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President Roosevelt returns to the White House with a pitchfork over his right shoulder and a tennis racket in his left hand. There are suitcases labeled “T.R.” behind him. William Loeb follows with a locked bag of “speeches,” an “elephant’s tail,” and Roosevelt’s bulldog, Pete. The pillars of the White House are “fresh painted — Uncle Sam Co.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham’s drawing is more of an editorial cartoon than a political cartoon, as it portrays an event — President Roosevelt’s return to Washington after a long vacation and string of appearances — and does not attack, support, nor attempt to persuade readers.

Various elements depict aspects of the president’s activities of the summer and early fall, 1907. Modern readers might assume that the pitchfork refers to “Pitchfork” Benjamin R. Tillman, firebrand Democrat of Populist sympathies from South Carolina. Roosevelt and Tillman had famous and colorful disputes through the years, most famously the senator’s racist attacks on the president’s association with Booker T. Washington, and his own proud efforts to disenfranchise blacks in his home state. But the time of this cartoon was one of rare cooperation and amity between the two. Tillman supported a favorite initiative of Roosevelt, the Hepburn Railroad Rate Act. And the president allowed the Democrat Tillman to shepherd another of his proposals through the Senate — the campaign finance reform that restricted corporation contributions to political parties.

Roosevelt neither visited South Carolina on his speaking tour from which he had just returned, nor had any notable spat with the senator. Rather, as the tennis racket was meant to illustrate the president’s leisure activities while on vacation, the pitchfork likely was Cunningham’s icon representing the president’s yard work or modest farming at Sagamore Hill.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-26

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