Politicians

Sepia tone photograph of Herbert Hoover sent to James Andrew Drain.

Collection

America

Creation Date

Unknown

George Hammond offers Theodore Roosevelt the support of the office holders throughout the state of Arkansas if he is a presidential candidate. Hammond believes the office holders do not represent the opinion of the general public.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-14

D. A. Nunn tells Theodore Roosevelt there is a noticeably strong undercurrent and the people of the South are for Roosevelt’s nomination, regardless of their political party. Nunn was postmaster and a “Brownlow Republican” for a long time, but was pushed out by the “Sanders element” and replaced by his brother.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-12

Harrison D. Boyer tells Theodore Roosevelt that the common people can only see Roosevelt as the next president because Roosevelt is the only one they can trust. Boyer believes the government needs to regulate business, social, educational, and political life to provide equal rights, justice, and liberty to the people and future generations. Roosevelt is the only man who might do this and Boyer hopes he will come out as a candidate for the presidency because it is his duty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-14

Theodore Roosevelt informs Matthew Hale his letter has been received, just as Roosevelt is on his way to Boston. Roosevelt cautions Hale against George L. Records because of his poor judgement and impractical propositions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-12

Charles W. McMurran sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of his article Boosting Things and states that he believes if only politicians would let up, prosperity would be more abundant. McMurran prays Roosevelt will have good health and many years more to enjoy the fruits of his labor while mankind benefits from his actions. McMurran adds he will support Roosevelt for President and would like to come to Oyster Bay for a conversation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-15

Senator Lodge shares some of a letter from Secretary of the Immigration Commission, Morton E. Crane, in which Crane discusses the positive feelings of the citizens of London toward President Roosevelt’s economic policies, as well as the friendship between Indiana Senator Albert J. Beveridge and David Graham Phillips, author of The Treason of the Senate. Lodge also shares segments from Baron F. A. Channing’s essay on the Union, which Roosevelt may want to quote.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-02

Dr. Keen wants President Roosevelt to make an exception to his stance on non-interference in state politics. Keen is outraged by J. Edwards Addicks’s influence in Delaware and calls his career “shameless” and refers to his “baseness of character.” Keen is grateful that Dr. Abbott will present the matter to President Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-14

The writer of the article suggests that some political candidates are elected by their merits, and other through the “accident” of being broadly popular and facing an unpopular or bad candidate as an opponent. President Roosevelt has reached his office on his merits, and the writer argues against attempting to nominate Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna to replace him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-07

A list of Republican and Democratic Representatives, probably related to some piece of legislation under consideration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-05

Nelson Aldrich sits on a throne as king of the “U.S. Senate,” with a diminutive Theodore Roosevelt kneeling before him bearing the “President’s Message.” Around them senators are reading ticker tape or enjoying the success of their investments. The surrounding vignettes show Chauncey M. Depew as a doorman welcoming a man labeled “The Trusts” into the “U.S. Senate”; John D. Rockefeller sitting at a desk pouring over “Reports” and “Expenditures”; Charles W. Fairbanks as an office boy stopping Uncle Sam at the top of the stairs demanding who he needs to see and why; and two men stuffing papers labeled “Esch-Townsend Rate Bill, Tariff Legislation, House Bill” and others into a trash can. Caption: Formerly known as the Upper House of Congress.

comments and context

Comments and Context

With only the political cartoonist’s traditional “license” to exaggerate, cartoonist J. S. Pughe fairly depicted the state of affairs regarding the United States Senate in 1905.

A group of formally-dressed men gather around a table for a banquet, as an old man labeled “Lost Reputation” departs and a cherub labeled “1906” arrives.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This is not a random group of men at a New Year’s banquet pictured by Joseph Keppler Jr. At year’s end, the double-page cartoon in Puck is another comment on the consequential news event that was the long-running and far-reaching New York State investigations into the insurance industry.

Thomas Collier Platt and Chauncey M. Depew appear in 16th century theatrical costumes in a scene from a Shakespearean play. Caption: Falstaff Depew (to Prince Hal Platt) — I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.–King Henry IV.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Week by week in his magazine Puck at this time, cartoonist Udo J. Keppler was proving himself to be America’s foremost political caricaturist, perhaps the superior of his father who founded Puck; yet he is relatively obscure to history. This example is not a mere excuse to festoon two ugly faces on the weekly’s cover, but Keppler made a salient point, as per usual, about his political targets.

John D. Rockefeller, as Belshazzar, sits on a throne above a group of capitalists and politicians enjoying a feast of such dishes as “Draw Back Bon-Bons, Fruits of Monopoly, [and] Rebate Plums.” The festivities are interrupted by a hand appearing from above holding “The Big Stick” and writing the words “Rate Legislation.” Caption: “And the King saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the King’s countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him.” [Daniel 5:5-6]

comments and context

Comments and Context

Belshazzar’s Feast is the account in Daniel about a mysterious hand appearing as if from heaven, writing a moral warning on the wall during a feast of the Babylonian king and a thousand of his followers. The words on the wall were, in Hebrew, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,” roughly interpreted as “God has numbered the days of your kingdom… You have been judged and found wanting;” and “Your kingdom will be divided.”

At center a valentine card features President Roosevelt as Cupid. Around the outside are other valentines featuring two European leaders, American industrial and political figures, a Russian admiral, a writer identified only as “Tom,” and a Wall Street con artist.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Whether it was a cartoonist’s creative crutch every year, or readers’ happy expectations, the easy formula of imaginary Valentine’s Day cards for political figures was a frequent feature in Puck and other satirical weeklies of the day. Frederick Burr Opper drew many of these over his years at Puck in the 1880s and ’90s.

A frenzy of activity is underway as many politicians and capitalists join the labor forces to construct the Panama Canal. Theodore P. Shonts, chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, is standing on the right, holding a whip, and directing the laborers. In the background, large groups of men labeled “Order of Walking Delegates, The Idle Rich, Amalgamated Aldermen, [and] Insurance Presidents Union No. 6” are waiting, with tools, to be called into action. Caption: Let our superfluous citizens do the work.

comments and context

Comments and Context

S. D. Ehrhart’s expansive cartoon in Puck seized upon the news of labor challenges in the Culebra Cut portion of the Panama Canal construction, and built an elaborate cartoon-fantasy about people in politics, the social world, and finance being put to work at manual labor.

Democrats and Republicans, capitalists, social reformers, political symbols, and others enjoy a summer outing at a park.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-08-17

Superintendent Lancaster (left); Senator Andrews (left-center), Representative Regula (right-center), and Lynn Thompson (right) at the Painted Canyon visitors’ center dedication in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1977-08-13

New York Mayor Seth Low directs the bombardment of a Tammany Hall bunker flying a flag labeled “Tammany Graft.” Several men, among them former President Grover Cleveland, and Charles V. Fornes, pass shells labeled “Clean record, Capable administration, [and] Just return for taxes” for an “Anti-Tammany” howitzer. They are behind a sand-bag bunker labeled “Honest Government” and are flying the flag of “Municipal Reform.” Caption: “That ammunition fits our gun only.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Regulars and Irregulars” — cartoonist Keppler illustrated the “fusion” aspect of Mayor Seth Low’s New York City administration.In 1901 Low had been elected as a Reform Republican and Fusion candidate, on the Citizen’s Union ticket.

Photograph of an informational display entitled “After the Badlands,” which discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s career after living in the badlands; museum exhibit #30 in the South Unit visitor center of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1958-06-15