Democracy

E. Parmelee Prentice, encouraged by Theodore Roosevelt’s approval of the Amherst Plan, sends Roosevelt an article he contributed to the June 1911 issue of Harper’s Monthly. He discusses the value of basing education on a foundation of industry, concentration, and personal independence of judgement. An education in the classics is essential for students to understand the principles of democracy. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-24

In this article, Dr. Frank Crane promotes democracy over socialism. 

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1914

Frank Arthur Putnam writes a poem that depicts the American Revolution and the Civil War and states the time has come to rise against today’s despots, which are the supremely wealthy. Putnam calls for a peaceful revolution that will change the United States from representative government to full democracy and offers solutions for how to accomplish this task. Ernest McGaffey writes a letter to Putnam that states revolution will not occur in the near future because the people are not suffering enough. McGaffey includes a poem with his letter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06

William H. Taft sits beside a well-dressed Republican elephant who says, “Poor girl! She’s been making over that same old hat ever since I can remember.” William Jennings Bryan sits beside an older lady labeled “democracy” and “Bryanism,” who says, “Gra-cious! Now aren’t those new styles just the limit!” Bryan scowls and says, “Fierce!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s drawing style was starting to mature at the time this cartoon was published, but his concepts were clever and incisive from the start.

President Roosevelt sits in a chair listening to Uncle Sam play the violin for the “1908 waltz.” Two women labeled “G.O.P.” and “Democracy” sit and listen as well.

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. H. Donahey’s cartoon in the Cleveland Plain Dealer was yet another variation on the common question of editorialists leading up to the 1908 presidential campaign. If it was a burning question, it mainly was because cartoonists fanned the flames: Would President Roosevelt run again for president?

President Roosevelt, holding a book “Roosevelt’s Policies” in his hand, watches a Republican elephant dancing in a tuxedo. A teddy bear and an older woman labeled “Democracy” look on with the woman saying, “Oh Theodore, you look good to me.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

By 1907, near the end of President Roosevelt’s presidency, his policies, or at least prescriptions and theoretical palliatives for the government and economy, had grown somewhat radical. Disputes with trusts, banks, corporations, the “predatory rich” and “malefactors of great wealth,” corrupt unions, and reactionary legislators had propelled his reforming zeal. Additionally, as he noted to confidants, the rise of radicalism, Muckraking journalism, labor violence and Socialism impelled him to co-opt extreme tendencies in America when he could.

President Roosevelt sits beside a woman labeled, “Democracy,” and looks at her adoringly. Caption: “Do you know, Theodore, we’re getting better acquainted every day!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

President Roosevelt evolved toward policies that were first advanced by Populists and Democrats; in a nation’s normal political life, ideas that seem shocking are often modified by their proponents, and likely just as often the logical elements of those ideas become palatable to opponents. In Roosevelt’s case, his natural bent as a reformer brought him to address palliatives once considered beyond the pale. But — among other objections — as long as a man with, in Roosevelt’s opinion, the shallowness of William Jennings Bryan led the Democrats, he would never jump parties.

President Roosevelt watches a Republican elephant chase a “democracy” bird from the front of the “White House.” Caption: The Only Bird of National Repute Chased Recently From the White House Grounds.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-30

Article expresses appreciation for President Roosevelt’s work in the United States and abroad. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-22

Article discusses Dr. Lyman Abbott speaking at University of Wisconsin, on democracy and religion. Article is incomplete. 

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1911-11-18

William Randolph Hearst, as “Tarquinius Hearst” carrying a stick labeled “Yellow Journalism,” sneaks into the “New York State Democracy.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck magazine and its owner and chief cartoonist Udo J. Keppler traditionally borrowed from classical literature and opera for contextual motifs. This cover cartoon, however, required some knowledge of the minor Shakespearian canon.

William Jennings Bryan, his hat falling to the ground and with one foot braced against a water trough, tries to pull a donkey labeled “Democracy” to the trough where the water is labeled “Bryanism,” the trough is labeled “Kansas City Platform,” and the pump is labeled “Populism.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This simple cartoon by Joseph Keppler encapsulates the situation the Democratic Party found itself in between the presidential elections of 1900 and 1908. Very simply, William Jennings Bryan, the young Nebraska congressman, had dominated the party and its councils since his “Cross of Gold” speech electrified the nominating convention in 1896 and catapulted him into the presidential candidacy. The force of his personality, and his startling agenda of Populist reforms, likely played equal roles in his leadership.

Theodore Roosevelt confirms to Walter A. Black that when he is fighting for the poor man, the work is in the interests of the rich man, as well, because “this country will not permanently be a good place for any man to live in unless it is a good place for all men to live in.” The policies he is advocating must be adopted, in order for democracy to flourish.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-06-03

Theodore Roosevelt hopes the delegates to the State Convention of Utah will align with other states to overcome “boss rule and the rule of special interests” to ensure democracy and “the cause of progressive Republicanism.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-05

Theodore Roosevelt writes Joseph P. Cotton and provides commentary on the power of the judiciary.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-04-30

Theodore Roosevelt does not want to interfere with the planning for the speeches and thought that Senator Dixon and Governor Hadley had worked out the time. Roosevelt agrees to speak along the lines suggested by Hadley.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-03-25

Theodore Roosevelt will read the papers sent by Ralph Duniway of Portland, Oregon. However, Roosevelt holds strongly that pure democracy in the sense that Duniway uses the word is one of the forms of republican government. Roosevelt also asserts that it is absurd to deny that Switzerland is a republic.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-25

Theodore Roosevelt expresses his appreciation for Charles Dwight Willard’s frank and sincere letter, as well as his admiration for Willard’s work. Roosevelt discusses his “genuine sympathy” for the common, hard-working man and outlines his views on democracy as both a form of government and as an ideal. Roosevelt also discusses the pros and cons of initiative, referendum, and recall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-28

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary writes to Liston L. Lewis regarding Roosevelt’s speaking arrangements. Roosevelt’s speech is titled “Abraham Lincoln and Progressive Democracy.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-23

Theodore Roosevelt was pleased to receive Samuel Crothers’s essay. Roosevelt agrees that divine right is not something that fits with the democratic character of the United States where ballots change rulers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914-11-14