Closed!

President Roosevelt’s footsteps can be seen on a road with a sign, “This way to the 3rd term.” They cannot get around the “Solid South” barrier in the road, and the footprints turn back away from the barrier. Caption: “‘If I could be positively assured of the electoral vote of a single Southern State I would gladly be a candidate for the presidency next year.’ –T.R.” 

comments and context

Comments and Context

“The Mysterious Stranger” by John T. McCutcheon was another cartoon that dealt with presidential politics, the “Solid South,” and footsteps; and this drawing, “Closed!” by Camillus Kessler, employs the same themes and memes, but three years later and without figures. In a way, then, it is more of pure political cartoon, relying on symbols as it does.

How true it is was contentious at that time, and perhaps, now, lost to history. If President Roosevelt “broke” the Solid South by winning Missouri in 1904, and was no less popular in 1907, the cartoon’s assertion can be questioned. If Roosevelt had wanted a third term, surely the “gate” of a solid south’s opposition would not in itself have deterred him, because Missouri was only “icing on the cake” of his record victory in 1904.

The “if” that provides the crux of the cartoon, and indeed is a historical conundrum, is in the printed caption. The supposed quotation of Roosevelt runs contrary to everything the president said in public or private: he did not leave the door open to running again. In the fact, in mid-1907, as the Republican nominating convention drew nearer, he reinforced his support of William H. Taft as a successor.

The quotation in the caption might well be spurious. In the face of Roosevelt’s recent and increasingly assertive declinations, he was in middle of a summer-long vacation in Oyster Bay, and made few appearances or statements to the press. There is no evidence in his correspondence that he grew ambiguous about running for a “third term” in 1908.

The ground rules of the 1908 presidential campaign were altered somewhat from previous elections. After assertions of corporations’ contributions to party coffers (not uncommon in politics of the Gilded Age, and often hidden in nefarious ways) President Roosevelt urged Congress to pass laws against corporate contributions, and in favor of “publicity” (today, transparency). One of the strangest political alliances of the era was forged when the Senate’s sponsor of Roosevelt’s legislation was “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, the Populist firebrand and usual political enemy of the president. But the Tillman Act became law.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-25

Creator(s)

Kessler, Camillus

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