merely “influenced” members of state legislatures to vote for certain candidates. The most egregious corruption of the system occurred in 1910 when Illinois Republican William Lorimer was elected to the United State Senate after a virtual auction for “contributions” and favors.

The Chicago Tribune at home, and Republican Senator Albert J. Beveridge from Indiana on the Senate floor, pressed for investigations. Lorimer asserted innocence, but seven legislators were indicted and four others confessed. The bribes ranged from $1000 to $2500. While Lorimer fought two separate and lengthy Senate investigations, Theodore Roosevelt, visiting Chicago, refused to be seated at the same table as Senator Lorimer.

Lorimer was ejected from the Senate on July 13, 1912, and two weeks later it voted for the states to ratify the 17th amendment to the United States Constitution, providing for the direct election of senators. The problem was brewing a long time, and upset a power-balancing system conceived when the Constitution was framed. After approximately 125 years, Lorimer was the catalyst of change.

And whether that radical adjustment changed much in the Senate, from Pughe’s cartoon to now, is an open question.

The public was disgusted by Lorimer’s method of election; and the United States Senate eventually unseated him, a radical reaction. The wise construction of the Framers of Constitution thus perverted.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-10-25

Creator(s)

Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation