Your TR Source
President Taft, as a blindfolded cupid labeled “Party Solidarity,” wears a quiver labeled “Harmony” and stands against a backdrop of a large red heart. He is holding strings attached to four birds labeled “Root, Wickersham, Knox, [and] Aldrich,” and two strings attached to arrows that have been shot through hearts labeled “Insurgent” and “Reactionary.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-02-09
Photograph of President Roosevelt with black ink portraits of his eight Cabinet members. On the second page are five black and white photographs of William McKinley’s casket traveling from the Milburn residence to the city hall of Buffalo, New York.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1901
Fifteen delegates to the North American Conservation Conference are shown outside the White House. Left to right, seated: from Canada, Henry S. Beland, Clifford Sifton, and Sydney George Fisher (missing – E. H. Outerbridge, Newfoundland); from the United States, President Roosevelt; from Mexico, Romulo Escobar, Carlos Sellerier, Miguel Angel de Quevedo. Left to right, standing: from Canada, Robert E. Young; from the United States, Secretary of State Robert Bacon, Gifford Pinchot, Senator Shelby M. Cullom, Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, Ambassador James Bryce of Great Britain, Secretary of the U.S. Delegation Thomas R. Shipp, and Senator Philander C. Knox.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
1909-02
Theodore Roosevelt sits on a bench, resting a mallet labeled “My Policies” on his right knee. A large jar labeled “Republican Convention,” which he has just corked, lies on the bench next to him. On shelves behind him are bottles that he has corked: on the bottom shelf Alton B. “Parker Esopus Pickle,” Cipriano “Castro” which has popped its cork, and “Portsmouth Peace”; on the middle shelf George B. “Cortelyou,” James Roscoe “Day,” Charles Evans “Hughes,” Joseph Gurney “Cannon,” Robert M. “La Follette,” “Chan”[…], Philander C. “Knox,” and [unlabeled] Charles W. Fairbanks; and on the top shelf “Bowen,” Chester I. “Long,” “Bellam[y] Storer,” Edward Henry “Harriman,” “J. London,” [and] “Seton Thompson” (i.e. Ernest Thompson Seton).
“A perfectly corking time!” — very close to another joyful expostulation of the time, “BULLY!” This cartoon appeared just as the Republican presidential nominating convention gave its prize to William H. Taft, just as President Roosevelt had wished and hoped and manipulated for almost two years. His work to anoint a successor was often behind the scenes but also, as befit Roosevelt, could be quite open and public too.
Roosevelt, after seven and a half years, had mixed feelings about leaving the office at age 50, younger than many presidents were when they assumed the office. “No man,” he admitted and frankly asserted, “more thoroughly enjoyed being president as much as I did.” Yet the always-restless Roosevelt had immediate plans to explore “Darkest Africa” as few white men ever had done; and there beckoned uncountable activities including those he mastered before the presidency — historian, author, speaker, and so forth. Yet he would miss, and knew he would miss, being at the center of power, and influencing events as White House denizen.
Theodore Roosevelt is pleased with Senator Penrose and thinks that Senator Knox is making “a pretty bad showing of himself.” He is glad he wrote to Senator Lodge on behalf of Frank B. Kellogg.
1917-03-21
William Loeb encloses a letter from Secretary of State Philander C. Knox and asks if Theodore Roosevelt has any recollection of the matter referred to therein. Loeb has no memory of the matter and doubts that a “juggling of accounts would have been permitted.”
1911-07-10
Attorney General Knox is unsure of Mr. Moore’s professional qualifications. President Roosevelt still hopes to make Moore’s appointment, but first Knox and Roosevelt will carefully review the matter.
1901-11-13
Several Republicans with presidential aspirations and/or delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, and a young boy holding a pillow labeled “Stand-Pat Press,” stand around “Stand-Pat” King Canute on the seashore with cliffs at their back, as he commands the rising tide of “Tariff Revision.”
Samuel Ehrhart returned to Puck’s political-cartoon pages with a standard use of the King Canute legend, frequently employed by cartoonists; it was a misuse, actually, because the real story of Canute is not that the king tried to command the waves to recede, but to illustrate to his court that his powers were not unlimited.
In any event Ehrhart had a chance to reconnect Puck with partisanship, as it had been addressing generic issues with force but without regard to party positions or specific personalities to this point in the 1908 campaign. In this cartoon, the king is a generic figure but his retinue is, exclusively, high-tariff Republican proponents from the Senate and House.
A white cat wearing a bow labeled “Nomination” is being courted by other cats who represent potential candidates in the upcoming presidential election. Two other cats peer over walls in the background. Those depicted are Philander C. Knox, Leslie M. Shaw, Charles Evans Hughes, Charles W. Fairbanks, William H. Taft, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Joseph Benson Foraker, and George B. Cortelyou. In the background are Timothy L. Woodruff and Albert J. Beveridge.
As the mid-summer Republican presidential nominating convention drew closer, Puck magazine seemed ever more determined to start a cat-fight between politicians who might otherwise have harbored White House ambitions. But President Roosevelt, having disclaimed interest in succeeding himself in 1908 — and wanting at all costs to secure the nomination for Secretary of War William H. Taft, and avert intraparty squabbles — managed to frustrate any potential rivals to Taft.
Nevertheless Puck routinely depicted a squad of hopefuls as grasping and famished rather than merely resigned and frustrated.
A live electrical wire spelling “Vice Presidency” drips red drops as it dangles between potential candidates in the upcoming presidential election: Charles Evans Hughes, Philander C. Knox, Joseph Benson Foraker, George B. Cortelyou, William H. Taft, Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Charles W. Fairbanks. Caption: If you touch it, you’re a dead one.
Why would the vice presidency be regarded as a dangerous “live wire,” something to be avoided, especially by presidential aspirants, especially when the current president had succeeded to the White House as a vice president of an assassinated Chief Executive?
Udo J. Keppler’s cover cartoon illustrates the several reasons that presidential hopefuls would have avoided the subject. Any politician who might have expressed interest in the vice presidency would have ended his own quest thereby. Even being acknowledged as a “favorite son” of a certain state, region, or interest group, would have relegated that man’s candidacy to that of a place-holder with influence and delegates to barter away, and not a serious candidate. Although in the cartoon, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, he of the sour visage, was never more than a favorite son, in his view he wielded more power as Speaker than most presidents did.
A group of Republicans try to push, pull, and coax the “G.O.P.” elephant to jump a hurdle on a race course. William B. Allison stands on the far side of the hurdle. Philander C. Knox is pulling the elephant’s trunk. William P. Frye, Nelson W. Aldrich, Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Eugene Hale are pushing the elephant, which is being ridden by a plump man labeled “Stand Pat,” wielding a whip. The hurdle has four bars, the lowest labeled “Cost of Living 1896,” the next “Cost of Living 1900,” then “Cost of Living 1904,” and the highest “Cost of Living 1908.”
The “High Cost of Living” has been a perennial bugaboo of politicians and icon of cartoonists through the years. In the administration of Woodrow Wilson, and especially in the two years following the Armistice ending World War I, the issue was paramount. It often was manifested by an impossibly tall and thin dour character.
In any period of price inflation, and especially by the party out of power at the moment, the cost of living was a tempting issue.
Theodore Roosevelt, as a doctor, examines Philander C. Knox, as other potential candidates for the upcoming presidential election await their turn: Charles Evans Hughes, Joseph Benson Foraker, Charles W. Fairbanks, George B. Cortelyou, Joseph Gurney Cannon, [and] William Loeb as a dog. William H. Taft, already examined, has a paper labeled “Passed T.R.” extending from his pocket. On the wall in the background is a chart labeled “The Perfect Man” showing a profile view of Roosevelt.
Despite his declaration on election night 1904 that “according to the wise custom” that a president serve only two consecutive terms (not a constitutional stricture until the 1940s after his distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth election), President Roosevelt contended with the persistent suspicion, or belief, or hope that he would rescind the pledge to retire in 1909.
He even made his choice of a successor clear, in order to forestall a free-for-all over the Republican presidential nomination in 1908. It was a real possibility that ambitious men could angle and scramble, since the party’s hold on the White House seemed probable.
A sword labeled “Nomination” is stuck deeply into a tree, where Theodore Roosevelt and Jacob A. Riis are resting on a large branch. Roosevelt is grinning like the Cheshire cat. On the far right are Albert Baird Cummins and Charles Evans Hughes, and on the left are several other potential candidates for the upcoming presidential election, including Philander C. Knox, Joseph Benson Foraker, Charles W. Fairbanks, Joseph Gurney Cannon, William H. Taft, Albert J. Beveridge, and George B. Cortelyou. Caption: Who is the hero with the strength to draw it out?
Cartoonist Udo J. Keppler actually knew, or was virtually assured of the answer to the question posed by his drawing, “Who has the strength to draw it out?” President Roosevelt had been public and persistent in his desire that Secretary of War William H. Taft succeed him. Politicians, reporters, and cartoonists especially, as was their wont and avocation, promoted the possible ambiguity of Roosevelt’s refusal to run again.
In that regard, Keppler rounded up virtually every Republican “possibility,” some of whom had habitual ambitions (like Keppler’s favored punching-bag, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks), and others who were unlikely newcomers on the national scene, like New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, who had only been in office a few months.
Members of President Roosevelt’s Cabinet have advised him not to serve as arbitrator in the Venezuela crisis, but speculation is already underway that he may have to act in that capacity. If he were to do so, possible associates on whom he might rely include Attorney General Philander C. Knox, Judge George Gray, and Assistant Secretary of State David Jayne Hill. Although arbitration by The Hague Convention has been urged on the country, Venezuela is opposed to such arbitration.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1902-12-23
Over appeals from financial interests, President Roosevelt and Attorney General Knox will bring suit against the Northern Securities Company as an illegal combination.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
Security markets were demoralized by the announced suit against the Northern Securities Company. The Roosevelt administration has denied that this is the opening blow of “a general war upon great industrial combinations.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
Attorney General Knox will file a petition next week against the merger of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railway companies and the organization of the Northern Securities Company.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
President Roosevelt, in the “GOP Back Yard,” stands atop a box on top of a barrel and leans over a fence. On the other side of the fence, Attorney General Philander C. Knox holds a paddle labeled “Sherman and Interstate Commerce Laws,” and he is about to paddle the rear end of a large boy, “The Trust.” The boy has his head turned toward Roosevelt and is broadly smiling, with his right hand slightly covering the smile. The left hand of the boy is protecting his rear end. Caption: “Roosevelt (to Knox): Make all the noise you can; but remember, we can’t afford to hurt him.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-05-04
An analysis of antitrust and anti-combination policies of President Roosevelt and other government figures.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
President Roosevelt suggests Douglas Robinson have Blair present his case through Senator Knox of Pennsylvania. He then says that William Jennings Byran may not have ruined his political life. He ends with asking that Robinson and his wife come out for a visit. A note on the back states that Blair was a schoolmate of Robinson at St. Paul’s School.
1906-09-13