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Report of the removal of Laura A. Hull Morris from the White House, emphasizing the mild mannered nature of Benjamin F. Barnes, Assistant Secretary to the President, during the event.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-12
Mariano L. Paris writes to Denis J. Dougherty, Bishop of Nueva Segovia, regarding Manuel Garcia, President, forcing students to attend official, rather than parochial schools. Paris claimed Garcia was enforcing this rule through the use of police, fines and arrests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-13
President Roosevelt thanks Father Belford for enclosing Father Wynne’s letter, which has been recently published in the Evening Post. Roosevelt refutes Wynne’s criticism of U.S. policy in the Philippines, and suggests that Wynne has “a lot to learn” before he is justified in issuing such criticism.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-07-31
President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit about recent guests at the White House and taking walks. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt needed a break and took Ethel Roosevelt away for forty-eight hours on the Sylph. He says his hands are full with California trying to keep Japanese out of their schools. Congress is refusing to provide fortifications for the Philippines and Hawaii or allow Roosevelt to build up the navy. Kermit has taken notes on the envelope.
1907-02-04
Senator Spooner provides corrections and suggestions regarding a draft of President Roosevelt’s letter accepting the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the upcoming election. Spooner arranges his suggested edits by paragraph and line numbers or by headings. Topics discussed include the Panama Canal, Cuba, the tariff, and the Philippines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-15
President Roosevelt thanks Joseph Bucklin Bishop for his editorial and intends to take up the Philippine question when he speaks at Arlington National Cemetery.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-01
William Bourke Cockran supports American involvement in the Philippines, to the dismay of Anti-Imperialists.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-08-12
President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to tell him that after reading his letter, Edith is okay with inviting Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ferguson to travel abroad with the family. Nick and Alice returned from their honeymoon trip and Ethel is now moved into Alice’s room. Cousin Sheffield Cowles has the measles and Roosevelt is going to visit although his eye is bothering him. Roosevelt says that he has been working very hard and has a hard time with passing the rate bill, the Philippine tariff bill, and some of his nominations in the Senate. Archie and Quentin went to a dog show.
1906-03-04
The article discusses why the English press favors the Democratic ticket. Other topics discussed on this page include “Navy Plank Struck Out,” “‘Artful’ Judge Parker,” “Judge Parker Against Palmer and Buckner,” “Democratic Lightning Change Artists,” “The Irish World on Protection,” and “Chairman Cortelyou’s Alleged Prophecy.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-11
John J. Wynne discusses the political views of Catholics in the United States. He praises President Roosevelt’s desire to be impartial to religion in his appointments, but worries about the anti-Catholic views of some of his appointees. Wynne wishes that Eugene A. Philbin could have attended the Fourth Annual Convention of the Federation of Catholic Societies in Detroit, and encloses a letter from one of his subscribers in Hawaii. Finally, Wynne states that he does not sympathize with the criticisms of Reverend John B. Worrall and believes that Cardinal Francesco Satolli should have been received with honor at Washington.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-24
The Republicans want protection but they agree that adjustments to tariff schedules are necessary. There has been much change in industries since the last law was passed that changed the tariff. To protect this new business and open new markets, such as in the Philippines, tariff revision is necessary.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-16
This article discusses statements from members of the Honorary Board of Philippine Commissioners in favor of independence for the Philippines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06
Secretary of War Taft disagrees with Bishop Rooker regarding the threat posed by Gregorio Aglipay y Labayan and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente to the Philippine government.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-22
Uncle Sam, dressed as a woman and holding a switch of bound rushes in his left hand, talks to a young girl labeled “Philippines.” They are standing on a beach with the water labeled “Free Trade in Tobacco and Sugar.” Caption continues: “Oh, yes, my darling daughter! Hang your clothes on the hickory limb, but Don’t You Go Near the Water!!!”
Frank A. Nankivell, Puck‘s Australian immigrant by way of Japan, reflected the artistic trend of the day, one related to the Art Nouveau and current poster style, “Japonisme.” Also derived from ancient stained-glass techniques, the style was largely two-dimensional, tending toward flat colors and heavy outlines of prominent figures in the composition. It made Nankivell’s work popular, evidently, in magazine cartoons and sheet-music covers.
A large William H. Taft wears a stars and stripes turban, with a large knife labeled “The Big Bolo” stuck in his belt and a notice attached stating “For Stand Patters.” He is speaking to a group of diminutive figures labeled variously “Congressman” with a “Manila Souvenir Spoon,” “Philippine Industries, Free Trade Promises, [and] Senate Bill.” In the background, on the left is the boarding ramp to a ship, and on the right are two entrances to a railroad station platform labeled “To Washington Direct.” One entrance is labeled “Philippine Free Trade” and the other is labeled “Stand Pat.” Taft is telling them to be sure to choose the correct train, i.e., not to enter through the “Stand Pat” gate. Caption: Our Foremost Filipino — Now, boys, after all my talking, don’t go and take the wrong train.
In 1900, President William McKinley named William H. Taft to be civilian governor of the Philippine Islands. It was position that carried responsibility and diplomatic skills, because the new United States territory was restive and rebellious, more so than any of the new acquisitions won in the Spanish-American War. In the next three years more than 100,000 deaths resulted from the Filipino Insurrection.
President Roosevelt, as a trainer in a circus, holds a whip and is getting tangled in ropes attached to a hippopotamus labeled “The Trusts,” an elephant labeled “G.O.P.”, a donkey labeled “Panama,” and two natives labeled “San Domingo” and “Philippines.”
J. S. Pughe was Puck Magazine’s go-to animal cartoonist, and this week’s center-spread cartoon — one week into the new administration — enabled a flexing of his skills to set a scene in a circus’s center ring.
A large, bloated man, wearing an apron labeled “The Trusts,” stands next to a large cauldron labeled “Tariff Reduction.” Standing in front of him is a diminutive, emaciated man labeled “The Philippines” holding a cup labeled “25%.”
Keppler’s cover cartoon delineates a contrast between a bloated trust figure (did cartoonists ever depict the trusts otherwise?) and an emaciated supplicant, representing the new United States territory of the Philippine Islands — evoking the scene in Dickens’s novel where Oliver Twist begs for more food.
Senator George F. Hoar, as an old woman waving an umbrella, yells at Uncle Sam as he confidently walks away from her with a shovel on his shoulder and papers labeled “Canal Plans” under his arm. Two diminutive figures labeled “Colombia” and “Philippines” are standing next to Hoar.
George Frisbie Hoar, Republican Senator from Massachusetts, was an old-line part loyalist for years, but a maverick on the issue of expansionism. He was consistent on this issue, to the extent of speaking out against the Spanish-American War; a leading opponent of territorial expansion and acquisition of defeated Spanish possessions, he never actually joined the American Anti-Imperialist League. The organization, founded by Mark Twain and whose members included former president Grover Cleveland, made prominent arguments in public debates but was short-lived.
President Roosevelt stands next to Uncle Sam who is sitting on a stool in a “U.S. Custom House.” Roosevelt has his left hand on Sam’s right arm and is gesturing to the left, toward a customs official who is inspecting the bags of a Filipino man just inside a door labeled “Philippines” and “Prohibitive Tariff.” The door is locked and barred by “Seventy-Five per cent of Dingley Rates.” In the background, a woman exits through a door labeled “Cuba” and “Reciprocity” and a man exits through a door labeled “Porto Rico” and “Free Trade.” Caption: President Roosevelt–You’ve been fair to the other two. Now, keep faith with this one.
In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, different tariff duties and trade policies were imposed on America’s new territorial possessions. Given their retention, this was logical because they each had different histories, geography, economies, and levels of sophistication. One of the prices of empire was dealing with the inevitable complications. Cuba, with a relatively mature infrastructure and major industry, sugar, received more consideration from Washington than did the rather unsophisticated island of Porto Rico (as it was then spelled). The Philippine Islands were a special case for several reasons: they were the farthest of the new lands from the continental United States, the population was the most resistant to American occupation, and as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the war, Spain received trade conditions equal to those of the United States. William Howard Taft, a federal judge who had been Theodore Roosevelt’s friend since he was United State Solicitor-General under Benjamin Harrison when Roosevelt was head of the Civil Service Commission, served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1901-1903, and tried to effect what historian Michael Cullinane has called the “Filipino-American collaborative empire,” characteristically seeking middle ground. Manila was represented by two representatives in Washington (the other possessions got one each), and strong arguments were made for favorable trade considerations. Pughe’s cartoon dates from the time when relatively harsh tariffs were imposed on the Philippines. Ultimately Roosevelt achieved Congress’s approval for nearly full reciprocity on each nation’s goods.
George F. Hoar, Carl Schurz, David B. Hill, and former Massachusetts Governor George S. Boutwell place their “Anti-Expansion Speech” at the feet of a huge American soldier holding a rifle and the American flag, while opposite them Filipinos place guns and swords at the soldier’s feet. Caption: The American Filipinos and the Native Filipinos will have to submit.
Pughe’s cartoon is a diplomatic portrayal of a rather diplomatic cessation of hostilities and American military withdrawal from the Philippines, where insurrection had raged, with brutality on the “Filipino” and American sides almost from the moment of Spanish surrender in 1898. Senator George Frisbie Hoar (R-MA), the most prominent Congressional opponent of the “pacification” by American troops, had demanded investigation of American atrocities. In 1902 an American Marine was tried for the murder of 11 Filipinos; and an American general was convicted of ordering the death of all males over 10 years old on one of the Philippine islands (he was verbally reprimanded, returned to the United States, and discharged). On July 4, 1902, President Roosevelt ordered the full and complete pardon and amnesty to all Philippine citizens and rebels. This cartoon appeared between the surrender of the last rebel leader and the announcement of United States troop withdrawal.