Painting the banner

President Roosevelt holds a paintbrush and thinks as he paints a banner. The top part says: “my candidate, my policies, my platforms.” On the left is William H. Taft “for president,” but the vice president on the right is not completed.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In this clever cartoon by C. R. Macauley of the New York World, its point is not that President Roosevelt needed to wonder about, or dictate, the Republican vice-presidential nominee at the imminent national convention. At this time the selection of those candidates was strictly left to convention delegates or party bosses, never the “top of the ticket.”

President Roosevelt had already won a variety of small battles leading up to the convention, and they were never sure victories: prevailing on the party to nominate his preferred candidate, William H. Taft, platform planks, robust endorsement of his administration, and so forth. There were many Old Guard termites in construction of the platform and convention details, resisting Roosevelt in the waning days of his term.

Macauley’s humor, such as the posture and expression of Roosevelt, carried the point of the cartoon, that Roosevelt had succeeded in dominating the process, the candidate selection, and much of the convention (five days before it convened) after all. An ultimate triumph.

The Old Guard licked its wounds and forced the selection of one of Congress’s most crusty “Stand-Pat” members, Representative J. S. Sherman of New York, for vice president.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-11

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