Cortelyou, George B. (George Bruce), 1862-1940

An article in The Press lists President Roosevelt’s Cabinet as violators of the law and how they should be dismissed from their positions. This dismissal is based on the Conrad-Bonaparte report which states it is a violation of the law for “laborers” to do clerical work. The article states every department in Washington employs laborers to do clerical work, so the Cabinet should be dismissed. The writer also discusses how the attorneys Conrad and Bonaparte are breaking the law about office rental and should also be dismissed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-14

Attorney General Moody writes to President Roosevelt regarding funding sources for American Indian Day and industrial schools. Members of Congress declared that public money could not be used to fund sectarian schools, but the Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock can use certain money for American Indians held in trust in any way he saw fit, including assistance to sectarian schools.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-02

Representative Bradley writes to Theodore Roosevelt to argue for the confirmation of Major Edward S. Fowler, enumerating the reasons why Fowler ought to be confirmed. Bradley would like this done to save his own reputation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-17

Thomas Robert Bard encloses three letters to President Roosevelt regarding Dr. Adolphe Danziger, asking Roosevelt to review them and contact him for the opportunity to present Danziger.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-17

Eugene A. Philbin praises President Roosevelt on his handling of a meeting with Monsignor Ambrose Agius. Agius will soon be serving in the Philippines. Philbin writes that Roosevelt can mask a cross-examination as a friendly interview. Philbin has met with Arizona’s Governor Alexander O. Brodie and discussed the custody case involving the wards of the New York Foundling Hospital.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-03

H. O. Weaver, personal secretary to Republican National Committee Chairman George B. Cortelyou, writes to William Loeb. Cortelyou is forwarding to Loeb a letter from Elihu Root to Charles Holland Duell. Weaver also wants Loeb to be aware of a special delivery letter from Charles Gates Dawes that should be arriving soon.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-01

Armand Romain reminds President Roosevelt that last August, a committee of Republicans from Louisiana entered a formal protest against the “policy of inaction and of ostracism” adopted by the “Lilly White” leaders of the Louisiana Republican Party. Romain recounts the injustice and partisanship with which they lead the party, which has led to dismal election results. Some fear that the party is “in a state of complete demoralization and on the eve of annihilation,” and Romain and others hope to get some “word of encouragement and hope” from Roosevelt, as well as assistance if the party collapses. Still, Romain is hopeful, as there is a “strong change of sentiment” in Louisiana and in the South generally, in political matters, and people are beginning to believe the Democratic Party has “outlived its usefulness.” Romain reminds Roosevelt of his offer to consult both factions within the party when the time came, and Romain believes that the time is now. An announcement of Roosevelt’s proposed trip to the area “created an honest and hearty enthusiasm” among Republicans there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-21

McCall is making an extensive tour in the West, but John A. Sleicher expects he will return on Saturday, and hopes to see him before Monday. He hopes that President Roosevelt has not been upset by Senator Edgar Truman Brackett’s letter printed by the New York Times. The letter emphasizes conditions in the state of New York for which politicians must be held accountable. Sleicher believes that Secretary of War Elihu Root should make a statement on behalf of Roosevelt and George B. Cortelyou regarding a matter they have discussed. He believes that this would protect them from lies that are told repeatedly by Alton B. Parker.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-03

Lawrence F. Abbott tells President Roosevelt that his father, Lyman Abbott, is currently out of town. Lawrence will speak with George B. Cortelyou tomorrow, and will arrange for his father to see him when he returns.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-03

Archbishop Ireland says that he will have to congratulate President Roosevelt after the election, but offers congratulations in the meantime on the “assured future.” He believes George B. Cortelyou deserves high praise for the way he has run Roosevelt’s campaign. Ireland encloses a letter and documents he received from Archbishop J. J. Harty of Manilla, and asks Roosevelt to look at them after election day so that they can discuss them when Ireland visits him later in the month.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-01

Assistant Treasurer at St. Louis Thomas J. Akins does not believe that Dr. Albert Shaw’s letter is in the possession of any member of the Missouri Republican State Committee, but will do his best to see if he can locate it. Akins has worked to bring the Republican party of Missouri together, and believes there will be a large increase in voters in the upcoming election. While he is not sure if President Roosevelt will win the state he has a chance of doing so. In a handwritten postscript Akins notes that he has just received Roosevelt’s letter, and will follow the instructions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-31

Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, depicted as a chick, has just popped out of an egg while Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker–all depicted as large chickens–look on. In the corner is a feed bowl labeled “presidential popularity.” Caption: Chorus (in unison): “Wonder if that spring chicken really takes himself seriously.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The presidential ambitions of George B. Cortelyou were always modest, as he himself was; and if he was not a chick (as in J. H. Donahey’s cartoon), he certainly was an odd duck among the politicians who hoped to be the Republican nominee in 1908. One thing that set him apart is that he was a personal secretary and a technocrat and organizer: a bureaucrat.

A desk has a sign above it: “Announce yourself NOT a candidate here without a delay.” Below are two papers: “Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination. Signed, Theodore Roosevelt” and “I have not been a candidate for anything but the confidence of the people. xxxx George B. Cortelyou.” There is a map of North and South America, a telephone, and several books, including “Bears I have met,” “Santiago and way stations,” and “More bears.”

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist Harold R. Coffman, later one of William Randolph Hearst’s “relief pitchers” on his chain’s art staffs, illustrating features and drawing occasional editorial cartoons in place of Winsor McCay, contributed clever elements to this drawing. “Make Way For Taft!” managed to say much about the breaking news story without picturing a single figure.

President Roosevelt holds up a note that reads, “Under no circumstances will I again be a candidate for the presidency. T. Roosevelt. Election night 1904.” He says to a group of men, “Boys, I stand pat on this decision!” The men, who include Secretary of War William H. Taft, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of the Treasury, Philander C. Knox, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, all responded approvingly.

comments and context

Comments and Context

On the day that President Roosevelt issued a statement repeating, but with finality, his decision of 1904 not to succeed himself in 1908, cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman suggests that the declaration was more for the Republican aspirants than the general public.

President Roosevelt stands behind a fence and tosses an extremely large pair of “Roosevelt’s shoes.” A number of men standing waiting to catch them: Secretary of War William H. Taft, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Iowa Governor Albert Baird Cummins, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes; and former cabinet secretaries Leslie M. Shaw and Philander C. Knox.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The immediate context of Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon was a public statement issued by President Roosevelt the previous day, on December 12, 1907. Hence the “Now” in the cartoon’s title.

A man looks at “Doctor Cortelyou” and holds a bag of “$: Dr. Hayseed’s pills” while Uncle Sam lies incapacitated in a bed. Cortelyou says, “I’ve made a careful diagnosis of Uncle’s case, and I think your pills will put him on his feet.” President Roosevelt looks on and says, “I hope Uncle will get no worse.” J. Pierpont Morgan says to John D. Rockefeller, “They are very much alarmed about the condition of Uncle. I’m afraid John, the last dose you gave him didn’t do him any good. They don’t seem to think much of your skill when they called in a country practitioner.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The focus of this cartoon was that of the entire nation itself, a bare month into the Wall Street Panic of 1907. Cartoonist J. F. Collins had greater fame and a longer career as a strip cartoonist for Sunday newspapers than for political cartoons. “A Serious Case” is indeed a case study of why the case was so serious.

Depicted as football players, President Roosevelt, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, and Uncle Sam, holding the “prosperity” football, charge ahead past the man labeled “panic.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon addressed the Wall Street Panic then threatening to turn from a panic to a rout in brokerage houses and banks, or to a full-scale Depression. That the cartoonist was one of the most ardent admirers of Theodore Roosevelt explains the hyperbolic portrayal of the financial crisis then barely a month old.

President Roosevelt is depicted as Ben-Hur and drives a chariot of four horses: “public honesty,” “square deal,” “publicity,” and “centralization.” He leads the chariot race. Behind him are “swollen fortune” and a “reactionary.” On the ground are an “undesirable citizen” and a “molly-coddle.” In the stands are Miss Columbia, William Loeb, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In a regrettably typical cartooning overreach, the Washington Herald‘s Joseph Harry Cunningham transforms a popular image in the public’s consciousness into a putative grand statement on the current political situation. Beyond the idea that President Roosevelt was engaged in racing ahead with several policy agendas, pursued by opponents of those programs, there was little that was prescient, or that would bring a new insight to readers.

President Roosevelt and Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou hold a “U.S. Treasury” pipe that is sending bonds and notes swirling around to large crowds of people.

comments and context

Comments and Context

William K. Starrett’s cartoon properly depicts the role of Treasury Secretary George B. Cortelyou in creatively addressing the crisis precipitated by the Panic of 1907 then sweeping Wall Street (and, in fact, money markets across the world). He and President Roosevelt approved the deposit of 25-million dollars into various banks; and that act is pictured by Starrett.

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