Click on image to zoom in
President Roosevelt and a teddy bear watch Secretary of War William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker throwing tops. One is labeled, “Taft Boom.”
Comments and Context
In the sweepstakes — that is, the game of speculation about who would secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1908; a game of low odds, since the popular and influential incumbent, Theodore Roosevelt, made known his preference for Secretary of War William H. Taft — two Ohio Republicans were rival contestants.
It would seem unusual that two consequential figures from the same party and the same state would clash, yet the senator, Joseph Benson Foraker, made a virtual career of engaging in intra-party disputes. Ohio was, along with Virginia, regarded as “the mother of presidents,” so there was seldom a paucity of ambitious politicians among Foraker’s contemporaries. Yet he practiced more friction than amity. He locked horns, through the decades with fellow Ohio politicians like John Sherman, William McKinley, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, and William H. Taft. Truces and alliances invariably dissolved as temporary conveniences.
Additionally, Foraker’s animosities eventually extended to include Theodore Roosevelt. The two had clashed in the 1880s, when the latter was Civil Service Commissioner (on matters of influence-peddling and patronage) and most recent to this cartoon, Foraker’s criticism of the presidential handling of the Brownsville Incident, when a regiment of black soldiers was cashiered after a melee near their barracks in which one man was killed and a policeman wounded.
Berryman’s cartoon depicts the de facto rivalry between Taft and Foraker, heightened in 1907 by the collision of Taft’s anointing by Roosevelt as his favored presidential nominee for 1908, and Foraker’s own aspiration for the party’s nomination. Roosevelt, of course, was more influential than the mere observer Berryman depicts.
Collection
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Creation Date
1907-03-27
Creator(s)
Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949
Language
English
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Page Count
1
Production Method
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:
Taft boom. [March 27, 1907]. Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o301474. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949. Taft boom. [27 Mar. 1907]. Image.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 5, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o301474.
APA:
Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949., [1907, March 27]. Taft boom.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o301474.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 5, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
APA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
