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After much back and forth and strong opposition, Merwin Kimball Hart has finally been removed from consideration as assistant secretary in the Interior Department.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-19
President Roosevelt holds a “my patronage” snowball as a snowman labeled “Secy Loeb’s Cabinet Boom” holds Roosevelt’s big stick. The sun in the shape of President-elect William H. Taft’s face says, “Gee! But Teddy will be sore!”
William Loeb, the son of German immigrants, practiced his trade as a stenographer and became interested in Republican politics in New York. He attracted the notice of Governor Theodore Roosevelt for his administrative talents and political acumen as much as his secretarial skills. Roosevelt hired him as a secretary, and Loeb followed in Roosevelt’s employ through the end of the Administration in 1909.
President-elect William H. Taft holds a “cabinet appointment” pitcher in one hand and a “Sec’y of Interior” martini glass in the other. He offers the glass to Walter S. Dickey, who says, “It certainly was a hard old job swinging Missouri for you!” Charles Nagel looks on in horror and says, “Well——!.”
St. Louis was very political, and still one of America’s largest metropolises; and Missouri was an influential state in political, manufacturing, and trade. Once a bastion of the Solid South — and a thorn in the side of President Abraham Lincoln for its changeable loyalties — it broke with electoral patterns and voted Republican in 1904, helping Theodore Roosevelt’s reelection.
President Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan are dressed in women’s clothes and are scowling at one another. Roosevelt holds “the cabinet” purse and has left go of the Republican elephant. Bryan still holds onto a Democratic donkey by a string. On the wall is a picture of William H. Taft that is askew.
The copy of this cartoon is from the White House scrapbooks that were compiled throughout the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Researchers might imagine Roosevelt himself seeing this cartoon, and wonder about his reaction. The chances are that he would have been delighted, not flattered by a representation of him as a woman, or portrayed in a shouting match.
James Roscoe Day holds an umbrella as he looks toward the White House. In his back pocket is a “copy of interview attacking Roosevelt.” A storm cloud and lightning appear from the White House with the following note: “Washington, D.C.–It is reported that Chancellor Day’s name was mentioned at yesterday’s cabinet meeting.” In the background are three men running away.
Despite President Roosevelt’s popularity with the general public, and by all accounts with Republican voters, he faced significant opposition from a portion of professional politicians within his party. In many ways the story of his second-term successes is also a story of continual, determined, and often skillful warfare against fellow Republicans. Some policy victories were won in spite of his own party’s congressional leaders. They proudly called themselves the Old Guard and adopted “Stand Pat” as a battle cry against Roosevelt’s reforms. Some — like Roosevelt’s predecessor as Republic governor of New York, Frank Swett Black — identified themselves as opponents of the Square Deal, and claimed the label of “reactionary.”
President Roosevelt looks out of his office at members of his cabinet standing on stumps: Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus, Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf, Secretary of War Luke E. Wright, and Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock. Roosevelt says, “Durn the luck.” Caption: Every member of his cabinet on the stump and he can’t get into the game.
The long-time political cartoonist of the Minneapolis Journal (and remembered as founder of a successful correspondence school of cartooning), Charles Lewis “Bart” Bartholomew pictured a situation that was known to all citizens, and regretted by many, not least President Roosevelt himself. There was a strict precedent and tradition against presidents campaigning in person — with few exceptions for themselves (somehow seen as not dignified), but never for candidates down the ballot lists; and certainly not for candidates in elections where a successor would be chosen.
President Roosevelt opens his cabinet, which features busts of his cabinet members, and tells them, “Come now, all of you must take the stump.” In the foreground is the “Taft campaign stump” and the following cabinet members are depicted as busts: Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Bureau of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of War Luke E. Wright, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf, and Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte.
The cabinet as a cabinet: two factors attest to the appropriate characterization of events pictured by P. B. McCord’s political cartoon during the last week of the 1908 presidential campaign.
Alton B. Parker—if elected president—sits with his would-be cabinet: “Thomas Taggart, Postmaster General,” “John Sharpe Williams, Attorney General,” “‘Bathhouse John,’ Secretary of Interior,” “William H. Devery, Secretary of Agriculture,” “Patrick H. M’Carren, Secretary of War,” “David B. Hill, Secretary of State,” “August Belmont, Secretary of Treasury,” and “Benjamin R. Tillman, Secretary of Navy.” Caption: The possible cabinet of white-winged souls who would get a job on Democratic success.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-26
President Roosevelt and Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou walk in front of a number of gagged officials from the “War Dept,” “Navy Dept,” “Post Office Dept,” “Pension Bureau,” and “Agricultural Dept.” Roosevelt points to a sign: “By direction of the president, officials will neither discuss nor give out any information regarding the annual estimates until further orders.” Another sign reads, “The governmental expenditure last year mounted up to five hundred and eighty-two millions, which is not equalled by any year since the Civil War, with the exception of the year of the Spanish War. Judge Parker’s speech.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-11
This fragment is from New York Representative Robert Baker’s resolution in the United States House of Representatives to discuss the “smoke nuisance” in Washington, D.C., which President Roosevelt has currently taken up with his cabinet members. The resolution suggests, however, that the industrial trusts are of greater concern than the smoke situation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-04
This newspaper article discusses King of England Edward VII’s travel to Biarritz, France, and the impact it had on his cabinet and Parliament. While the situation did not look good—several important British leaders were away—practically, nothing bad happened.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-12
President Roosevelt does not know when George von Lengerke Meyer will join the Cabinet. Meyer was a class ahead of Roosevelt in college.
Massachusetts Historical Society
1906-11-27
President Roosevelt is concerned to hear about the sickness of George von Lengerke Meyer’s daughters. Roosevelt appreciates the tact with which Meyer approached the circumstances surrounding James N. Sutton’s death. Roosevelt approves the appointment of Edward M. Morgan as postmaster of New York. He appreciates Meyer’s faithful service in the position of Postmaster General.
Massachusetts Historical Society
1907-07-10
The official paper of the “Southern negro congress” will not insist on an African American on the ticket but expects an African American cabinet member.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-26
In this article for Ladies’ Home Journal, William Jennings Bryan explains why he continues to give public lectures despite his governmental position as the Secretary of State.
1915-04
Folded business card for Irma Manor of Buffalo, New York. When folded, one side bears a photograph of a large, vine-covered building and the other side includes standard business information. The inside of the card contains information on rates and notes that the manor was the location of Theodore Roosevelt’s first cabinet meeting after succeeding to the presidency on September 14, 1901.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1930
William Jennings Bryan sits in his chair at the “Peace Department.” Former President Roosevelt, grimacing and carrying a club, is visible at the window. Bryan reacts to the sight by raising his hands.
This cartoon refers to Secretary of State Bryan, sarcastically called the “Peace Department” by cartoonist Cesare, being startled by the bellicose Theodore Roosevelt in the window. William Jennings Bryan was a pacifist, as were other members of President Wilson’s cabinet. Roosevelt opposed the Administration’s meager budgets and defense exercises, and public controversies grew common, largely spurred by Roosevelt. Bryan resigned his cabinet position on June 9, 1915, claiming that Wilson was growing less pacifistic.
Uncle Sam is pictured as a cadaver labeled “The Body Politic” that President William H. Taft, as Dr. Tulp, is using to instruct his cabinet members in the anatomy of the “body politic” based on “His Policies.”
Still in a honeymoon mode — albeit in the first month of the new Administration — Puck Magazine’s chief political cartoonist Udo J. Keppler presents a dignified portrait of William H. Taft and his cabinet. Such drawings, sometimes allegorical but invariably neutral in tone, accompanied the advent of every presidential team.
Composite photograph showing President Theodore Roosevelt seated at his desk with Cabinet members superimposed near him. The members are identified as (left to right): Taft, Wilson, Straus, Root, Hitchcock, Cortelyou, Bonaparte, Metcalf and Shaw.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906
Composite photograph of Cabinet members superimposed on a photograph of President Roosevelt’s private office in the executive building. Group with, left to right: George B. Cortelyou, Philander C. Knox, Henry C. Payne, William H. Moody, John Hay, President Roosevelt, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Elihu Root, Leslie M. Shaw, and James Wilson.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902-11-19