Treed!

President Roosevelt holds onto a branch as he eyes a “third term” bear higher up on his branch.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Theodore Roosevelt, the famous sportsman, pictured in a desperate situation one-on-one with a bear — the hunted, not the hunter. Seldom in a cartoon, or in life, mostly, was Roosevelt in such a situation as depicted by cartoonist C. R. Macauley.

His paper was the New York World, one of the Democratic Party’s de facto and semi-official journals. Macauley was an effective partisan: in 1912 he would be hired by the Democratic National Committee as its official cartoonist, providing attack cartoons for any newspaper in the country that chose to run them. He was, however, a hired gun, switching party loyalties according to his employers through the years. He eventually drew laudatory cartoons of Roosevelt.

The theme of “Treed!” addressed the president’s oft-stated declination to seek another term. He promised not to run on election night, 1904. He discouraged speculation at every turn. He secretly, and with determination openly, endorsed Secretary William H. Taft as his chosen successor.

Yet the speculation continued — Roosevelt was popular with the public, after an unprecedented victory in 1904, and could have won another term — and Macauley produced a rare cartoon that neither made light nor found irony in the president’s predicament. By drawing the third term bear as vicious and threatening, Macauley delineated the grim aspect of Roosevelt’s dilemma, and implied sympathy for his position.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-09

Creator(s)

Macauley, C. R. (Charles Raymond), 1871-1934

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