Knox, Philander C. (Philander Chase), 1853-1921

President Roosevelt looks on as members of his 1906 cabinet laugh at papers with the heading, “Storer.” One chair is empty, and there are pictures on the wall of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, and Attorney General Philander C. Knox, all from 1901.

Comments and Context

This political cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, with its typically awkward depictions of public figures, addresses not the general composition of President Roosevelt’s cabinet, although it was within a week of this cartoon that Oscar S. Strauss succeeded George B. Cortelyou as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the latter moving to the Treasure portfolio.

It rather has to do with the denouement of a protracted and embarrassing contretemps between Roosevelt and erstwhile friends and political sponsors, Bellamy and Maria Longworth Storer of Cincinnati. The wealthy Storers of Cincinnati, friends of William H. Taft of their city, had a home in Washington, D.C., where they hosted friends like Taft when he was President Benjamin Harrison’s Solicitor General. They attached themselves to Taft’s friend Theodore Roosevelt, too, when he became Civil Service Commissioner in 1889.

President Roosevelt shows Uncle Sam a “quilting bee in aid of the suffering public.” Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Wisconsin Senator John C. Spooner, Iowa Senator William B. Allison, and Texas Senator Joseph W. Bailey sit at a table stitching amendments on a “rate bill” quilt. Spanish Treaty Claims Commissioner William E. Chandler looks through a window and holds a paper that reads, “I’m no liar.” There is a portrait of George Washington on the wall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-15

Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox sit on top of a “Senate” dome, trapping President Roosevelt underneath with an “Allison amendment” and “the big stick.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-14

In the top half of the cartoon, President Roosevelt grabs a man holding a rake by the neck. Caption: 1. After you had made a thrilling attack on the Man of the Muck Rake, and you had swatted and lambasted him in the most merciless manner— In the second half of the cartoon, “the common people” point Roosevelt to the “national muck heap” and ask, “Why don’t you get busy about that?” A number of individuals are in the pile: “R.R. rebater,” “official bribe taker,” “official grafter,” “U.S. senator owned by railroads,” “trust-owned U.S. senator,” New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt, Chauncy M. Depew, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. Caption: 2. If you suddenly learned that you ought to have attacked the Muck Heap instead of the Muck Rake. Wouldn’t it DEE-PRESS you?

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04

President Roosevelt rides on an elephant and leads a Saint Patrick’s Day parade featuring the “G.O.P. band,” which includes Secretary of War William H. Taft, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw. The parade has a banner with a three-leaf clover that has words in each leaf: “anti-rail-road rebate,” “Philippine tariff moderation,” and “Panama Canal—no grafting.” Roosevelt holds a “Spanish-American War” sword.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03

A number of men are in a “railroad rate bill” train car, including President Roosevelt, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Iowa Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Texas Senator Joseph W. Bailey, Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, and Wisconsin Senator John C. Spooner. Some of them hold “amendment” cards. Caption: Engineer Roosevelt—”Who’s running this train, anyhow?”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-24

President Roosevelt, West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Iowa Representative William Peters Hepburn, and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich all stir a “R.R. rates bill” soup in a pot shaped like the United States Capitol building.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-19

Seating chart for a lunch held on December 4, 1901.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-12-04

President Roosevelt is tied to an “official chair” like his “big stick” is tied to the wall. Both are attached to a “November 9 time lock.” There is a pile of papers in front of Roosevelt, and he looks out the window at a “Democratic mass meeting” where Alton B. Parker is giving a speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-04

Secretary of War William H. Taft, Elihu Root, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of State John Hay, and Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox all march out of “the Most Expensive Show on Earth” tent armed with weapons. President Roosevelt sits on a “sacred white elephant” that Alton B. Parker pokes with a pitchfork. A “postal frauds scandal that won’t come off” mailbag is chained to the elephant’s left leg.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-01

Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, who has one wooden leg, holds Miss Columbia’s hand. Caption: “That order shall not be revoked.” Miss Columbia. Quoted below the cartoon is an excerpt from a speech by Knox saying that an executive order by President Roosevelt benefiting injured soldiers should not be revoked and sent back to Congress to pass legislation on the matter because of the far-reaching consequences such an action could produce.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-03

President Roosevelt thinks that there may be something to Judge Dale’s idea. Although Roosevelt thinks he himself will say no more on the subject, has sent it to Senator Philander C. Knox.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-26

Arthur Hamilton Lee is glad to have the pictures President Roosevelt sent of him jumping on horseback, and wishes he could have accompanied him. Lee has found news coming from American newspapers “more than usually interesting lately,” and comments that the state of politics seems perplexing to an outsider, mentioning a number of issues. He shares the sentiment of many Americans in wishing that Roosevelt could have served another term in the presidency, but respects his opinion on the matter. He hopes that after leaving the presidency Roosevelt will be able to make “a private ‘out-of-season’ visit to England” to see his friends there. Lee provides a brief update on British politics as well, saying “the present government has shown an extraordinary capacity for mismanaging its own affairs,” and jokingly suggesting that Roosevelt come to England to help manage the government.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-16

In this printed extract of a speech, Alton B. Parker states that the purpose of a previous address was to warn the people about the electorate being corrupted by “tariff-bred trusts and other monopolies” and their political contributions. President Roosevelt did not, in response to this, return the money his campaign received from corporations, and Parker alleges that the contributions to Roosevelt have in fact increased because of the attitude he has taken.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-06

Several newspaper articles highlight the large margins by which President Roosevelt won the recent presidential election, including in his home state of New York, and calls Roosevelt’s victory “one of the most significant victories for enlightened popular government that the world has ever known.” Roosevelt has dealt with many questions while in office, including the Panama Canal and the anthracite coal strike, and the people approve of him and the men in his administration. Given the magnitude of Roosevelt’s victory, another article muses on the future of the Democratic party and William Jennings Bryan, who may be ascendant in the party with the defeat of presidential candidate Alton B. Parker.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-09

Nathan Bijur takes exception to the New York Evening Post’s endorsement of the Parker Constitution Club, which aims to examine full records of President Roosevelt’s actions which have overridden the Constitution. Bijur notes that other presidents, such as Grover Cleveland, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, were all also accused of overriding the Constitution.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-10

Secretary of War Taft responds to President Roosevelt’s letter regarding the candidacies of different Republican Party candidates. Taft thanks Roosevelt for talking to Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou and believes that Philander C. Knox would be a more independent president than his supporters believe. Taft believes Charles Evans Hughes is likely to be the man in the field against him and observes that he has received many expressions of good will while traveling across the continent. Taft mentions that he will set sail for the Pacific tomorrow and encloses a clipping on his speech in Seattle regarding capital and labor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-11

This newspaper article reports that Representative Nehemiah D. Sperry addressed members of the New Haven Young Men’s Republican Club and asked the crowd’s opinion on presidential candidates. Secretary of War William H. Taft received a normal amount of applause, while many other names received less. New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes was well-received, but President Roosevelt received the most enthusiasm.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-08

Secretary of War Taft advises President Roosevelt to remove the reference to receivership in his Provincetown speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-16

After a newspaper reported that Senators Henry Cabot Lodge and Winthrop Murray Crane were at odds about support in Massachusetts for William H. Taft for in the upcoming presidential election, both sides denied the story. An unnamed person close to Crane says he has not been as welcome lately at the White House as he had been before, and believes this is because Crane refuses to “fall down and worship false gods.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-20