Cabinet officers

Dinner gong with accompanying mallet mounted on top of two rhinoceros feet. A small plaque dedicates the gift from former president Theodore Roosevelt to Ambassador to France Robert Bacon.

Comments and Context

Following his African Safari, Theodore Roosevelt gifted many of his friends and acquaintances mementos made out of some of his hunting trophies, including inkwells, wastepaper baskets, and items like this dinner gong. Ambassador Bacon was a longtime friend of Roosevelt, and had both served in his administration in the State Department and in his unofficial “Tennis Cabinet.”

Collection

America

Silver cup dedicated to First Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon inscribed with the signatures of fellow members of the Tennis Cabinet, including President Roosevelt, Assistant United States Attorney General Alford Warriner Cooley, Commissioner of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield, French Ambassador J. J. Jusserand, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Lawrence O. Murray, United States Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot, Herbert Knox Smith, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Beekman Winthrop. In addition to the signatures, the cup is inscribed with the date October 11, 1907.

Comments and Context

While president, Theodore Roosevelt’s unofficial “Tennis Cabinet” comprised an inner circle of unofficial advisors with whom Roosevelt would play tennis and discuss policy matters. Including men both from within and outside Roosevelt’s official administration, the group was influential in helping shape and carry out many of Roosevelt’s policies and reforms.

Collection

America

In a letter to his friend and novelist Owen Wister, President Roosevelt reviews his recently won election victory in the presidential contest of 1904. Roosevelt highlights some of the accomplishments of his first term and notes that his Democratic opponent, Alton B. Parker, proved to be a poor candidate. Roosevelt expresses gratitude for members of his Cabinet, and he believes that he won the election because of the support of ordinary citizens.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1904-11-19

President Roosevelt apologizes for his error and corrects his earlier statement that Assistant Treasurer Fish could stay in office while running for Congress. Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, as well as several other cabinet officers, have said this would not be fair to others who have had to resign during the nomination process.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-25

President Roosevelt tells James McCrea that the matter McCrea already been discussed in the cabinet, but Roosevelt will talk to Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer about it as well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-18

President Roosevelt found Representative Hill’s letter very interesting and will bring it before the Cabinet. Nothing will be done about the currency question in the Philippines until Roosevelt hears from Governor Taft.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-10-01

Charlotte Augusta Wolcott thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his support of her husband, Charles Francis Bates. She quotes a letter she received from the War Department clearing her husband of any unjust statements.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-16

Joseph Bucklin Bishop discusses two members of Theodore Roosevelt’s Cabinet. He does not understand how they can work simultaneously for Roosevelt’s and Ryan’s purposes. Bishop also compliments Roosevelt on the loyalty he has to his friends.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-16

Historian James Ford Rhodes is pleased to have received a long letter from President Roosevelt. Rhodes responds to questions raised by Roosevelt, using historical precedents. Rhodes discusses tariff revision. He thinks Roosevelt is right not to “break with [his] party” over legislation. Rhodes asks Roosevelt if he can share the president’s views on “the Southern question” with Henry S. Pritchett, president of MIT, who has asked Rhodes for assistance. Pritchett is preparing a paper for Roosevelt. Rhodes answers Roosevelt’s comparison of his Cabinet with President Lincoln’s Cabinet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-01

Secretary of War William H. Taft sits at his desk filled with “official business” papers as the shades of Uncle Sam and President Roosevelt stand behind him. Roosevelt points out the window at cannons firing for Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Philander C. Knox, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and the most for Taft.

comments and context

Comments and Context

More than two months before the Republican National Convention convened to nominate a presidential cabinet, cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham of the Washington Herald presumed that William H. Taft would be the party’s choice; as did most of the country.

This photograph includes the entire cabinet: President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, and Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-25

President Roosevelt meets with his cabinet in a room filled with snakes: “Harriman interests,” “panic,” “tobacco trust,” “powder trust,” “beef trust,” “railroad trust,” “Standard Oil,” “immunity,” “Japanese war scare,” and “telegrapher’s strike.” The chairs for Secretary of State and Secretary of War are empty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-27

President Roosevelt sits in every chair of the cabinet: “Agriculture,” “War,” “Executive,” “Navy,” “Treasury,” “Atty. Gen,” “Interior,” and “Commerce and Labor.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Life magazine was reliably Democratic, but increasingly focused on social humor and society subjects since its founding in 1883 (the title was sold to Henry Luce in 1935, and it became a picture and news magazine). It did continue to published a complement of political cartoons, however, and during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency the majority of those assignments fell to William Henry Walker.

An ostrich labeled “T.R. 1908” with tail feathers, “my policy,” sticks its head in the “denial sand.” A rooster labeled “Harriman” scratches “pay dirt,” saying, “I’ll keep right on scratching.” In the background are Uncle Sam with a rifle saying, “Oh! What a fine target” and “the cabinet” birds sitting in a nest atop the White House saying, “Look out! He’s onto you.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Porter, who is yet to be identified, depicts President Roosevelt’s feud with Edward Henry Harriman, but it was a minority view in the country, even among strongly partisan newspapers. The public disagreement was multi-sourced and multi-layered between the men who were once cordial but were victims of growing hostility and recriminations.

President Roosevelt standing in his stocking feet looks at Secretary of War William H. Taft wearing “Roosevelt’s shoes.” In the background are a pair of shoes labeled, “Sec” and “War.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Jay N. “Ding” Darling of the Des Moines Register and Leader, lifelong admirer and eventual friend of Theodore Roosevelt habitually drew Roosevelt as a portly man, almost to the dimensions of William H. Taft. Nevertheless, Darling was invariably sympathetic (with slights exceptions prior to American intervention in the Great War) and this early cartoon of his is no exception.

President Roosevelt looks on as members of his 1906 cabinet laugh at papers with the heading, “Storer.” One chair is empty, and there are pictures on the wall of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, and Attorney General Philander C. Knox, all from 1901.

Comments and Context

This political cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, with its typically awkward depictions of public figures, addresses not the general composition of President Roosevelt’s cabinet, although it was within a week of this cartoon that Oscar S. Strauss succeeded George B. Cortelyou as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the latter moving to the Treasure portfolio.

It rather has to do with the denouement of a protracted and embarrassing contretemps between Roosevelt and erstwhile friends and political sponsors, Bellamy and Maria Longworth Storer of Cincinnati. The wealthy Storers of Cincinnati, friends of William H. Taft of their city, had a home in Washington, D.C., where they hosted friends like Taft when he was President Benjamin Harrison’s Solicitor General. They attached themselves to Taft’s friend Theodore Roosevelt, too, when he became Civil Service Commissioner in 1889.

There are nine “the going to keepmums,” which have the faces of all of the cabinet officers, on one shelf: 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. On an upper shelf are five “keep’mums”: “Keep,” “Pinchot,” “Hitchcock,” “Murray,” and “Garfield.” Caption: A few ‘mums not mentioned at the show.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-11

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 all march out of the “White House” and to the “keeper of the gags.” There is a large sign that reads, “Notice! By order of the President the members of the cabinet will resume their muzzles on leaving the White House.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-23

Old Mother Hubbard, labeled a “Washington correspondent” and a “press” dog open “the cabinet” and are shocked to read a sign that says, “Nothing doing. T. R.” Caption: “When she got there the cupboard was bare, and so the poor dog got none.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-26

All of the cabinet officers stand in a circle, have gags in their mouths, and point at one another: 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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-04