Roosevelt’s farewell to his officers
Subject(s): Bonaparte, Charles J. (Charles Joseph), 1851-1921, Burroughs, John, 1837-1921, Crying, Fairbanks, Charles W. (Charles Warren), 1852-1918, Farewells, Garfield, James Rudolph, 1865-1950, Loeb, William, 1866-1937, Presidents--Election, Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August), 1849-1914, Rixey, Presley Marion, 1852-1928, Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919, Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930, Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915, Wood, Leonard, 1860-1927
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Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft stand in the center of a gathering of Roosevelt’s “officers.” Most are dressed as colonial army officers, with Charles J. Bonaparte dressed as Napoleon and John Burroughs as a frontiersman. All but Roosevelt are crying. Caption: Repetition, one year hence, of a famous scene in Fraunce’s Tavern.
Comments and Context
Cartoonist Louis M. Glackens drew this prophetic cartoon in March of 1908, interesting for what it does not outright say, and significant for who it does and does not show, in the group gathered around President Roosevelt.
Glackens sets the scene in Fraunces’ Tavern in lower Manhattan, where General George Washington delivered his famous farewell address to his military compatriots. The comparison of Washington and Roosevelt is flattering.
At first glance a reader might think the predictable group of presidential aspirants are present, but it is not those men we see. Neither is it Roosevelt’s cabinet, with only two exceptions. Rather, it is his circle of closest friends. Glackens did his homework: these men are not even, uniformly, members of Roosevelt’s “tennis cabinet,” about whom the public knew little at that time anyway.
The discordant note is Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, whom Glackens might have naturally assumed was a Roosevelt confidant (when the precise opposite was the fact). Otherwise the reporter Jacob Riis was a friend from Police Commission days; William Loeb was his trusted personal secretary; General Leonard Wood (ineptly caricatured) was his Rough Rider comrade; cabinet members Charles J. Bonaparte (Attorney General) and, especially, James Rudolph Garfield (Interior) were trusted allies; John Burroughs the naturalist had an affinity with Roosevelt; Dr. Presley Marion Rixey, Surgeon General of Navy, was a friend who accompanied the president on his 100-mile horse ride as a challenge to sedentary officers; and Booker T. Washington is shown weeping too — Roosevelt had invited him to dinner at the White House during his first days in office, and was consulted on matters during the presidency.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the cartoon — unless Glackens suffered from an extreme drought of ideas for that week’s cartoon — is the casual, natural, assumption that the rotund William H. Taft, occupying the center of the drawing, would be elected a year hence.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1908-02-26
Creator(s)
Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933
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
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:
Roosevelt’s farewell to his officers. [February 26, 1908]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286055. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933. Roosevelt’s farewell to his officers. [26 Feb. 1908]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. August 3, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286055.
APA:
Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933., [1908, February 26]. Roosevelt’s farewell to his officers.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286055.
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. August 3, 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.
