Equality before the law

President Roosevelt, mounted on a horse, jumps over a fence with poles labeled “Square Deal,” “Equal Rights,” “Corporation Control,” and “Tariff Reform” as Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks watches in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Jack H. Smith of the Washington Herald frequently copied from photographs, and even from the cartoons of others, as he does here. The image of a confident President Roosevelt on horseback clearing a hurdle was too good to neglect, and too inviting not to copy, if not quite as well as other cartoonists.

President Roosevelt throws horseshoes at “honesty.” “Fair Deal” has landed squarely on the stake, and Roosevelt holds another labeled “National honor” in his hand. “Tariff reform,” “equal rights,” and “corporation control” are all on the ground beside him.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The Washington Herald, during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, designed itself to be the most Republican newspaper in the capital. To that end it hired someone named Jack H. Smith to carry political-cartoon water in the cause. His concepts were clear, unlike those of other putative cartoonists, although routinely unspectacular.

Attorney General Moody discusses new state constitutions passed in some southern states designed to keep African Americans from having the right to vote. Moody declares that under the Fifteenth Amendment these new laws are unconstitutional. He calls for change so that African Americans are treated equally under the law.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-05

Theodore Roosevelt has written Charles J. Bonaparte about the matter, and Bonaparte will write at length about it very soon. Roosevelt and Bonaparte are both unsure what they can do but support Bishop Charles W. Currier in the thought that iniquity was a factor in Mexico and along the border with the United States.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-11-02

President Roosevelt is trying to determine how he can explain he has the interest of the Southern white man in mind just as much as the Northern white man without giving up his principles. He does not want to do injustice to black men and believes in equality of opportunity, but not in social equality or miscegenation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-14

President Roosevelt thanks Chief Justice John Grass of the Lakota, as well as the other Chiefs at Standing Rock, for the gift of a buffalo robe. Roosevelt appreciated what Grass said in his speech, and promises to “do everything I can for the Indians, and to strive as hard as I can for the day when the red man and the white will be treated just alike.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-31

President Roosevelt writes to Joseph Gurney Cannon, Chairman of the Notification Committee, to formally accept his nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and to approve the platform adopted by the Republican National Convention. In the letter, Roosevelt provides a comprehensive defense of his foreign and domestic policies and outlines what he believes are the major differences between the Republican and Democratic parties in the upcoming election. Roosevelt discusses, among other topics, his position on international relations, antitrust legislation, tariffs, the gold standard, pensions for Civil War veterans, the military, civil service, commerce, agriculture, taxation, and self-government in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-12

President Roosevelt states that the government is based upon the fundamental idea of treating every man equally.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-12

President Roosevelt wrote to Secretary of War Taft as Silas McBee suggested. Roosevelt describes revisions made to a paragraph that contrasts the observation of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Philippines and in the continental United States. Roosevelt believes in giving fair treatment to every man regardless of their race.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-22

President Roosevelt comments on recent press coverage by Lyman Abbott in The Outlook. Roosevelt acknowledges the article captures his “mental attitude” exactly regarding racial discrimination, black suffrage and equality before the law. He names John Sharp Williams of Mississippi as a prime example of how “whites have suppressed this colored vote so absolutely by force, by fraud, by every species of iniquity.” Roosevelt explains that although the race question was not part of his acceptance speech, if the issue is forced upon him in the upcoming campaign “I shall certainly not hesitate to meet it.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-26

President Roosevelt’s goal in the Philippines is to ensure justice regardless of creed or color, and he will go over Thomas K. Cree’s concerns with Secretary of War Elihu Root.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-06-19

New York City Police Commissioner Bingham returns the enclosures to President Roosevelt and assures him that the matters referenced in them will be taken care of and given “quite particular attention.” Bingham promises that the police will “do their duty” regardless of who the criminals are.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-12

A powder boy hands cannonballs to the “press” to fire from a fort with several cannons and flags, including “Philadelphia Press,” “N.Y. Times,” “N.Y. Sun,” and “Southern Press.” They fire two cannon balls—”no Negro offices” and “no race equality”—at the Gibraltar of “justice” tower with a Republican elephant and where President Roosevelt stands. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-26

This cartoon summarizes a number of important political events in 1903, including presidential and vice presidential aspirations, the Panama Canal, Tammany Hall, equal rights, and the Post Office scandal. President Roosevelt is in the center with his gun in his hands and his foot on a dead “graft” bear.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11

Newspapers in New York are publishing information about President Roosevelt that was not fit to print, which irks the writer of this article because the people of the West love Roosevelt. Although Roosevelt did the best he could to deal with the financial crisis, the writer does acknowledge that it has negatively impacted New York City in ways that the people of Kansas City could not fathom.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-06