Foraker, Joseph Benson, 1846-1917

On the Senate floor, several Senators engage in a free-for-all around a signpost labeled “Rail Road Interests.” Watching the melee from the “Visitors’ Gallery” is Joseph R. Burton.

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s center-spread cartoon in Puck, 1906, is a reversal of many cartoons drawn through the years (most memorably by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler’s 1889 gallery of moneybags, “Bosses of the Senate.” Pughe’s variation was to draw the floor of the Senate ripped out, and the well reconfigured as the floor of a stock exchange.

President Roosevelt stands on one side of a scaffold, holding a large sculpted arm with a huge stick labeled “The Big Stick” for placement on a large sculpture of a female figure labeled “Inter-State Commerce Laws.” On the other side of the scaffold is a man labeled “The Rail Road” directing Nelson W. Aldrich, Stephen B. Elkins, and Joseph Benson Foraker to use instead a much smaller arm labeled “Delay” and “Fines.” Caption: A difference of opinion as to what will fit the lady.

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s cartoon is one of the cleverer uses of the Big Stick as an icon during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. The depiction of four men against his lone self is also a fair representation of the opposition Roosevelt faced.

Theodore Roosevelt stands at center, beaming, with several supporters (Elihu Root, Thomas Collier Platt, William H. Taft, Charles W. Fairbanks, Joseph Benson Foraker, and J. S. Sherman) and a bunch of hands pointing toward him. Caption: The sum and substance of the Republican platform.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In mid-term years of administrations in these days, state political parties often “endorsed” the president and his policies; or, of course, if out of the White House, would nod to the most recent positions of the parties. In 1903, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker of Ohio embarrassed his in-party Ohio rival Marcus Hanna by drafting an extreme, not generic, endorsement of President Roosevelt and actually promoted his renomination.

The sun, with Theodore Roosevelt’s beaming face, is partially covered by smaller planets having the faces of Elihu Root, William H. Taft, and Charles W. Fairbanks. Other “planets” in the background include Leslie M. Shaw, Joseph Benson Foraker, and another that is unidentified. Caption: Political astronomers are watching some aspiring planetoids.

comments and context

Comments and Context

For working political cartoonists, the shortest and happiest lines between two points occurs when the points are a current-event piece of news, and a political situation pleading to be described. Such was the case in this Puck cover cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Junior, when the public anticipated the sun being blotted out by the moon, and the (forever inevitable) discussion about the upcoming presidential contest.

A troop of senators, as Confederate soldiers being led by an officer on horseback labeled “Trusts,” march down a street past the house with “Barbara Fritchie” labeled “Dingley Tariff” leaning out the window, waving a flag labeled “High Protection.” Caption: “Who touches a hair on yon swelled head / Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The reference-point of cartoonist Pughe’s cartoon is the famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, “Barbara Fritchie.” The legend about the old lady is almost certainly apocryphal — the Union patriot who waved her stars and stripes as occupying Confederate forces rode by her house in Frederick, Maryland.

In a battle scene, President Roosevelt is about to make a final charge on “Fort Democracy” labeled “Peace, Constitution, [and] Prosperity.” Performing various functions in Roosevelt’s camp are “Foraker,” “Morton” spying from a balloon, “Allison” raising a flag labeled “Up with the Trusts,” “Woodruff” attending to wounded T.C. “Platt,” “Higgins” and “Odell” with cans of money from a box labeled “Groceries N.Y. State,” “Cortelyou” sharpening a sword, “Shaw” with binoculars, “Bliss” and “Fairbanks” loading a small cannon labeled “National Committee Gun,” and “Rockefeller” with a hod full of money bags labeled “Standard Shot.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by J. S. Pughe was the closing salvo, so to speak, in the campaign of Puck, a leading Democrat publication, in the 1904 presidential campaign. As such, it is surprisingly mild and generic. President Roosevelt is the only figure denigrated by caricature, and the cartoon shows neither the Democratic candidate, Judge Alton Brooks Parker, nor any real representation of his party’s substantive platform positions. Beyond the assertion that the Republican Party contained rich men devoted to using their wealth in an election, the crowded cartoon diverted its focus to smaller issues and controversies.

Cartoon depicts President Roosevelt slamming his fist against a table which is breaking over various government officials. Item is regarding Roosevelt’s return to work following his hunting trip to Mississippi.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-11-22

Theodore Roosevelt received a letter from Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, which he quoted in a recent communication to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. Roosevelt will not be in Ohio, but would like to see R. A. Mack in New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-03-05

Senator Stone requested Theodore Roosevelt’s objections to the Colombian treaty report but Roosevelt was not given enough time to prepare anything new. He calls Stone’s attention to an article he wrote on the topic that was published in the February edition of Metropolitan Magazine and a speech delivered by Joseph Benson Foraker on December 17, 1903.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-02-23

President Roosevelt will act according to Albert Shaw’s wishes in the matter of Gustavus A. Gessner, the man Shaw indicated should be renominated as postmaster in Foraker, Ohio. Senator Theodore E. Burton, Representative Grant E. Mouser, and Thomas J. Maxwell all oppose the renomination, because Gessner actively supported Senator Joseph Benson Foraker over president-elect William H. Taft in the past election. However, Gessner is a good postmaster, and Roosevelt had already promised Shaw to reappoint him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-02

President Roosevelt instructs Senator Aldrich that the language of the bill must be clear that it is permissible but not mandatory that the board members may reinstate the members of the 25th Infantry Companies B, C, and D of the United States Army that are innocent of assault and have no criminal knowledge of the Brownsville Affair of 1906. Roosevelt would like Aldrich to show this letter to Senators Henry Cabot Lodge, Francis E. Warren, William Warner, and Joseph Benson Foraker.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-27

President Roosevelt appreciates that President-Elect Taft favors a veto of the Census Bureau bill and tells him not to worry about Senator Joseph B. Foraker’s inquest into the expenditures from the Emergency Fund, as Roosevelt accepts “full responsibility” for Taft and Secretary of State Elihu Root’s uses of the fund.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-16

President Roosevelt is grateful for Henry Sprague’s letter and is not bothered by Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and Benjamin R. Tillman’s “attacks.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-17

President Roosevelt updates his son Kermit Roosevelt on recent happenings as he concludes his presidency. Irritated by the negative reaction to his “moderate” physical exercise order, Roosevelt recounts his recent, one-day ninety mile ride out to Warrenton, Virginia, which he hoped “would put a stop to any grumbling.” He also discusses the state of his relationship with Congress, which has soured as he nears the end of his term. Roosevelt does not expect to pass any legislation this winter, and, as such, feels that Congress cannot do him much harm. To conclude, Roosevelt fondly reflects on his presidency, noting that he and his wife, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, have enjoyed the White House “more than any President and his wife,” but are content and willing to leave it for a life of happiness.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-14

President Roosevelt informs President-Elect Taft of what he has done about the Ohio senatorship. Taft’s brother Charles Phelps Taft recently remarked to Roosevelt that he nearly believes it would be better for Ohio to continue to have Joseph Benson Foraker as its senator than to have Theodore E. Burton. Roosevelt rebutted this belief, saying it is imperative that Ohio no longer have Foraker as its senator in order for Taft’s upcoming administration to succeed. Roosevelt later told Gustav J. Karger the same thing–that the most important piece of the Ohio senatorial contest was that Foraker lost.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-01

President Roosevelt celebrates Harvard’s victory over Yale in the football match. He tells his son Kermit that J. H. Patterson, who killed the man-eating lions of Tsavo, spent Friday at the White House. Carl Ethan Akeley, who has hunted elephants and rhinoceros, came to lunch the next day. Both gave valuable advice, and Roosevelt tells Kermit that they must be extremely cautious in Africa until they are used to what is being done. The arrangements are all made. Roosevelt also says that Kaiser William II has “come an awful cropper,” and been a “perfect fool.” The German people are finally angry about it. Roosevelt has finished the lectures he will be giving at Oxford and the Sorbonne. He hears that Senator Joseph Benson Foraker is preparing an attack against him, but he is indifferent.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-22

President Roosevelt was pleased with the letter from Gordon Russell. He feels that Russell clearly understands what he is trying to do, and especially appreciates what Russell said about the moral aspects of his work. He discusses the results of the election. Roosevelt thinks the way to raise the “ideals of the masses” is not to simply point out the wrong, but to especially point out “a safe and proper remedy.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-16

President Roosevelt asks Charles Banks to write him a statement detailing what the men of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, are doing, and the status of the community. Roosevelt is speaking at the laying of the cornerstone for the “colored” YMCA, and would like to make a statement that will help “the colored man,” and encourage the white man to stand by “the colored man who possesses those qualities which, if possessed by a white man, would entitle him to be called a good citizen.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-14

President Roosevelt thanks Reverend Johnston for his letter. The incident that Johnston wrote about happened over a year ago and was an attempt to discredit Puerto Rico Governor Regis Henri Post. Roosevelt asserts that this was done because Post is “a good man,” not because he is a bad man. The Senate Committee, led by Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, investigated the allegations against Post and found no wrongdoing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-23

President Roosevelt tells Levi Gilbert that the matter he wrote about has been revived as a partisan issue with the aim of damaging William H. Taft. It deals with an incident that happened when Regis Henri Post was serving as Governor ad interim of Puerto Rico. Roosevelt points out that Post’s nomination was made on the recommendation of Episcopal Bishop James H. Van Buren, Protestant missionaries, the Catholic bishop, and other Puerto Rican officials. The nomination was sent to Senator Joseph Benson Foraker’s Senate Committee, and ultimately Post was confirmed by both the committee and the full Senate.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-17