Your TR Source
Three quotations about Theodore Roosevelt from his friends and associates. Gifford Pinchot speaks of Roosevelt’s tireless work ethic. John Burroughs talks about Roosevelt’s discovery of a species of mouse at Yellowstone National Park, and Herbert Knox Smith uses the language of farming to describe Roosevelt’s impact on American life.
An advertisement for the Roosevelt Savings Bank of Garden City, New York is found on the same page.
An “Uncle Hanna” cat plays with a “presidential nomination” mouse. The sentence—”I will (not) be a candidate”—is on the cat’s leg. President Roosevelt peeks in.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01
In the first section of the cartoon, the “Congress” cat is asleep as “graft” mice eat from the “public lands & timber” and “Post Office Dept” bags and the “National Treasury” barrel. One mouse says, “Why don’t you get a basket? You can carry more.” Caption: When you consider the conditions that existed for years in national affairs– In the second section, Roosevelt holds a “reform” big stick and tells the “Congress” cat to “Get busy!” Congress replies, “You are violating all precedents.” Many “graft” mice lie dead on the ground.
It is interesting to note several important historical facts as conveyed by political cartoonist Jay N. “Ding” Darling.
With fewer than two months left in his Administration, and as the cartoon makes clear, President Roosevelt was as earnest as ever he had been, in this matter and others, fighting corruption.
A cat with President Roosevelt’s face looks at a group of “Senator” and “Representative” mice.
There is nothing surprising about the fact that political cartoonists (and any partisan commentators) have wildly differing views on the same public issues. What never fails to surprise, however — and, however, is a boon to researchers and historians — is the extreme variance frequently expressed. The White House scrapbook of drawings, assiduously compiled by aides to the president and never chary of collecting critical political cartoons, confirms the broad range of views even during a popular administration, and Roosevelt’s interest in appreciating public opinion as mush as he could.
Justice, an old woman, sleeps at a desk, with cobwebs, spiders, and mice taking over the courtroom. Outside a window an armed group of vigilantes have broken down the door to a jail and removed a man whom they are about to hang from a nearby tree. One man carries a flag that states “Lively Lynchers.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-07-04