Tackling the captain

President Roosevelt holds a football in the shape of William H. Taft’s head as William Jennings Bryan tries to tackle him.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Camillus Kessler, in the routinely anti-Roosevelt Women’s National Daily of St. Louis, drew a cartoon in the final weeks of the 1908 that made salient points about the larger circumstances related to the election.

One point was depiction of the clear understanding — shared by citizens, readers, politicians, and cartoonists — that Theodore Roosevelt and his policies were the real opponents of William Jennings Bryan and the Democrats. William H. Taft generally was supine as a campaigner; and in any event Roosevelt, never confident in any election, naturally assumed an aggressive role, center stage. As his daughter said of him, he “had to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.”

Despite Roosevelt’s carrying Taft, the Democrat Bryan was obliged to tackle the president, not the candidate.

The prescient point and pertinent questions was posed by the “mascot” character in the corner, a medical staffer carrying a stretcher: he wonders why Roosevelt did not make a forward pass instead of carrying the ball. Alice might have said that her father “had to be the quarterback in every football game.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-24

Creator(s)

Kessler, Camillus

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