His masterpiece

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a paint palette labeled “tariff tint” as he looks on a painting of President Roosevelt playing the violin and Secretary of War William H. Taft dancing. The painting received “1st prize – Salon 08.” On the ground are tubes of paint: “railroad rate red” and “Brownsville black.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon about the early rivalries for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination delicately portrays the tension between two Ohioans, Secretary of War William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. It was rare that two formidable candidates arose from the same state in any election cycle, yet the confrontations were many, and the state’s leading Republicans generally split along southern (Taft was from Cincinnati) and northern lines, each man with longtime associations and commitments.

There was national component that complicated matters of party harmony. President Roosevelt, who forswore a consecutive run to succeed himself, was an open partisan of his friend Taft. And his confrontations with Foraker — some under the surface; some quite public, as over the recent Brownsville affair concerning black soldiers cashiered after a melee and death near their barracks in Texas — were legion.

Cunningham drew for the reliably Republican Herald in the nation’s capital. Whether he felt the need to tread carefully or not, he cleverly assayed the position of Senator Foraker. He possibly could challenge Taft with success, but scarcely was able to defeat the President of the United States in a contest like this. So he made, and would make before the mid-summer convention, alliances that would preserve his future in state politics in case lightning did not strike at the convention.

Yet Foraker got his licks in. Despite party loyalty he subtly portrayed Taft as a dandy boy who dutifully danced to the president’s tunes. And — putatively above personalities — the cartoonist showed Foraker painting with colors labelled Tariff, Brownsville, and such contentious issues.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-29

Creator(s)

Cunningham, Joseph Harry, 1865-1946

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