A Democratic nightmare

President Roosevelt holds “that big stick” as he whacks the table on the stage of the Republican National Convention. In the crowd, signs for “Ohio,” “New York,” “Pennsylvania,” “Vermont,” “Kansas,” “Indianne,” “Missuri,” and “Illinois” can be seen. Caption: The next Republican National Convention.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Albert Turner Reid’s vision of the 1908 Republican Presidential Convention was meant to suggest, as per the caption, a nightmare for Democrats — not, as the bare cartoon would suggest, a captive and frightened hall of delegates, nervous eyes and anxious expressions. In fact most Republicans clamored for Roosevelt to break his declination pledge and decide to run again.

The “nightmare” for Democrats would have been Roosevelt stampeding the convention, securing renomination, and sweeping to victory in November 1908. Its party prospects were thin — two-time loser William Jennings Bryan, and two other weak aspirants — but Democrats thought that against a candidate other than Roosevelt they might have a chance.

Reid was of a cartooning category whose artists’ signatures were larger than peripheral figures, or of a barely decipherable flourish. He drew for years, in Kansas and through the United States via syndication. Before other institutions began to archive and annotate political cartoons, his endowment to the University of Kansas (William Allen White School of Journalism) was one of the few such repositories in the United States.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-04

Creator(s)

Reid, Albert Turner, 1873-1955

Language

English

Period

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

Page Count

1

Production Method

Printed

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