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President Roosevelt encloses a letter from Hannibal L. Hamlin, regarding the campaign’s “religious issues.” He believes that Senator Lodge’s people might want to look into the situation. Roosevelt believes it is a branch of the old American Protective Association.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-23
Representative Parsons informs President Roosevelt that Charles Evans Hughes is reluctant to accept the Republican nomination for Governor of New York, but that he could be convinced to do so if there was unanimous demand and it was agreed that he was the only candidate who could beat William Randolph Hearst. The incumbent Republican Governor Frank Wayland Higgins has become so unpopular among members of his own party and the press that it seems advisable to replace him, but Higgins still might be able to win if the Democrats nominate William Travers Jerome instead of Hearst, thus making the governorship a three-way race between Hearst, Jerome, and Higgins.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-17
President Roosevelt pushes off the “big stick” and says, “Don’t flinch; don’t foul” as he leans on Timothy L. Woodruff who leans on George Rumsey Sheldon who leans on Secretary of State Elihu Root who leans on J. S. Sherman who leans on Frank H. Hitchcock who ultimately leans on William H. Taft who is fighting against William Jennings Bryan. On the other side William Randolph Hearst pours a “Standard Oil” can and says, “I’ll make ’em slip.” Meanwhile, Norman Edward Mack leans against Herman Ridder who leans against William James Conners who leans against Charles Francis Murphy who leans against John Worth Kern who leans against Bryan. Uncle Sam referees.
It was impressive cartoon that readers of the Brooklyn Eagle beheld in the Election Day edition of the paper. It was, properly, not partisan or biased toward a candidate or party, published as it was on Election Day when political argumentation traditionally ceased.
Several men—David B. Hill, William James Conners, Charles Francis Murphy, William Jennings Bryan holding a “reform” paper, Roger C. Sullivan, Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell, and Alton B. Parker—read the handwriting on the wall: “(Extract from Taft’s letter of July 20-’07) I don’t care for the presidency if it has to come by compromise with Senator Foraker or anyone else in the matter of principle. Taft.” Caption: What a contrast.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-09-23
In this detailed cartoon, a variety of individuals try to figure out if Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell—who has run off—touched second base, which has a container of “oil” on it. Uncle Sam stands in the center of the diamond and says, “It’s a draw.” A large group of people congregate just off the first-base line, including William H. Taft, Samuel Gompers, William Jennings Bryan, Norman Edward Mack, William Loeb, President Roosevelt, William F. Sheehan, Alton B. Parker, and George von Lengerke Meyer. A variety of people are around the field: Charles Francis Murphy, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, New York Lieutenant Governor Lewis S. Chanler, William James Conners, and Patrick Henry McCarren. John D. Rockefeller, John D. Archbold, Henry Huttleston Rogers, and James Roscoe Day all watch from the side. In another section of the audience, the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant fight. A handwritten note is included: “Mr. President: This is so good I have to send it to you.”
Frequently political cartoons have a subtext related news events, gossip about figures being caricatured, and the shadowy realm of the interests and agendas of publishers. All these factors were play in the genre scene composed by cartoonist Thomas E. Powers, nominally about Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell.
Haskell was also Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, with financial responsibilities in the presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan. “Touching second base” or not, as the oil can with Standard Oil’s dollar sign, sits on the base that Haskell clearly avoids, is the nub of the cartoon.
A man labeled “Average voter” stands between two fields, trying to decide which one he should choose. On the left is the “Democratic Lot” showing “Bryan’s Financial Fallacies, Schemes, Dreams, [and] Instability”; “Opposition to a Sound Banking System”; “Inexperience”; “Obstructive Policies”; “Tariff Reform”; “Jefferson’s Ideals”; “Low Leaders [Thomas] Taggart, Fingy [William J. Connors], Hinky Dink [Michael Kenna]”; Anti-Everything”; “Sectionalism”; and “Croak and Kick Statesmanship.” On the right is the “Republican Lot” showing “Past Prosperity” and “Constructive Policies” among “Arrogant Rule [Joseph Cannon], Extravagance, Tariff Graft, Parasite Plutocracy, Special Privilege, Swollen Fortunes, Pension Graft, Foraker Type of Statesman, [and as a snake] Wall Street.” Caption: The Democratic lot – Better soil / The Republican lot – a more alluring field.
“A Question of Courage” was a remarkable cartoon to run in a prominent and usually partisan political journal. Puck, traditional Democrat-leaning, had been ambiguous during the 1908 presidential campaign, declining to be firmer in its tilt toward Republican candidate William H. Taft or utterly disapproving of Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
A galley labeled “Government Of, By, and For the People” sails past rocks labeled “Bossism” where other ships have wrecked, drawn by “Party Solidarity” sung by Republican sirens “Connors, Aldrich, Cox, Penrose, Woodruff, [and] Lodge” and “Partisanship” sung by Democratic sirens “Mack, Conners, Murphy, [and] Taggart” sitting on rocks above the crashing seas. Caption: The old stuff doesn’t go any more.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-06-01
William Jennings Bryan as Orpheus, singing and playing a lyre labeled “Harmony,” attracts a motley group of wild animals identified as: G. Gray, Kern, Folk, Gompers, McCarren, Mitchell, Hearst, Guffey, Watterson, Stone, Eliot, Williams, T. Johnson, Belmont, Sullivan, Pulitzer, Conners, Ryan, Parker, Murphy, and Johnson. One unidentified animal, similar to Williams, sits in a large tree, crawling through the branches above Bryan. Caption: Orpheus Bryan and the Democratic beasts.
Orpheus was not in the underworld, but cartoonist Udo J. Keppler made the dismal swamp seem almost as pleasant in this loosely constructed allegory. The portly and unheroic-looking William Jennings Bryan had a heroic task, nonetheless, to tame the various and potentially deadly creatures.