Indorsing Hughes

A crowd of people cheer at a picture of President Roosevelt that reads, “We are proud that he is a Republican from New York.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Virginia and Ohio traditionally shared the “Mother of Presidents” title because so many of their citizens went to the White House or were consequential in national politics. But during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, New York challenged the title’s traditional holders by producing numerous presidents, vice-presidents, and presidential aspirants.

Between the Civil War and World War I, there were six vice presidents from New York: Schuyler Colfax, William A. Wheeler, Chester Alan Arthur, Levi P. Morton, Theodore Roosevelt, and J. S. Sherman. During the same period, three presidents also hailed from New York: Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Roosevelt. Presidential aspirants from the state included Democrats Samuel J. Tilden, David B. Hill, and Alton B. Parker, as well as Republicans Frank Swett Black, Benjamin B. Odell, Timothy L. Woodruff, and Charles Evans Hughes. Among the power-brokers in national politics were New Yorkers Thurlow Weed, Roscoe Conkling, Thomas Collier Platt, William Barnes, and a variety of Tammany Hall bosses. Add to these rolls the politically influential titans of finance and industry, many from Wall Street, and it becomes clear that New York had positioned itself as at least a stepmother of presidents in this era.

In 1908 President Roosevelt was in a bit of a political bind. He had denied interest in running for a third time, but much of the country either did not believe him or hoped he would change his mind. He advanced the candidacy of Ohio’s William H. Taft partly to divert interest from other candidates, one of whom was New Yorker Charles Evans Hughes.

The president’s dilemma arose in part from his desire to appear as neutral as possible and stay appropriately above the fray of the election. This was a legitimate attitude for a sitting president. However, a “boom” was developing for the reform-minded freshman governor Hughes that made Roosevelt’s position uncomfortable. He had urged Hughes to run for governor and promoted his candidacy partly to arrange a middle path between two rival Republican factions.

Cartoonist C. R. Macauley depicted the dilemma that confronted both Roosevelt and New York politicians well. A convention cheering for a man whose description could be applied to either desired candidate! The president was being pressured at the time by New York leaders who withheld endorsements of Hughes, but only if Roosevelt would run. He could not persuade them to declare for Taft.

One of the New York delegates-at-large to the national convention, Stewart L. Woodford, was also a national campaign manager for Hughes. Roosevelt appealed to Herbert Parsons, an influential Republican, in a letter dated the day after this cartoon’s publication. He asked Parsons to instead back Edward Hubert Butler, who owned the Buffalo News and tilted towards Taft, as the delegation chair. Roosevelt’s gambit was unsuccessful.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-13

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