Popes

Albert M. Graves reminds Theodore Roosevelt they have shaken hands at the White House before, and Graves has sent Roosevelt several long letters and articles in the past. Graves believes he knows Roosevelt very well and wonders how Roosevelt said and did so many important things with no mistakes, except telling American’s to vote for William H. Taft. Graves includes a song about the Pope singing Noah’s Ark while waiting for Roosevelt to visit.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-15

Alfonso XIII, the young King of Spain, holds on to the robe of Pope Leo XIII. His mother, María Cristina, stands next to him on the viewing stand as young women are presented to him as potential brides. Caption: Little Alfonso is next in line to have a wife picked out for him.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Alfonso XIII was born after his father’s death and assumed the throne of Spain on his sixteenth birthday. Perhaps unable to surrender its wartime bias against Spain, almost every element of Ehrhart’s cartoon is demeaning. The new king is depicted as a virtual child, the women waiting to be chosen for him all are flirtatious, his mother assertive, and the Pope appears evil and lascivious. Cartoonist Ehrhart was one of Puck‘s “answers” to Charles Dana Gibson of Life Magazine, a master at depicting beautiful and self-assured women.

William Jennings Bryan, as a pope wearing robes and a tiara labeled “16 to 1,” sits on a throne on a low pedestal labeled “Kansas City Platform.” Two Swiss guards stand next to him. The one on the left is labeled “Jones,” and the other on the right is labeled “Stone.” Caption: But Democrats have lost faith in his infallibility.

comments and context

Comments and Context

As midterm elections loomed in 1902, William Jennings Bryan sought to assert his primacy in Democratic party councils. He had twice been beaten for the presidency, so his support — and support for his issues, for instance the bimetallic plank in the 1900 (Kansas City) platform — was vital. The vassals behind Bryan are two of his more loyal supporters: Senator James K. Jones of Arkansas was Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and William J. Stone (at the time a year away from being elected to the United States Senate from Missouri) was a contributor to Bryan’s magazine The Commoner. In 15 years’ time Stone would be one of six senators to vote against declaring war on Germany.

Theodore Roosevelt discusses a letter from Captain H. A. Hanigan, in which Hanigan describes the “Vatican Incident” as an insult to Catholics. Roosevelt encloses for Colonel Lyon the statement he made in The Outlook but does not want it given to Hanigan, as he refuses to appeal to any religious bigotry, whether Protestant or Catholic. Roosevelt asserts that he acted just as any good American citizen would have in that situation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-15

John Callan O’Laughlin encloses a note from Lyman Abbott, and presumes The Outlook will take a strong stance on new Catholic cardinals. O’Laughlin discusses the new cardinals and wishes Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt a happy birthday.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-31

In an odd letter, Arthur S. Hider asks Theodore Roosevelt if he follows the stars and asserting that the Pope “has heard the three absolute story.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-11-15

U.S. Governor-General of the Philippines Ide writes to Secretary of War Taft regarding a religious case that involves the Philippine Commissioner of Commerce and Police Forbes, the Archbishop of Manila Harty, and Noble. Ide mentions that Noble faced charges and had to make a testimony due to his alleged actions against the Church. Harty, Noble, and others were questioned about the situation by Forbes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-13

President Roosevelt wears a papal crown with dollar signs and holds a globe with a line down the middle. Caption: Pope Roosevelt: What lies to the left of this chalk line belongs to American politics, and what lies to the right of it belongs to American world trade! [After Columbus’ first trip to America, Pope Alexander VI. divided the world through a demarcation line and determined sovereignty in both halves of the world.] 

Comments and Context

Lyonel Feininger, the north German cartoonist, employed not so much anti-Catholic references as Catholic history in this cartoon characterizing President Theodore Roosevelt as a modern-day Pope Alexander VI. As per the pontiff, Roosevelt is depicted as diving the world in two parts… and laying claim and control over both parts.

The the decade largely filled by Roosevelt’s presidency, the United States officially achieved status as the world’s greatest manufacturing and agricultural exporting power. People sensed it would be the “American century” — not the least in Germany were those changes noted — and Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies took due note of the new status, and the importance of managing it well.

Pope Leo XIII holds out his robe labeled “Catholicism” and bows to Columbia who politely returns the bow and declines the offer to shelter under his robe. Behind Leo XIII is “St. Peters” at the “Vatican” and behind Columbia are buildings labeled “Public School” and “School.” Caption: His Holiness–Dear Miss Columbia, won’t you come under my robe? – you’ll be so much more comfortable! – for further particulars, see my late encyclical. / Miss Columbia–Much obliged, Pop; but I’m doing very well as I am!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-02-13

Cardinal “Satolli,” holding a crosier, sits atop an enormous dome labeled “American Headquarters,” and casts a large shadow in the shape of Pope Leo XIII across the landscape of the United States, from New York City south through Washington, D.C., to the Gulf of Mexico and west to San Francisco. Several cities, some with buildings labeled “Public Schools,” are encompassed by the shadow of the Pope, including New York City, the U.S. Capitol building, “Memphis, New Orleans, El Paso, Denver, [and] San Francisco.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-09-05

German emperor William II, wearing a two-tiered tiara, is welcomed by throngs of Arab Muslims who carry a banner that proclaims “Allah is Great, and William His Prophet.” Across a narrow body of water, Pope Leo XIII, wearing the papal tiara, sits on St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-11-16

Pope Leo XIII sits between bust sculptures of William E. Gladstone labeled “Gladstone, the Great Commoner, 1809-1898,” and Otto von Bismarck labeled “Bismarck, The Man of Blood and Iron, 1815-1898.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-08-24

Pope Pius X and Cardinal Merry del Val attempt to put out a fire labeled “Revolt Against the Vatican throughout Southern Europe” with bellows labeled “Intolerance” and “Infallibility.” Rain clouds labeled “The Diplomacy of Leo” approach from the right, beneath the spirit of Pope Leo XIII. Caption: They can’t put out a fire with things that won’t put a fire out.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-09-21

Print shows Pope Leo XIII climbing the dome of the U.S. Capitol, carrying a cross. Uncle Sam tells him to come down. Caption: Uncle Sam–What are you going to do up there? / The Pope–I thought it was time to nail this cross over the dome. / Uncle Sam–Well, you come down! We’ve got a figure up there that will last for some time yet!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-03-29

Charles Parnell wears a tiara and sits on a throne, with many Irishmen bowing before him and placing bags of money into a container labeled “Parnell Fund.” On a table next to him are papers labeled “Remission of Rents” and “Assassination Absolution.” Sitting on a throne on the left, unattended by anyone, is Pope Leo XIII wearing the papal tiara and looking on with dismay. At his feet, on the left, is a basket of papers labeled “Indulgence” and “Absolution,” and, on the right, a container labeled “Peter’s Pence” that appears to have been broken into and emptied.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-06-06

A large group of politicians and others stand in a cemetery on Memorial Day. Each seems to be grieving at gravestones that bear special messages. Pope Leo XIII stands in front of a stone that states “Here lies my Irish Influence.” Ulysses S. Grant places a wreath labeled “Tho’ Gone Not Forgotten” at a monument that states “Here Lies the Third Term 1880.” Stephen Dorsey and Thomas Brady, arm in arm, stand in front of a stone that states “[Star] Route Here Lies Our Hope of Acquittal.” James G. Blaine places a wreath on a stone that states “[He]re Lies My South American Policy.” Samuel J. Tilden and Charles A. Dana stand in front of a stone that states “Tilden Boom 1876 Rest in Peace.” Clustered around Grant are Roscoe Conkling holding a tattered military standard labeled “Stalwart Battle Flag 1880,” J. D. Cameron on crutches labeled “1882,” John A. Logan as a drummer with number “306” on his drum strap, and Thomas Collier Platt as a little girl. Also grouped before a stone that states “Here Lies Democratic Consistency on the Tariff” are Benjamin F. Butler, Winfield Scott Hancock, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Stephen B. Elkins. Others depicted are Simon Cameron, John Kelly, Jay Gould, George W. Childs, George M. Robeson, David Davis, Robert Ingersoll, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, and a man identified as “Campbell.” Caption: They deck with flowers, this Day of Decoration, full many a blighted hope and reputation.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-05-30

In a confrontation between a pope and the leader of a rival spiritual organization, the pope carries a banner that states “Papal Encyclical – You’re a Humbug and you Dupe the People!!” The other side has a banner that states “You’re Another.” Both sides carry objects labeled “Mummery.” Puck stands at center, in the background, cheering them on.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-05-07

Members of the clergy sign a document labeled “Declaration of Dependence” and are joined together by long strings of beads that are held by Pope Leo XIII sitting on a chair in the left foreground. Cardinal John McCloskey is sitting at the table where the document is being signed, glaring at the Pope. The American Declaration of Independence, torn and crumpled, lies at his feet. Caption: Made at Cincinnati, on the 19th of March, in the year of the Republic 106, by the Fourth Provincial Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-04-12

Theodore Roosevelt, as “Pope Theo the first,” sits on a throne, wearing the Papal tiara, as a man labeled “The Senate” bows down before him.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck magazine’s first cartoon of 1907 portrays a new situation that followed a year crowded with political wrangling and a passel of legislative victories for President Roosevelt’s Republican Party — often at the expense of Republican bosses of the Senate. That irony bespeaks the acumen and resourcefulness of Roosevelt, as well as the changing political temper of the country.

A bull labeled “France” is being attacked by insects shaped like clerical figures, which cause it to kick with its hind legs, knocking Pope Pius X off a stool and overturning a bucket and spilling “Papal Revenues.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

There is a French saying that France will never be anything if not Catholic; however of all the Roman Catholic countries through the centuries, and despite magnificent French cathedrals and associations, France probably has been the most aggressively anti-clerical of all countries. High (or low) moments in actions taken against the Church and papal authority have included the excesses of the French Revolution, and measures to restrict proselytizing, lessen government subsidies, and conform to various secular regulations.