A premonition!

President Roosevelt holds his big stick and rides toward “Congress,” who is awake in bed, on a rolled up paper of the “president’s final message–positively the last.” “Congress” says, “Gee, but I wish he’d go away!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The immediate context of Edward Joseph McBride’s cartoon was the harsh war of words — and messages, and insults, and press statements, and motions of censure — between President Roosevelt and the Congress at the time. The genesis, at the end of his Administration, grew from disagreements over the proposed expansion of the Secret Service into an agency that, separately and later, became the FBI.

It was a relatively prosaic suggestion, but partly was the victim of brewing tensions between the reformer Roosevelt and the Old Guard leadership on Capitol Hill, both sides loosed as the president’s term wound down.

Roosevelt’s Annual Message in December 1908 contained words that cradled the proposal; words that clearly were gratuitous and provocative about a recalcitrant Congress. Speeches and motions responded in kind; and eventually some members proposed that any future messages or proclamations from the president be refused even to be read. Messages did arrive, causing momentary excitement, but they were of routine matters, such as appointments, easing Congress’s anxiety.

Such was the inspiration of the humorous premonition in the cartoon. McBride was a Democratic partisan, consistent and often harsh, but this cartoon was a mere good-natured poke at the continuing saga of the raging war of words in Washington. A record of the daily events and president’s datebook of these weeks show that no major message was transmitted to Congress.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-26

Creator(s)

McBride, Edward Joseph, 1889-

Language

English

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Repository

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

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