Campaign funds

In the top half of the cartoon, President Roosevelt grabs a man holding a rake by the neck. Caption: 1. After you had made a thrilling attack on the Man of the Muck Rake, and you had swatted and lambasted him in the most merciless manner— In the second half of the cartoon, “the common people” point Roosevelt to the “national muck heap” and ask, “Why don’t you get busy about that?” A number of individuals are in the pile: “R.R. rebater,” “official bribe taker,” “official grafter,” “U.S. senator owned by railroads,” “trust-owned U.S. senator,” New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt, Chauncy M. Depew, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. Caption: 2. If you suddenly learned that you ought to have attacked the Muck Heap instead of the Muck Rake. Wouldn’t it DEE-PRESS you?

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04

Alton B. Parker paints a picture of President Roosevelt and Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou robbing the “trusts” for the “campaign fund.” Roosevelt holds an “anti-trust prosecution” big stick in his hand. A disgusted voter clenches his fists and walks away. Caption: Voter—”Attacks on the president’s personal honesty can gain you no votes, Mr. Parker.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-03

President Roosevelt wants a new document circulated that makes clear that federal employees are under no obligation to contribute funds to Republican political campaigns, thus negating a circular distributed previously by Republican officials.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-11

An interview with Seth Low, Chairman, on the bills drafted by his committee, in comparison to those drafted by Mr. Belmont.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-10

Article reports the investigation of Standard Oil Campaign contributions and Theodore Roosevelt’s declining of contributions.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1912-08-26

President Charles S. Mellen of the Northern Pacific Railroad announced to his friends that he is supporting President Roosevelt for the Republican nomination and will contribute $10,000 to the Republican campaign fund. This was surprising to many since Roosevelt was trying to dissolve the Northern Securities Company of which the Northern Pacific Railroad is a part.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-06-11

J. S. Sherman collects $1 donations for the Republican Party at a fund raising event in a theater. Theodore Roosevelt and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon can be seen in the audience. “Behind the scenes” are J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Huttleston Rogers, and Edward Henry Harriman pouring coins from large money bags into “The Dough Barrel.” Caption: But the real work of financing the campaign will, as usual, be done behind the scenes.

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. S. Sherman was a long-serving member of the House of Representatives from New York — twenty years total with a four-year hiatus in the middle of the stretch — first elected in 1886. Despite his long service, he never held a position of power or significant committee assignment higher than Indian Affairs. Nevertheless, the affable “Sunny Jim” asserted behind-the-scenes influence and he was adept at conciliation and compromise.

James W. Alexander, president the Equitable Life Assurance Society, and generically labeled “Life Insurance Company,” drowns in a sea of papers labeled “Exposure, Bribery, Syndicate Profits, Dummy Deals, Wholesale Graft, Fake Transactions, Juggled Reports, ‘Yellow Dog’ Funds, Rake-off, [and] Investigation.” He is holding in his raised left hand a “Receipt for Campaign Funds Republican Nat’l. Com.” The “G.O.P.” [Republican] elephant dashes over a bluff on the coastline, losing a top hat and halo labeled “Geo. B.” Out at sea, lightning flashes labeled “Publicity.” A bouquet of flowers labeled “J.H.H.” (James Hazen Hyde, the vice president of Equitable, who had recently been ousted from the company’s board) has been tossed meaninglessly before Alexander.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Icons abound in this cartoon, but their meanings would have been clear to headline-followers in 1905. In the middle of the Muckraking Era, when public feelings rose high against Big Business and corporate corruption, the insurance industry — a “Trust” of a few major firms — was rocked by financial scandals and a high society sex scandal involving the heir to the Equitable Life fortune.

An elderly man labeled “Corporation Magnate” is sandwiched between the Republican Elephant and the Democratic Donkey, each holding out cups labeled, respectively, “Rep. Campaign Funds” and “Dem Campaign Funds”, seeking contributions. Caption: “Gentlemen, I cannot; my moral sense forbids!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Joseph Keppler, Junior, in this cover cartoon from Puck, tweaks the generic plutocrat after an intense period of chastisement. The administration of Theodore Roosevelt began “trust busting” in its first months and seldom flagged in its zeal. For at least two years, the writers labelled Muckrakers (by President Roosevelt) had burned the pages of numerous magazines, newspapers, and books with exposes and revelations about corruption in big business. In the House of Representatives, a rising corps of Republican “insurgents” picked up where Democratic Populists left off (or effectively joined forces) and fashioned a program of regulatory reform, sometimes radical in nature, to counter elements of Big Business, Big Banking, and Trusts.

Thomas Taggart, Democratic National Committee Chairman, on the left, and George B. Cortelyou, Republican National Committee chairman, on the right, milk a cow into buckets labeled “Dem. Campaign Fund” and “Rep. Campaign Fund.” A bell labeled “Wall Street” hangs from a ribbon labeled “Trust Interests” around the cow’s neck.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Keppler’s caricatures of Tom Taggart and George B. Cortelyou generally reflected their gifts used in 1904 as chairmen of their national political parties.

President Roosevelt appears as a knight on horseback carrying a lance labeled “Reciprocity” over his shoulder with a sack labeled “Campaign Funds” hanging from it. In the background is a giant ogre labeled “Infant Industries” sitting against a castle with a club labeled “Dingley Tariff” nestled against his right arm. Over the castle is flying a banner of “High Protection,” and a despondent maiden labeled “Fair Trade” is standing at the top of a tower.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Invoking an earlier cartoon, when Puck was more charitable about President Roosevelt’s goals and challenges, the “after” part of this composition suggests that Roosevelt extorted campaign contributions from trusts, and that represented his design from the start.

George B. Cortelyou turns a vice to squeeze money for Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign from a bloated man labeled “The Trusts.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This Puck cover cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior ran a week before the 1904 presidential election. Its simplicity is typical of this underrated cartoonist: Campaign chairman George B. Cortelyou squeezes campaign contributions on the eve of the election, and from the hated trusts, while a beaming President Roosevelt, predictably clad in Rough Rider uniform, looks on approvingly.

A typewritten and hand edited response President Roosevelt wrote to an editorial regarding campaign funds in The Outlook. Published in Presidential Addresses & State Papers (Homeward bound edition, VII, pp. 1834-6).

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1908

Frank Harper encloses a letter for Elon Huntington Hooker’s attention and a dollar for the campaign fund.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-12

On behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, his secretary thanks John M. Leach for his letters and campaign work. Roosevelt has no further comment on Senator La Follette’s attitude towards the Progressive Party. George W. Perkins was making a general statement that the Progressive Party had sufficient funds for the campaign, but funds were lacking to carry out the necessary party organization.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-08

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary thanks Louis J. Scaramelli for the letter and campaign contribution.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-06

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary encloses subscriptions from Denis D. Hughes of Pennsylvania and Job A. McLeod of Arkansas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-04

On behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, his secretary thanks Denis D. Hughes for the letter and subscription to the campaign fund. The Progressive Party has put up a great fight, and the only way to get rid of the political bosses is to vote the Progressive ticket.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-04

On behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, his secretary thanks Job A. McLeod for the letter and subscription to the campaign fund.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-04

Enclosed are contributions from E. E. Neal and L. J. Scaramelli.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-06