Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt holds his big stick “for reactionaries,” a knife “for corporate wealth,” and a blunderbuss “for malefactors.” Representative Nicholas Longworth holds a play sword and says, “That’s my dad.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham of the Washington Herald drew a rare caricature of Representative Nicholas Longworth, and rarer still, a cartoon featuring the Congressman and his father-in-law President Roosevelt. The cartoon features a routine (for opposing cartoonists) dismissive caricature of Roosevelt, in his Rough Rider outfit and with the iconic paraphernalia associated with his policies.

But the depiction of Longworth is meant to be insulting, and fairly succeeds. A little boy, “Nicky,” dressed as a toy soldier in imitation, looks up to “Dad.”

The hard truth is that Roosevelt and Longworth had scant interplay, even after the Cincinnati scion married his daughter, Alice. There might have been the formal agreement, for appearance’s sake not wanting to make a puppet-and-master impression. Roosevelt, for instance, understood that Longworth, a candidate for reelection in 1912, had to remain loyal to William H. Taft (who was a constituent of his Congressional district) and was in a difficult position; and Longworth discouraged Alice to campaign for her father or any Bull Moose candidate.

Their contact through the years, by evidence of correspondence, was virtually desultory, where there logically could have been more cooperation, consultation, mutual advice; where Longworth might have served as eyes and eras for Roosevelt on occasion. Alice however, spoke to her father frequently about politics, and attended events. After her father’s death she was active in politics from her Washington home — usually independent of her husband. She was a consultative leader, for instance, in the movement against the League of Nations, arrayed with the “Rejectionists,” more extreme than the “Reservationists” like her father’s old ally Henry Cabot Lodge. Before World War II she was active in the anti-interventionist America First Committee.

Longworth had political talents enough to have served many terms in the House (interrupted two years after his narrow loss in 1912, widely attributed to the “weight” of the Roosevelt familial association) and was elected Speaker, ultimately accorded respect in that post. The Longworth Building on Capitol Hill is named in his honor.

His marriage to Alice was presumably happier than his relationship with the president. In her autobiography Crowded Hours she scarcely mentioned “Nick,” and then only in documentary fashion. It is assumed that their only daughter, Paulina, was actually the child of Alice and Senator William Edgar Borah. It is reported that Alice was once asked if she planned to be buried next to her husband in Cincinnati, and answered “Wouldn’t it be bad enough just to be dead?”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-27

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