Axes

Cabinet officers march out of the “White House” with each one holding an axe: Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Secretary of the Navy Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney General William H. Moody, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Postmaster General George B. Cortelyou, Secretary of Commerce and Labor Victor H. Metcalf, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, and Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock. A bald eagle looks on and says, “Gee whiz!” Caption: Shade of George Washington!

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-18

President Roosevelt, who is dressed in cowboy attire, gives a “summary removal” axe to another President Roosevelt, who is dressed in a suit and stands on a “civil service reformer” platform. On the wall is a sign that reads, “White House—Notice. Civil Service rules abolished from this date. T. R. Oct 17th 1905.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-19

President Roosevelt uses a “Peace of Portsmouth” axe to cut down the big stick labeled “war: partisan exaggeration of Roosevelt’s strenuousity.” “China,” “Germany,” “England,” “Italy,” and “France” all look on.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-04

President Roosevelt is surrounded by a number of trees that have been cut down: “postal frauds,” “fraud,” “railroads,” “beef trust,” “timber frauds,” and “discrimination.” He uses a “square deal” hatchet to cut an “oil trust” tree.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-22

President Roosevelt, Mississippi Representative John Sharp Williams, and William Jennings Bryan all use axes to destroy the “sacredness of the trusts” plank of the “party fence.” A man labeled “the trusts” runs toward them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-06

Puck offers a large axe labeled “Repeal of Beef Tariff” to Philander C. Knox who is holding a tiny sling-shot labeled “Sherman Anti-Trust Law.” Standing in the background is a large bull labeled “Beef Trust.” Caption: Puck (to Attorney-General Knox) — You’ll never hurt that animal until they give you this ax!

comments and context

Comments and Context

Evidently the bombshell that was the anti-trust suit against the Northern Securities was not enough for Puck. It was a bombshell because the action of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Attorney General, Philander C. Knox, not only took other cabinet members by surprise, but the Wall Street titans — sometime rivals but collaborators to form this railroad monopoly — J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, and James J. Hill, likewise had no inkling of the government’s suit. Morgan transmitted to Roosevelt his accustomed method of dealing with federal scrutiny: “If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it up.” But Roosevelt wanted the backroom methods, and not the mere combination of the Northern Pacific; Great Northern; and Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroads, “fixed.” The suit to dissolve the trust was settled in the government’s favor in 1904, but this cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Jr., appeared only two months after Knox filed the Great Northern suit. Puck wanted the government to continue its serious trust-busting with hardly a delay.

President Roosevelt thanks John G. Trimble for the axe, and is sure that it will be of service.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-26

Secretary to the President Loeb encloses the requested signed quotations from President Roosevelt. The quotations are on Roosevelt’s opinion of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and national memory of the Civil War more broadly, praise of white backwoodsmen’s use of guns and axes in North American western expansion and imperialism, ideal gender roles for men and women, and the need for national commitment to “the life of strenuous endeavor.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-09

President Roosevelt tells Postmaster Robertson that it sounds like the artifact she found was an old Spanish axe, and that he is very interested in it. Roosevelt was glad he was able to appoint Robertson as Postmaster.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-19

President Roosevelt thanks Samuel E. Howard for the axes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-02-09

Webster L. Marble of the Marble Safety Axe Company acknowledges William Loeb’s order of waterproof match boxes and a safety hatchet for President Roosevelt. Marble would like to know which type of axe Roosevelt would like. The company makes wood-handled and steel-handled axes. Marble discusses the merits of both styles, but notes that the steel-handled axes seems to be unbreakable, while the company has had to replace wood-handled axes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-30

President Roosevelt, poses holding an ax.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-09-11

Left hand photograph showing President Roosevelt seated on the railing, facing front at Sagamore Hill. Right hand photograph showing President Roosevelt swinging an ax to cut a felled tree.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-09-11

President Roosevelt poses in knickerbockers with an axe on his shoulder.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-09-23

Photograph showing full-length portrait of a young Theodore Roosevelt, standing, holding a long wooden handled ice axe.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1880

David B. Hill holds a bag of “silver” beside a “Democratic convention” wall. In the background, William Jennings Bryan is about to use a “free silver” axe as “democracy” kneels down and is tied to a “doubtful money” stake. Caption: Judas Iscariot (Hill) sold his party for a few pieces of silver.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-30

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon brings President Roosevelt a “notification of nomination for president G. O. P. seal.” Cannon stands near the “Sagamore Hill” sign and wears a “Notification Committee” decoration. “T. R. his axe” is lodged in a tree.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-28

President Roosevelt plants a tree with several fruits on it: “Guam,” “Hawaii,” “Santo Domingo,” “Porto Rico,” “Panama,” and the “Philippines.” The ghost of George Washington appears out of the “White House.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02

President Roosevelt uses an axe to cut down the “postal inquiry” tree. He is surrounded by a forest of trees: “League island improvements,” “Alaskan boundary,” “Turkey,” “Finance,” “Panama Canal,” and “Trusts.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-09-04

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker shakes hands with William H. Taft as Foraker holds several “speeches ready to deliver.” Taft says, “Dee-lighted!” At the door of the “Taft headquarters” is a sign that reads, “Drop hatchets here.” A donkey looks on from outside and asks, “What d’ you know about that?” while a Republican elephant is jumping for joy.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Politics makes strange bedfellows; and sometimes not so much strange as overdue or perhaps compulsory due to urgent exigencies. Such was the case in 1908 when in-state Republican rivals William H. Taft and Joseph Benson Foraker were obliged by their own campaigns and the health of Ohio party politics to forgive and forget.