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William Nelson Cromwell advises President Roosevelt and Attorney General Philander C. Knox that the civil tribunal of the Seine has dismissed the lawsuits brought by Colombia and Lucien N. B. Wyse to prohibit the new Panama Canal Company from being transferred to the United States.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-31
President Roosevelt bows to J. P. Morgan, who is departing from Sagamore Hill after their visit. Morgan attorney Charles Steele and Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou escort Morgan to a small boat which will carry him to his yacht “Corsair” in the distance. Cortelyou carries a carpet bag of money initialed “J.P.M.” Morgan has “Knox’s scalp” tied to his belt, along with a note, “No more buttin’ in. T.R.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-02
President Roosevelt pulls Elihu Root, who holds a “lawyer” bag and has a “for governor” tag in his hat, and Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, who carries a “Senator” bag full of speeches, forward. Caption: For Root must run, and Knox must talk,/That the Rider Rough may win in a walk,/And Oyster Bay go soaring.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-20
President Roosevelt holds a “presidential nomination 1904” paper and rides a Republican elephant with a “Cortelyou halo” that pulls a “campaign fund band wagon.” New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge ride smaller elephants while Secretary of Commerce and Labor George B. Cortelyou holds a “reform in elections” stick. Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw and Attorney General and recently appointed Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox are dressed as jugglers. The entire party walks toward the Republican National Convention.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-17
Mississippi Representative John Sharp Williams uses a “congressional inquiry” stick to poke a “G. O. P. big game hunting association (limited)” elephant. President Roosevelt and Attorney General Philander C. Knox sleep on top of the elephant. Roosevelt holds a “trust buster” shotgun.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-22
A man with a paper labeled “oppressive trusts” stubs his foot on a face in the shape of President Roosevelt’s face and with the label of “Sherman Anti-trust Law.” Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw and Attorney General Philander C. Knox, who holds a “merger decision” paper, look on. “Congress” is in the background.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-16
A number of trusts are on a large “grab” ship with J. Pierpont Morgan at the front. Morgan looks through binoculars and says, “Saved,” when he sees Attorney General Philander C. Knox in a small vessel filled with cotton. Knox tips his hat to the ship. Meanwhile, a man labeled “the common people” peers out of the lower deck and says, “Help.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12
In the first vignette, President-elect William H. Taft walks into the “White House” and waves good bye to President Roosevelt who carries his big stick. In the second, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks walks away from the “Capitol” holding a jar of “buttermilk” and “to Indiana.” In the third, New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt sits at an “Express Co.” desk and writes “memoirs.” In the fourth, Colorado Senator Henry Moore Teller walks out of the Senate saying, “I’ve been there 30 years.” Caption: Senator Teller will take a rest. In the fifth, Secretary of State Elihu Root sits down in a chair labeled “New York Senatorship” and says, “I guess I’ll take it easy now!” In the sixth, Philander C. Knox climbs into a “State Dept” chair. In the seventh, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a “lawyer” piece of wood and walks “to Cincinnati.”
A month before the change of administrations in Washington portended at least one change in St. Louis too: The Republic’s cartoonist Edward Joseph McBride drew a cartoon about national affairs that was not typically partisan or bitter.
President-elect William H. Taft swings at the “Roosevelt policies” golf ball on a green labeled “administration line.” Philander C. Knox is behind him and holds the caddy and two other golf balls–“Taft policies” and “Republican policies.” Knox says, “If that ball gets lost I’ve got others!!”
Many political cartoonists, especially those antagonistic toward Republicans, were downcast (as many admitted in ink) that their favorite subject, Theodore Roosevelt, was retiring from the political scene. With the planned African safari, Roosevelt would not merely be out of office, but off the national stage for at least a year.
Uncle Sam looks up at the sky and sees several eclipses: a “partial eclipse in New York” with Charles Evans Hughes, a “partial eclipse in Penns.” with Philander C. Knox, a “partial eclipse in Wisconsin” with Robert M. La Follette, a “partial eclipse in Indiana” with Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, a “partial eclipse in Illinois” with Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, a “total eclipse in Chicago,” and a “partial eclipse in Ohio” with William H. Taft. “My world” with President Roosevelt is about to overshadow Taft.
Things were looking up in 1908. . .or at least people were looking up to the heavens. An unusually high number of solar and lunar eclipses were due that year, and the spectacular once-in-a-lifetime Halley’s Comet was due to brighten the skies in 1910. All were matters of public discussion and newspaper feature stories.
Secretary of War William H. Taft sits at his desk filled with “official business” papers as the shades of Uncle Sam and President Roosevelt stand behind him. Roosevelt points out the window at cannons firing for Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Philander C. Knox, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and the most for Taft.
More than two months before the Republican National Convention convened to nominate a presidential cabinet, cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham of the Washington Herald presumed that William H. Taft would be the party’s choice; as did most of the country.
President Roosevelt stands behind a fence and tosses an extremely large pair of “Roosevelt’s shoes.” A number of men standing waiting to catch them: Secretary of War William H. Taft, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Iowa Governor Albert Baird Cummins, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes; and former cabinet secretaries Leslie M. Shaw and Philander C. Knox.
The immediate context of Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon was a public statement issued by President Roosevelt the previous day, on December 12, 1907. Hence the “Now” in the cartoon’s title.
President Roosevelt holds up a note that reads, “Under no circumstances will I again be a candidate for the presidency. T. Roosevelt. Election night 1904.” He says to a group of men, “Boys, I stand pat on this decision!” The men, who include Secretary of War William H. Taft, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of the Treasury, Philander C. Knox, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, all responded approvingly.
On the day that President Roosevelt issued a statement repeating, but with finality, his decision of 1904 not to succeed himself in 1908, cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman suggests that the declaration was more for the Republican aspirants than the general public.
A woman in a “G.O.P.” dress holds a dancing card with “T.R.” under 1 and 2. The “3” is left blank. President Roosevelt bows to her, but puts his hands up. In the background are a variety of men with flowers: Secretary of War William H. Taft, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Philander C. Knox, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. Uncle Sam stands in a doorway.
A reversal of the social convention of the day shows the lady at the dance asking a man — in this case, President Roosevelt — to sign her dance card and reserve a dance with her during the evening’s entertainment. Cartoonist Archibald G. Allan displays the usual cast of characters of the months preceding the 1908 Republican convention, aspirants for the presidential nomination.
President Roosevelt and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon shy away from scary toys, as William Loeb watches from behind an iron fence. Frightened also are Senator Philander C. Knox, and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. William Jennings Bryan holds a “tariff revision” snake and a children’s toy labeled, “death to trusts.”
For a cartoon in the reliably Republican Washington Herald, Joseph Cunningham’s cartoon critically but realistically depicts Republican leaders as frightened little boys as the neighborhood bully scares them with a toy snake and a phony spider.
President Roosevelt is depicted as Ben-Hur and drives a chariot of four horses: “public honesty,” “square deal,” “publicity,” and “centralization.” He leads the chariot race. Behind him are “swollen fortune” and a “reactionary.” On the ground are an “undesirable citizen” and a “molly-coddle.” In the stands are Miss Columbia, William Loeb, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, and Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou.
In a regrettably typical cartooning overreach, the Washington Herald‘s Joseph Harry Cunningham transforms a popular image in the public’s consciousness into a putative grand statement on the current political situation. Beyond the idea that President Roosevelt was engaged in racing ahead with several policy agendas, pursued by opponents of those programs, there was little that was prescient, or that would bring a new insight to readers.
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-26
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.
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.
Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon — all depicted like chickens — and a large mother hen labeled “Roosevelt’s policies” squawk at a duck depicting Philander C. Knox in the pool of “states’ rights.”
If Philander C. Knox was not an ugly duckling in the Republican Party of his day, his close relationship with Theodore Roosevelt made him an odd duck in Roosevelt’s circle.
A bear labeled “Taft,” a wolf labeled “Fairbanks,” a fox labeled “Cortelyou,” and a cat labeled “Knox” chase a “Republican nomination” bunny into the “T.R.” tent. Beside the tent is a gun, a “big stick,” and a cowboy hat.
The redoubtable T. S. Sullivant, a cartoonist admired by contemporaries and later generations of cartoon scholars, hit closer with his trademark depiction of animals than the concept of this cartoon. The political-cartooning portion of his career, roughly 1904-1910, was devoted to the daily editorial pages of newspapers in the Hearst chain. Those newspapers have been insufficiently preserved and studied, and therefore Sullivant’s work of these years largely is unknown.