Penrose, Boies, 1860-1921

Richard Robbins details Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on his fifty-sixth birthday on October 27, 1914. Robbins explores the political scene that found Roosevelt in western Pennsylvania campaigning for Gifford Pinchot for a U.S. Senate seat on the Progressive ticket. Robbins quotes extensively from the city’s newspapers anticipating Roosevelt’s visit, and examines Roosevelt’s itinerary, the parade in his honor, and his speech.

A photograph of Roosevelt speaking in Uniontown in 1914 and one showing the same site in 1984 accompany the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Following a number of legislative items, including voting on an amendment to a bill and a motion to investigate participation in international expositions, Senator Robert M. La Follette delivers a speech beginning with proposed tariff reciprocity with Canada, but quickly turning to his view that President William H. Taft has abandoned his campaign promises to continue the progressive policies of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette excoriates Taft on his stances on taxes and conservation, among other issues.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-15

The article provides various positive economic reports from around the nation, including railroad expansion plans, a big export surplus, and a plan to provide agricultural workers with four to five months of work for good wages. A highlighted portion of the column notes that the Philadelphia Workingmen’s Protective Tariff League endorsed President Roosevelt for president and Senator Boies Penrose for National Republican Chairman.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-06

Edward Henry Harriman and Henry Hustleton Rogers fire Senator Boies Penrose from a cannon labeled “extra dry” at the White House.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In the lead-up to the Republican presidential nomination in 1908 there were machinations aplenty in the Republican Party, both in spite of President Roosevelt’s stated preference for William H. Taft and because of it. In Ohio, for instance, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, a bitter critic of the President, harbored presidential ambitions, and had therefore to undermine fellow Ohioan Taft, while attacking Roosevelt.

Several senators—West Virginia Senator Nathan Bay Scott, Iowa Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver, Michigan Senator Julius C. Burrows, Pennsylvania Senator Boies Penrose, and Montana Senator Thomas Henry Carter—all white wash Benjamin F. Barnes. President Roosevelt holds the “big stick” and says, “Thicken your white wash and get to work, you clumsy Senate fellows” while South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman looks on and says, “Shame on you ind your ‘master.'”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-29

Telephone message from Senator Albert J. Beveridge, stating that “Sen [Nathan Bay] Scott has stated to Sen [Stephen B.] Elkins that the President told him he did not care anything about the standard bill.” Beveridge wishes Roosevelt would “straighten Sen Scott out.” Beveridge also wants President Roosevelt to see Senator Boies Penrose and encourage him to act further.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-15

The tariff slogan of the Republican Party for the coming Congressional campaign will be “stand pat,” as decided by several members of the Republican Congressional Committee and approved by President Roosevelt. While no attendees gave quotes of the proceedings of the luncheon at Roosevelt’s home, all expressed satisfaction with the conference, and confidence that the Republican party can stand on its record. Republican campaign headquarters are to be opened in New York shortly. The article additionally reports on Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon’s travel plans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-23

Theodore Roosevelt thanks George von Lengerke Meyer for the salmon and for what he said regarding the libel suit. Roosevelt would like to arrange a visit with Meyer and Frank B. Kellogg, but does not see what can be done about “getting the Republicans and Progressives together.” Roosevelt feels that the Progressives are “sundered” from the Republican Party by two causes. The first is the “utter dishonesty” of men such as Boies Penrose, William Barnes, Winthrop Murray Crane, Elihu Root, and their associates who “stole the convention” last summer. The second cause is that the Progressive Party, unlike the Republican Party, have in their platform “applied the principles of Abraham Lincoln to the present day.” Roosevelt will never again work with a party controlled by the men guilty of the theft last June or with any party that “does not take in their entirety the principles of Abraham Lincoln applied to the needs of the present day.”

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1913-06-09

Theodore Roosevelt tells George von Lengerke Meyer he is not sure there is anything to be done to make things better in politics. Roosevelt believes Republican leaders “stole the nomination” in Chicago, Illinois, and that such action “creates a train of evil consequences so extensive that it is almost impossible by any single act afterwards to undo the evil.” It was extraordinary to see men such as Bishop William Lawrence and President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University “explicitly or implicitly, endorse the lowest forms of political immorality.” Roosevelt compares the Progressive platform to that of Abraham Lincoln and the early Republicans, and accuses the men who object to these principles of being the “spiritual heirs of the Cotton Whigs.” He believes that what happened in Chicago makes it likely that Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party will win the fall presidential election. When Roosevelt returns, he would like for Meyer and Frank B. Kellogg to visit him.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1913-10-07

Democratic postcard featuring Theodore Roosevelt driving a runaway moose-drawn carriage toward a sign reading “To Democracy,” shouting “Whoa, bull, nice bull, they’re all Progressives and friends of mine.” Behind the carriage are figures of men labelled “Wall Street,” “Penrose,” “Barnes,” and “Hughes.” While Roosevelt endorsed Hughes as Progressive Party nominee in 1916, other well-known Progressives did not. They supported Wilson because Hughes was not a vocal supporter of what they considered basic Progressive ideas, such as the income tax and the eight-hour day. That is why Hughes is shown here along with other truly non-Progressives such as Wall Street and Republican political boss from Pennsylvania Boies Penrose.

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1916

Theodore Roosevelt notes that Lemuel Ely Quigg’s views coincide with his, and that Quigg perfectly understands his position and intentions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1916-05-10

Theodore Roosevelt finds that the old parties of Massachusetts are “wedded to their idols” and do not offer any hope to the “man of vision.” He feels that there was “no surer touchstone of Bourbonism” than the support of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. He urges the people of Massachusetts to remember that the present Wilson tariff, or the Revenue Act of 1913, was rendered possible only by the passing of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act and that the men who supported it represented the “extreme of reactionary Bourbonism within the Republican Party” against the interests of the American people. Roosevelt warns the people of Massachusetts that the man who supports the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act “has his face toward the past” and will lead the state “backward against the current of proper political development.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914

A group of men, scoffers, labeled “Tillman, Elkins, Penrose, Crane, Lodge, Depew, Gallinger, Aldrich, [and] Sherman” watch four men labeled “Cummins, Dolliver, Gore, [and] La Follette” construct an ark labeled “Principle.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-07-28

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 galley labeled “Government Of, By, and For the People” sails past rocks labeled “Bossism” where other ships have wrecked, drawn by “Party Solidarity” sung by Republican sirens “Connors, Aldrich, Cox, Penrose, Woodruff, [and] Lodge” and “Partisanship” sung by Democratic sirens “Mack, Conners, Murphy, [and] Taggart” sitting on rocks above the crashing seas. Caption: The old stuff doesn’t go any more.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-06-01

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 ship labeled “Republican Machine,” with Nelson W. Aldrich at the helm and Henry C. Lodge, Joseph G. Cannon, Boies Penrose, James S. Sherman and Chauncey M. Depew hanging on, is starting to tip over in advance of a huge wave labeled “The Ultimate Consumer.” Riding the crest of the wave is a ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, with Theodore Roosevelt standing at the bow or forecastle. Caption: At the height of the storm, an added terror.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-02

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 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.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1917-03-21