Parsons, Herbert, 1869-1925

President Roosevelt–“the ‘rider’–sits atop a horse depicting New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes while New York Representative Herbert Parsons holds a riding crop and says, “Get up there! Hurry!” The words “nomination track” are on the ground.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Later in William K. Starrett’s long career as a cartoonist he proved to be a clever conceptualist and an accomplished artist, even if much of work was supposed to replicate the familiar work of others. This cartoon from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle clearly is from earlier in his career, when ideas and draftsmanship were yet undeveloped.

George E. Graham, a member of the Roosevelt Home Club, recently issued a statement charging United States Representative Herbert Parsons, who until recently was a member of the club, with playing politics with the club. Neither Parsons nor any members he brought in, Graham states, ever contributed to the goal of the club of purchasing the home where President Roosevelt was born to make it into a memorial. Graham further says that Parsons, in spite of being the Chairman of the Finance Committee, did not fulfill any of his duties.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-02

George Edward Graham is grateful for President Roosevelt’s recognition that he would never intentionally do something that Roosevelt disapproved of, and writes to let him know that Roosevelt’s wishes regarding the Roosevelt Home Club will be followed. He reviews some of the circumstances that led to the present situation, and regrets that he took a leadership position in the organization because he is not a businessman, and the club needed business experience. He reassures Roosevelt that when the club solicited funds from office holders, they made sure to be clear that there was no compulsion attached. He regrets any embarrassment or annoyance Roosevelt felt, and hopes to be able to visit him sometime.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-06

Representative Olcott would like to have the letter between President Roosevelt and Representative Herbert Parsons that Roosevelt suggested he should have yesterday. He has sent Roosevelt a letter by special delivery this morning.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-30

Representative Olcott has received the letter from President Roosevelt stating that in light of a statement from Representative Herbert Parsons, he should withdraw from the running to be party chairman. Olcott fears that if he withdraws, in spite of Parsons’s statement declaring his independence, it will appear to be a victory for former Governor of New York Benjamin B. Odell’s faction.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-30

At a meeting of his supporters in the Republican County Committee, Senator Thomas Collier Platt spoke at length in favor of Congressman Jacob Van Vechten Olcott’s election as president of the committee. Platt believes that while both men would act independent of machine politics, Olcott is a better choice than Representative Herbert Parsons.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-24

An article in The London Post notes the change in New York Republicans’ attitudes towards William Randolph Hearst as emblematic of the “dramatic” and unprincipled nature of American politics. Author A. Maurice Low compares statements of Secretary of State Elihu Root during the 1906 gubernatorial race between Democrat William Randolph Hearst and Republican incumbent Charles Evans Hughes calling Hearst an “insincere, self-seeking demagogue, who is trying to deceive the working man of New York,” with New York City Republicans’ current alliance with Hearst’s new Independence League in a likely fruitless effort to defeat Tammany Hall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-25

Seth Low was initially hesitant when he heard Representative Herbert Parsons’s plan for a fusion of the Republican Party and the Independence League for upcoming local elections. However, he has been convinced that such a move is necessary given the dominance of the Democratic Party in New York City. The idiosyncrasies of local politics means that politicians must be willing to make compromises they wouldn’t in state or national elections, and Low uses Tammany Hall’s position as the city’s “permanent foe,” which New York City Republicans must be focused on defeating above all else as his chief example.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-01

Secretary of War Taft informs President Roosevelt that he has changed his mind about writing a speech on the Brownsville affair. He will write a draft and send it to his campaign manager, Arthur I. Vorys, and Roosevelt to get their opinion. Taft describes his opinion of James Buchanan Aleshire’s fitness for Quartermaster General. Taft encloses letters on William Edgar Borah and Albert Baird Cummins. He relays discussions on the appointment of the Postmaster in New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-07

President Roosevelt, as a hurdy-gurdy player, grinds an organ labeled “Party Harmony” among a group of bears labeled “Elkins, Parsons, Dick, Platt, Penrose, Woodruff, Foraker, Barnes, [and] Odell,” each holding a large club across their shoulders.

Comments and Context

“The Boss Bear Trainer” is a rare cartoon from the career of President Roosevelt wherein bears are cartooned characters, but related to teddy bears, either as hunting trophies or as children’s plush toys.

Udo J. Keppler here depicted Roosevelt as an Italian organ grinder making trained bears dance. A frequent sight on urban street corners of the day were beggars who attracted people with organ-grinder music to which bears danced. For safety’s sake the bears usually were muzzled and restrained.

On the left is Theodore Roosevelt, hand resting on a sledgehammer labeled “My Policies,” standing at the entrance to his shop “T. Roosevelt Horseshoer & Wheelwright” with “Dr. Abbott” at his side. A sign on the wall states, “Autos, Air-ships & Bicycles Repaired.” Road signs labeled “Republican Turnpike” are pointing into the background. At center and right is a jumble of ruined vehicles. A small wagon labeled “Direct Primaries” is being pulled in opposite directions by “Gov. Hughes” and “Wadsworth.” “Beveridge” gestures toward a wagon labeled “Indiana Campaign” that has lost a wheel. President Taft is driving a sulky labeled “Aldrich Tariff,” drawn by the Republican elephant, that has lost the rim to one wheel. A woman labeled “Woman’s Suffrage” is holding a bicycle with damaged tires. “La Follette” is pointing to the foot of a horse labeled “Wisconsin Campaign.” “Parsons” and “Woodruff” are in an automobile that has had an accident, while “Murdock” appears to be kicking one of the tires. An airplane labeled “Conservation,” with “Pinchot” and “Garfield” on board, has crashed into a tree labeled “Ballinger.” Also in the mix is a man labeled “Poindexter,” and in the background is “Penrose” walking away from an automobile accident labeled “Pennsylvania.” In the lower left corner is the shadow of the Democratic donkey.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-08-03

A wave labeled “Republican Voters’ Revolt” crashes into the dining room of a ship where “Cannon, Payne, Taft, Knox, Sherman, Root, Aldrich, Woodruff, Dalzell, Crane, Wickersham, Lodge, Parsons, Hitchcock, Depew, Hale, Elkins, Ballinger, Smoot, Penrose, [and] Cox” are dining, and upsets a dish of “Party Plums,” as well as a bottle of “Stalwart Grog.” Caption: “We were crowded in the cabin, / Not a soul would dare to sleep; / It was midnight o’er the waters, / And a storm was on the deep.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-20

A comet labeled “Allds Investigation” strikes a planet labeled “Albany Legislature,” causing it to explode among planets labeled “Aldrich, Penrose, Payne, Vreeland, Dalzell, Cannon, Hitchcock, Woodruff, Ballinger, Root, Platt, Depew, Parsons, Sherman, Bliss, Black, Cortelyou, Odell, Lodge, Hale, [and] Elkins.” A lone planet showing the face of Theodore Roosevelt hovers on the far right. Caption: A comet that has cut loose in the Republican constellation.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-09

Theodore Roosevelt wishes William Loeb a merry Christmas and will have much to tell him on his return to the United States. Roosevelt has killed around two hundred animals on safari, from an elephant to a dik-dik. Kermit Roosevelt has grown to become a better hunter than his father. Roosevelt refused Herbert Parsons’s request to publicly support Otto T. Bannard. He supports Bannard, but is not fully informed of the issues and thinks it would look foolish to try and advise voters from Africa. In the Peary-Cook controversy, Roosevelt believes that Frederick Albert Cook “has all the earmarks of a fake” and that Robert E. Peary reached the North Pole.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1909-11-12

President Roosevelt hopes William Sheffield Cowles, Jr. is feeling better. Roosevelt was impressed by Cabot Ward in their first meeting this week.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1905-06-08

F. Norton Goddard writes to President Roosevelt about the potential appointment of Secretary Woodruff to the position of Postmaster General. Goddard notes that there are “three or four Post Office favors that need doing” quickly in his district and he hopes that the Postmaster General appointee will be open to discussing them with him. Goddard also expresses his opinion that feeling against Lieutenant Governor Higgins’ candidacy is waning.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-07

President Roosevelt writes to Joseph Bucklin Bishop regarding the Panama canal project and discusses Colonel George W. Goethals replacement of John Frank Stevens as chief engineer on the canal project. Roosevelt also mentions his reaction to Herbert Parsons regarding the Republican Club and asks Bishop to inform him of what he would like Roosevelt to say about the canal in his annual message.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1907-09-11

President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit to report on victories for the Republican Party in the last elections, especially beating William Randolph Hearst in New York State. Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt are traveling to Panama, and Ted has come home from Harvard due to abscesses on his leg.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-11-07

Theodore Roosevelt approves of Senator Lodge’s handling of an incident at the White House regarding Lodge’s support for President Taft’s renomination at the Republican presidential candidate.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-02-07

Theodore Roosevelt agrees with Representative Madison regarding the undesirability of the precedent established and was the only person to protest against it. While an ex-president is a private citizen and should appear before a Senate committee if asked, it should only be under exceptional circumstances. Roosevelt read the testimony before Madison’s committee. He thanks Hines for his treatment of George H. Earle and discusses the latter’s poor conduct.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-11