Facing Waterloo

Atlanta Mayor James T. Woodward, recently defeated for reelection, is dressed like Napoleon I and wears a bicorne with the label of “Woodward.”

Comments and Context

This cartoon was clipped from the Atlanta Georgian and News and pasted in the scrapbooks of political cartoons kept by the White House during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Those clippings allowed Roosevelt to gauge public sentiment and to anticipate policy formation. It may be presumed he enjoyed cartoons too.

The vast majority of the clippings have Roosevelt as a figure, or otherwise comment on a vital issue he would address; the drawings seldom dealt with issues or personalities that were of very local, or transitory, import. This example seems to have slipped past the typically astute attention of the staffer.

The drawing, by a forgotten and pedestrian artist for Atlanta’s lesser newspaper, is not of President Roosevelt as Napoleon wearing a bicorn labelled “Woodward” but is Atlanta’s Mayor James T. Woodward himself. The two-term incumbent — who, yes, had spectacles like Roosevelt’s, and a drooping moustache — had recently been defeated in a scandal-filled, contentious election. Recalling Napoleon’s defeat, he “faced his Waterloo.”

Woodward was a colorful figure whose political adventures and career were echoed by a few other politicians in the “New South” and in subsequent years; Huey Long, George Wallace, and Lester Maddox are several. Whether calling themselves Populists (that is, adhering to that party’s platforms) or not, these men were of a type — heroes to the working-class, hostile to blacks, resented by the cultured elites, and were popular Democrats at the polls.

Woodward had been elected mayor at Atlanta in 1899 and 1904, and greeted President Roosevelt when the latter visited his mother’s birthplace, the plantation in nearby Roswell, Georgia. Woodward was elected mayor again in 1913. But his 1908 campaign unexpectedly imploded, and that is the subject of this cartoon.

There were two incidents that temporarily doomed Woodward in his quest for the mayoralty in 1908. He was arrested for public intoxication; although not his first such offense, his enemies seized on it before election day. More decisive was the controversy caused by his stated prescription for racial unrest in Atlanta. Referring to infamous race riots during his term, he said: “The best way to prevent a race riot depends entirely upon the cause. If your inquiry has anything to do with the present situation in Atlanta then I would say the only remedy is to remove the cause. As long as the black brutes assault our white women, just so long will they be unceremoniously dealt with.”

If the sentiment itself was not repugnant to Atlanta’s “better” elements of the time, its public expression by a mayor was; rival forces, and late-entry candidates in the Democratic Party, edged Woodward out, until the 1913 election.

The overt and self-destructive campaign gaffes, heralding a possible end to Woodward’s political career, inspired the “Facing Waterloo” cartoon. Extra inspiration may be guessed by the fact that the mayor’s humble employment in his youth had been in various positions with the Journal and Constitution newspapers in the city, rival newspapers of the paper that published this cartoon, the Atlanta Georgian and News.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-02

Creator(s)

Unknown

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