Foraker, Joseph Benson, 1846-1917

A Republican elephant and Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker sit in an “Ohio Rep. Convention” boat as Foraker says, “Get into the boat!” Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna holds a broom as he points toward a “Roosevelt sentiment” wave. Hanna says, “We’d better sweep it to one side at present.”

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Inspired by the legend of King Canute and his efforts to sweep back the tide, cartoonist Charles M. Payne drew a typically handsome and politically prescient portrayal of the advance run-up to the 1904 Republican presidential convention.

President Roosevelt pushes William H. Taft holding a pennant, “Taft Boom.” Behind Roosevelt is Representative Theodore E. Burton and a group of men with the pennant, “Radical Freshmen.” In front of Taft are the “Conservative Sophomores”: Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Philander C. Knox, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-26

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a paint palette labeled “tariff tint” as he looks on a painting of President Roosevelt playing the violin and Secretary of War William H. Taft dancing. The painting received “1st prize – Salon 08.” On the ground are tubes of paint: “railroad rate red” and “Brownsville black.”

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Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon about the early rivalries for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination delicately portrays the tension between two Ohioans, Secretary of War William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. It was rare that two formidable candidates arose from the same state in any election cycle, yet the confrontations were many, and the state’s leading Republicans generally split along southern (Taft was from Cincinnati) and northern lines, each man with longtime associations and commitments.

President Roosevelt stays hidden as he watches Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker attempt to counter the momentum of a huge rock shaped like William H. Taft’s head labeled “Taft Ohio Endorsement.”

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Theodore Roosevelt would indeed end up looking upon this situation — the Ohioan Secretary of War William H. Taft gaining advantage over fellow Ohioan, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, in their rivalry for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination. Roosevelt’s endorsement of Taft coincided with real animosity between him and the Foraker.

President Roosevelt and the Republican elephant stand at the dock of the “G.O.P. Boat Club” as they watch Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Philander C. Knox, Leslie M. Shaw, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and Secretary of State Elihu Root try to row a boat.

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Cartoons like Clifford Kennedy Berryman’s “In Training,” typical of many during his long career in Washington, D. C., were closer to illustrated observations, reflecting current events, not attempting to criticize or persuade, than to classic political cartoons. They were editorial cartoons, not at all partisan, merely addressing political realities.

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, President Roosevelt, and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks watch over a fence saying, “Oh!” “Heigh!” “Oh!” respectively. William H. Taft holds the handle to the “Buckeye State” wagon and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker rolls his sleeve, ready for a fight.

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A cartoonist named H. H. Graham discovered a variant angle on the aspirations of Republican politicians as the 1908 elections drew near. Cartoonists and editorial writers — and politicians themselves — endlessly speculated on the race. Roosevelt clearly favored his Secretary of War, William H. Taft; yet the power of an incumbent president, even one with the broad popularity that Roosevelt enjoyed, was not absolute. Party leaders and unpredictable delegates could confound the experts.

President Roosevelt flies down the road driving an automobile with William H. Taft in the backseat. To the left side of the car the Republican elephant tries to keep up. There is a sign, “the presidential Glen Echo,” in the foreground and the White House and the Washington Monument in the background. Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds up a watch and cries, “In the name of the speed limit, slack up.” Caption: Town Marshal Foraker: “Stop! in the name of the law.”

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Contemporary news stories, and even local geography, inform this cartoon by Jack Smith of the staunchly Republican journal, the Washington Herald.

Uncle Sam holds President Roosevelt, dressed like a woman, tightly as William H. Taft sits in a baby carriage holding onto an “Ohio Indorsement” bottle being pulled by Joseph Benson Foraker. An African American man watches in the background. Caption: Uncle Sam– “So, you’re going to leave me.” Roosevelt– “If you coax me real hard, Sammy, I might remain in your employ. I’m only joking about quitting.” Willie Taft– “Mama! Mama! This naughty boy won’t let me have my bottle.” “Dat dar big cuss has no right to dat anyhow.”

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John F. Collins, a cartoonist whose modest fame rests in the creation or maintenance of several children’s strips for the World Color Printing Company (St. Louis) weekend color supplements, syndicated to local newspaper across the country, proved himself capable of political invective and pictorial crudeness in this cartoon.

William H. Taft attempts to push a rock labeled “Ohio” with Senators Charles Dick and Joseph Benson Foraker sitting on top of it through the White House gates as he sweats profusely. President Roosevelt looks on with a bomb labeled “popular policies” in his right hand. Caption: The president– “Don’t work so hard, Bill! We can blow it up with this stuff in my hand.”

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Republicans dominated Ohio politics for decades after the Civil War. In fact, the state, like Virginia, traditionally supplied many presidents and prominent, powerful politicians; in 1920 the two major party presidential candidates were Ohio newspaper editors, Harding and Cox. The Republican Party at one point was so powerful, with numerous talented leaders, that its factions were as persuasive and contentious as were Democrats and Republicans in other states.

At “Ananias Botanical Garden,” there are a number of potted plants with men’s heads in them: “Tillmanus,” “Forakeria,” and “Harrimanium Americanus.” For the last one, the tag lists “Nativity. . . . Wall Street,” “Stock,” “Veracity,” “Acquisition,” “Aspiration. . . . Senate,” and “Analyzed by Prof. T. Roosevelt, B.S., P. Du, P.D.Q.”

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The visual cliche, or device, of political figures as plants in a flower show or botanical garden was frequently employed for decades. In this version (by an anonymous artist in an unidentified publication — at least insofar as the White House scrapbook’s annotation) — the hothouse is named for the Ananias Club. This was President Roosevelt’s partly jocular designation of a fraternity for those whom he considered liars in politics and purveyors of fake news in journalism.

President Roosevelt smiles as Joseph Benson Foraker grabs onto his coat, which rips off and he falls into a deep hole. The U.S. Capitol building and Washington monument are in the background.

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The idea of this cartoon is to represent the end of the controversy between President Roosevelt and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker over the matter of a regiment of black troops being cashiered (not honorably discharged) after a melee near their barracks in Brownsville, Texas, left one man dead and another wounded. The accusations, defenses, and insults were the stuff of national interest for months.

William H. Taft sits on a raft by the presumably safe “White House Landing” on a waterway where “Fort Dick” and “Fort Foraker” fire cannon balls on him from the shores.

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There were few inter-party conflicts on the 1907 political landscape more contentious than the intra-party tensions within Ohio’s Republican Party. Many squabbles were fomented and advanced by the personality and ambitions of Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. A longtime fixture in state and national politics, his disagreements with Theodore Roosevelt commenced when the latter was the corruption-fighting Commissioner of Civil Service in the 1880s; and were rife as ever in 1907, most recently over the Senator’s condemnation of the President’s actions in the Brownsville Affair, the dismissal of black troops after a melee outside a saloon that resulted in a murder and a shooting injury.

Foraker had traditional adherents — and those of recent vintage, like the newly appointed Ohio senator Charles Dick — generally from northern Ohio. In 1907 his party rivals included those centered around Cincinnati, including Secretary of War William H. Taft and Representative Nicholas Longworth (Roosevelt’s son-in-law).

Eight men sleep in a bed with sweat on their forehead as they all dream about “third term sentiment.” The men include Ohio Senator Theodore E. Burton, Benjamin B. Odell, South Carolina Benjamin R. Tillman with a pitchfork, William Randolph Hearst, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Edward Henry Harriman, and John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil.

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The “Third Term” question was for President Roosevelt like a bad penny or a stray dog that he could not shake. He declared on election night, 1904, that he would not stand for re-election in 1908. He made this clear to politicians and friends and, by implication — for instance, by promoting William H. Taft as a favored successor — but seldom reasserted his intentions to the public. He felt that to say it too often — and the demands to do so were incessant — would have weakened the force of the declination or seemed like “protesting too much.” He said it, and that should have been enough.

President Roosevelt watches from the White House as New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of State Elihu Root, former Secretary of the Treasury Philander C. Knox, watch Secretary of State William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker roll two eggs — “Taft boom” and “Foraker boom”on the White House lawn.

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As Easter approached in 1907, cartoonists like Clifford Kennedy Berryman of the Washington Evening Star found another opportunity to sail to deadline with a ready-made premise for the topic of the day — who would succeed President Roosevelt? Boys + White House + rivalry = easy variation-on-theme.

President Roosevelt and a teddy bear watch Secretary of War William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker throwing tops. One is labeled, “Taft Boom.”

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In the sweepstakes — that is, the game of speculation about who would secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1908; a game of low odds, since the popular and influential incumbent, Theodore Roosevelt, made known his preference for Secretary of War William H. Taft — two Ohio Republicans were rival contestants.

William H. Taft stands with a gavel in his hand as the delegates select President Roosevelt as the nominee. In the audience are Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes. A balloon in the top right-hand corner shows William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst holding signs that read, “Gov’t Ownership” and “Socialism” respectively as they step on Minnesota Governor John Albert Johnson.

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Whether cartoonist Tyler McWhorter drew this cartoon as a prophecy or a hopeful dream, it was another cartoonist’s speculation on whether President Roosevelt would break his pledge of Election Night 1904 that he would not allow his name to be put into nomination in 1908. With its long caption, it also might have been an illustration for an article, or part of series. In any event the St. Paul Dispatch drawing was pasted in the White scrapbook, and presumably seen by the president.

Uncle Sam holds a paper to which he has just signed “OK” that reads, “Discharge of Negro Soldiers at Brownsville.” Meanwhile, President Roosevelt has two dogs depicting Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and Benjamin R. Tillman barking at him. He says to Uncle Sam, “Oh! Don’t mind them, Uncle–That’s the only way they can attract any attention–these days!” Caption: And then they can go home and brag that they barked at a real president!

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The Denver Post, for about thirty years following the purchase by legendary owners Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and Harry Heye Tammen in the 1890s, was (and remains) one of the most interesting cases in American journalism; and was one of the most successful and influential papers in the active city of Denver and the growing mountain states at the time.

President Roosevelt holds a hot gridiron and runs after Senator Joseph Benson Foraker who is escaping through the Senate door. Meanwhile, Edward Henry Harriman runs toward a train to escape Roosevelt.

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Cartoonist Albert J. Taylor of the Los Angeles Times (about whom little is known; he was overshadowed by fellow art staffers like George Herriman, future creator of Krazy Kat) managed several clever puns in one cartoon frame when he addressed the imbroglio at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington D.C.

President Roosevelt tells Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, “You remember what I said on election night!” They reply, “But, Mr. President, we love so much to hear you repeat it.” In the foreground a teddy bear shakes hands with a star and says, “Delighted!”

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Cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman was not the only cartoonist to squeeze every ounce of speculation from a matter that was not open to speculation during Theodore Roosevelt’s second presidential term — his decision to succeed himself. He had (as the cartoon indicates) declaimed such intention; and his string choice of a successor was Secretary of War William H. Taft. Nevertheless, some politicians still dreamed, and some cartoonists still fell back on easy subjects.

President Roosevelt stares at Senator Joseph Benson Foraker while both are sitting in a “political potpie.”

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The reference in cartoonist Russell’s cartoon undoubtedly is the surprise altercation at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington precisely one week previous.