Keifer, Joseph Warren, 1836-1932

Creation Date

1908-09-21

Creator(s)

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Nicholas Longworth

President Roosevelt heartily approves of Representative Longworth’s speech and hopes it will be distributed widely. Roosevelt is pleased that his fight for the nomination of New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes paid off, but he is disappointed in the way William H. Taft’s campaign is going, and lists a few of the men he thinks could be responsible. He is anxious to see Taft show more investment and take a swing at Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, but he does not want to steal the spotlight by interfering too much.

Collection

Creation Date

1908-09-21

Creator(s)

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Dudley Foulke

President Roosevelt tells William Dudley Foulke that the statement that he has tried to influence the presidential nomination through appointments to state offices is false and malicious. Roosevelt provides a detailed account of appointments he has made in various states as a rebuttal to this accusation. Because there are so many local offices, Roosevelt frequently relies on input from senators, and tries to put the best people in office. The newspapers that have accused him of showing favoritism have either ignored the facts or chosen to not seek them out. Roosevelt gives a particularly thorough look at the appointments he has made in Ohio, the home state of Secretary of War William H. Taft.

Collection

Creation Date

1908-02-07

Creator(s)

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry V. Boynton

President Roosevelt conveys best wishes to Major Boynton and the Society of the Army of the Cumberland reunion, and expresses his high regard of the society, its past and present members, and legacy.

Collection

Creation Date

1904-09-02

Creator(s)

Release by Detroit News

George E. Miller sends Theodore Roosevelt a news release by the Detroit News, which he thought Roosevelt might like to read. The News reports the interaction of the House Committee on Appropriations with administrators of the Smithsonian Institution in a slightly humorous manner, focusing on the preoccupation of several representatives with whether any money would be going to fund Roosevelt’s safari expedition. While the hearings were going on, the Smithsonian institution issued its annual report stating that Roosevelt’s expedition was financed by private sources.

Collection

Miller, George E. (George Edmund), 1858-1934

Creation Date

1911-03

Creator(s)

Letter from William H. Taft to Theodore Roosevelt

William H. Taft’s gratitude for President Roosevelt goes without saying. Taft believes Roosevelt should wait to publish the letter until after William Jennings Bryan’s upcoming speech. He recounts his meeting with Senator Joseph Benson Foraker in Toledo, Ohio. Although he has a copy, Taft has not yet closely read Governor Charles Evans Hughes’s speech.

Collection

Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930

Creation Date

1908-09-04

Creator(s)

Flight of politicians with their causes over female figure of the U.S. Capitol dome

A flock of politicians, each carrying a bill of their creation, flies over the head of a female symbolic representation of the U.S. Capitol dome.

Collection

Coffin, George Yost, 1850-1896

Creation Date

1880-1900

Creator(s)

Rip Van Winkle’s return

Outside a building labeled “Washington Inn” with an image of the U.S. Capitol on the sign, a large group of Republican legislators, politicians, and others are laughing at an old man wearing tattered clothing labeled “Democracy.” He looks dazed, as though he has just wandered in from the past; his walking stick is dated “1861.” Two dogs labeled “N.Y. Tribune” and “N.Y. Times” sniff at his heels. Among those present are George M. Robeson, Ulysses S. Grant, John Logan, James Gillespie Blaine, Chester Alan Arthur (dressed as a woman, serving food and drinks), Charles J. Folger, George Frisbie Hoar, Joseph Warren Keifer, Horace F. Page, William Mahone (doing a hand-stand), J. D. Cameron, Roscoe Conkling, John Sherman, George F. Edmunds, John P. Jones, and Thomas Collier Platt.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-03-14

Creator(s)

“Take the next car!”

A streetcar labeled “Republican Protection Line” and “Congress 47” rounds a curve with a crowd of men standing on the rear platform. Among them is the conductor labeled “Keifer” and Frank Hiscock. Uncle Sam, holding a basket with papers labeled “Silver Problem, Pension Reform, Our Navy, Civil Service, [and] Int. Revenue Reform,” stands beside the tracks, shaking his umbrella at the passing car as Keifer tells him to “take the next car.” With Uncle Sam are a young child labeled “Anti-Monopoly” and a young woman holding an infant labeled “Tariff Reform.” The next car on the tracks is labeled “Democratic Puzzle-Line” and “48,” which is being pulled by a tired-looking donkey.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-03-07

Creator(s)

Building the ark

Republican revelers in the foreground make music as they pass a reform ark being constructed in the background. Depicted are John Sherman playing pipes labeled “Southern Outrages,” John Logan playing cymbals labeled “Pensions,” Whitelaw Reid playing pan pipes labeled “Monopoly,” James Blaine playing a lyre, George Robeson riding on a donkey labeled “Surplus,” with George Hoar, John Roach, Joseph Keifer, and Roscoe Conkling among them. Among the crowd that follows are Ulysses S. Grant, Jay Gould, and possibly Rutherford B. Hayes, also a man playing a tambourine labeled “Bossism” and another carrying a standard labeled “Spoils,” and one with a sign labeled “River & Harbor Frauds.” In the background, John Carlisle stands at the head of those building the ark. Also shown are Henry Watterson with hammer and chisel, William Morrison holding up “Morrison’s Tariff Reform Plan,” and Abram Hewitt holding “Hewitt’s Free Trade Plank.” The ribs of the ship are labeled “Tariff Reform, Raw Materials Free, Lower Iron Tax, Lower Tax on Woolens, [and] Works of Art Free.”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-03-05

Creator(s)

“Stop thief!”

Illustration, reminiscent of Thomas Nast’s cartoon of the same title published in Harper’s Weekly, October 7, 1871, hence “That trick is very stale”, shows a group of monopolists and Blaine supporters scattering on the street in response to the cry “Stop thief!” Joseph Keifer carries a sign that states “Beware of Cleveland the Monopolist” and Cyrus Field waves a sheet that states “Down with Cleveland the Monopolist.” Among the pursuers and those being pursued are William W. Phelps, Benjamin F. Butler carrying a bag of “Monopolist Fees”, Robert Ingersoll, Keifer, George M. Robeson, Whitelaw Reid throwing “Dust” in the eyes of workingmen, Alonzo Cornell, Field, James G. Blaine carrying a bag of “$ from Monopolists” and “R.R. Stocks,” Russell Sage, John Roach, and Jay Gould, as well as a dog with the face of John Kelly(?), and with a teapot labeled “Alliance with Monopolists” tied to its tail; all are determined to look like pursuers, instead of the object of the pursuit. Carl Schurz, dressed as a policeman, is standing on the sidewalk at far right. Two laborers are standing on the left, next to a sign that announces “Friend of the Workingman Meeting at Monopoly Hall To Night – J. Gould, C. Field, R. Sage, Robeson.” Caption: Level-Headed Workingman – “Too thin! That trick is very stale. I guess we know a monopolist when we see him!”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-08-06

Creator(s)

The receiving-vault of the Republican politicians who defied public morality

A procession carries an embalmed James Gillespie Blaine to a place among other embalmed Republicans in an Egyptian tomb. Among those previously embalmed are Thomas Collier Platt, Stephen W. Dorsey, Thomas Brady, Ulysses S. Grant, Roscoe Conkling, George M. Robeson, Joseph W. Keifer, William P. Kellogg, and William Belknap. Among those carrying the embalmed Blaine, labeled “Nominated June 6, Embalmed Nov. 1884” are William W. Phelps, Whitelaw Reid, William H. Robertson, Powell Clayton, and Joseph Medill. Caption: The wire-pullers have nominated him; but the people will send him where they have sent the others.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-06-11

Creator(s)

Strange, but true

Schuyler Colfax stands at a lectern labeled “Speaker Colfax – Pious Hypocrite and Credit Mobilier Bribe-Taker.” James G. Blaine stands at a lectern labeled “Speaker Blaine – ‘Magnetic’ Blusterer and Railroad Stock-Jobber.” Joseph W. Keifer stands at a lectern labeled “Speaker Keifer – The Corrupt Tool of Robeson et al.” Blaine gestures toward three portraits hanging on the wall in the background, of former Democratic Speakers of the House, labeled “Kerr, Randall, [and] Carlisle.” Caption: The three last speakers of the “Untrustworthy and Disreputable Democratic Party,” and the three last speakers of the “Grand Old Republican Party of Moral Ideas.”

Collection

Opper, Frederick Burr, 1857-1937

Creation Date

1884-07-16

Creator(s)

His boasted magnetism – and the kind of metal it attracts

James Gillespie Blaine is the “plumed knight” wearing cabbage leaves on his head with two plumes labeled “Brag” and “Bluster,” and with a quill pen labeled “Gail Hamilton.” He holds a sword labeled “Guano Statesmanship” and a shield labeled “Monopoly Press,” and his legs are the bars of a horseshoe magnet labeled “Spoils System.” He sits on a pile of “Mulligan Letters” and “R. R. Bonds.” Attracted to the magnet are George M. Robeson labeled “Navy Swindles,” Whitelaw Reid, John A. Logan labeled “Hoodlum,” Col. John A. Joyce labeled “Ex-Convict,” Stephen W. Dorsey, William P. Kellogg labeled “Louisiana Frauds,” Joseph W. Keifer labeled “Speakership Corruption,” Cyrus W. Field labeled “‘L’ Road Swindle,” Jay Gould labeled “R. R. Wrecker,” Robert G. Ingersoll labeled “Star Route Plunder,” John Roach labeled “Navy Jobs,” Alonzo B. Cornell labeled “Blind Pool,” Thomas Collier Platt labeled “Me Too!!”, Schuyler Colfax labeled “Credit Mobilier,” Thomas J. Brady labeled “Star Router,” Powell Clayton labeled “Arkansas Frauds,” Russell Sage labeled “Wall Street Stock Gambler,” and Roscoe Conkling.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-06-25

Creator(s)

Puck’s own Yorktown celebration

Print shows Puck sitting on a wooden cut-out Pegasus reviewing a procession of soldiers, among whom are John A. Logan, Roscoe Conkling carrying a flag labeled “Third Term”, Joseph W. Keifer, William M. Evarts, David Davis, James G. Bennett, John Kelly, Cyrus W. Field, William H. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Samuel J. Tilden, Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas De Witt Talmage, and riding on horseback, Henry Ward Beecher. Following the soldiers, in the background on the right, is a float showing an old soldier labeled “Our Army” and a decrepit ship labeled “Our Navy”. In the background, on the left, is a reviewing stand for the “Foreign Guests”, with a French flag on one side and a German flag on the other. Caption: His army of contributors passing in review before our foreign guests.

Collection

Creation Date

1881-10-19

Creator(s)

A presidential conjuror

President Arthur appears as a magician on a stage, pulling cards out of a hat and tossing them into the audience. The cards are labeled “Secretary of Navy, Foreign Minister, Interior, Consulate, Collectorship, Soft Soap, Minister to Turkey, Quashed Endictment, Secretary of War, Protection, Postmaster, Promises, Gratitude, [and] Reciprocity.” On the stage are other magic devices, a “Great Machine Trick” showing cards and labeled “New Political Deal Trick,” a wheel labeled “Stalwartism Neutrality Halfbreedism,” a bottle labeled “Ever-lasting Patronage Bottle,” a cone labeled “Great Veto Extinguish Trick,” and a drum labeled “Last Grand Trick Resignation.” Among those in the audience are Carl Schurz, John A. Logan, Thomas De Witt Talmage, David Davis, Joseph W. Keifer, John P. Jones, Stephen W. Dorsey, Thomas J. Brady, William M. Evarts, Benjamin F. Butler, and Samuel J. Kirkwood. Caption: What Mr. Arthur must be to satisfy all the politicians.

Collection

Creation Date

1881-10-12

Creator(s)

Another bombardment – the newspaper fleet firing on the Bedouins in Washington

Print shows newspaper editors Charles A. Dana, James G. Bennett, Carl Schurz, Henry Watterson, George W. Curtis, and Whitelaw Reid, as well as Puck, with a fleet of paper gunboats labeled “N.Y. Times, N.Y. Sun, N.Y. Herald, Ev. Post, Puck, Brooklyn Eagle, Courier-Journal, Harpers, Phila Times, Mail, [and] N.Y. Tribune.” The fleet is firing cannons, “ink” bottles, and pens, bombarding a fortress flying a flag labeled “Plunder,” where the walls are comprised of paper bundles labeled “Bills, Jobs, Bargains, Corrupt Bills, [and] Logrolling.” The fortress is defended by “Robeson Bey” standing at center with a bandage labeled “Record” around his head, “Keifer” and “Jones,” with John A. Logan labeled “306,” James D. Cameron, David Davis, John Sherman, and others. Cannonballs burst among them labeled “Criticism, Censure, [and] Condemnation.” The fortress cannons are labeled “River & Harbor Bill $20,000,000, Pension Arrears $103,962,300, Monitor Job, Public Buildings, Mileage Steal, [and] Mississippi Levee.” Within the fortress are the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Treasury labeled “Ammunition House.”

Collection

Creation Date

1882-08-02

Creator(s)

Puck’s plan to relieve the country of two embarrassments – give Grant the surplus, and let him spend it on a little court of his own

Ulysses S. Grant as a king sits on a throne, surrounded by his courtiers, identified as Rev. J. P. Newman, Henry Ward Beecher, Roscoe Conkling, Jay Gould, George W. Childs, William Belknap, G. Jones, Senator John P. Jones, Simon Cameron, James Donald Cameron, James D. Fish, John A. Logan, T. C. Platt, George M. Robeson, [and] Joseph W. Keifer.” The unidentified man standing behind Logan may be Ferdinand Ward. At center is a large cushion covered with coins labeled “$150,000,000 Surplus – Result of Over-Taxation.” In the background is a standard that states “Glory to the Ex-Decoy for Grant & Ward.”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-05-21

Creator(s)

The great congressional tramp bullying the old women of the national household

George M. Robeson, shabbily dressed as a tramp, stands in a doorway. Joseph Warren Keifer, as a small dog with a cap labeled “Speaker” tied to its tail, stands behind Robeson, and on the floor at his feet is a broken plate labeled, “Appropriations $182,496,018 Administration 1868-76.” He carries a club labeled “Repn. Leadership” and branded on the palm of his left hand is the word “More.” His appearance in the doorway frightens the “Old Women” of Congress who were gathered around a table, drinking tea. Depicted wearing women’s dress are William Windom standing behind the door labeled “Congress,” John P. Jones spilling a pot of tea, John Sherman fainting, John Alexander Logan labeled “306” and supporting Sherman, J. D. Cameron also labeled “306,” Frank Hiscock, George F. Edmunds, David Davis eating an “Independent Plum,” B. W. Harris and Abram S. Hewitt locking the “Appropriations Pantry,” and William P. Frye hiding behind a chair. Uncle Sam and Puck appear at far left, running toward the building.

Collection

Creation Date

1882-07-12

Creator(s)

More than she can carry

Whitelaw Reid places a bundled-up package labeled “Blaine” and “Rotten Record” on top of a large pile in a basket being carried by a woman labeled “Republican Party” who is stooped under the burden and leaning on a staff labeled “War Record.” Others already in the basket are “Kellogg” labeled “Returning Board & Star Ro,” “Keifer” labeled “Speakership Corruption,” “Dorsey” labeled “Star Route Swindle,” “Brady” labeled “Star Route Swindle,” “Robeson” labeled “Navy Ring,” “Grant’s IId Term Washington Ring,” and “Belknap” who resigned as Grant’s Secretary of War in 1876. A man labeled “Phelps Whitewasher” is holding the ladder for Reid.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-05-14

Creator(s)