Presidents--Elections

Theodore Roosevelt and three potential presidential rivals are depicted as different species of flowers. A female figure labeled Columbia (likely representing the U.S.) is watering the Roosevelt flower, Beautii Americanus Teddyum, with a can labeled 1904. The flower names given to the rivals portray them in a negative way. They are Groverum Third Terminus (Grover Cleveland), Sixteen to Oneicus Rubberum (William Jennings Bryan), and Peanutti Politicus Dave Hillum (David B. Hill).

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-15

Theodore Roosevelt updates his sister Anna on plans for his trip west. He will return to New York in October in time for the lead-up to the election. Roosevelt is pleased with Republican presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1888-08-22

The article summarizes reactions to President Roosevelt’s success in the recent national election as published in newspapers from cities in the South. This clipping was mailed from New York City by Nicholas Murray Butler, who identified the newspaper as The Globe.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-15

Nicholas Murray Butler sends President Roosevelt a newspaper clipping about the recent election results, commenting that “nothing develops wisdom so rapidly as a good thrashing.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-15

Uncle Sam raises a red signal flag labeled “Big Crops” and “Prosperity” and a yellow signal flag labeled “Business” and “Confidence” over the U.S. Capitol building. In the background, delegations from several states are cheering.

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Comments and Context

Puck Magazine, which was a half-hearted opponent of Republican President Roosevelt’s re-election, offers a placid celebratory cartoon by Grant Hamilton. Hamilton had taken a leave from the Republican doppelganger of Puck, Judge Magazine, in order to oppose Roosevelt, but here acknowledged Roosevelt’s thumping victory, although jubilant crowds are in the faint distance.

Charles W. Fairbanks, dressed as a Rough Rider, stands in front of a mirror and sees himself as Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: Fairbanks — De-light-ed!

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Comments and Context

The context of Keppler’s cover cartoon in Puck is that Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana had just been nominated for Vice President, as President Roosevelt’s running mate. The famously taciturn and colorless Fairbanks had a personality that in no way mirrored that of the ebullient Roosevelt, except in a cartoon’s mirror (note the reflection of the real Roosevelt, complementing the props and notes associated with him).

Octogenarian Henry Gassaway Davis, as a runner, is attended by Arthur P. Gorman who is putting a bandage on Davis’s right knee.

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Comments and Context

Henry Gassaway Davis, an industrialist and former senator from West Virginia, is caricatured here being conditioned by Senator Arthur Pue Gorman of Maryland. Davis, at 80, was and is the oldest candidate for president or vice president in United States history. The Democrats in 1904 nominated him for his “barrel,” an immense fortune they expected he would tap to finance the national campaign. He did underwrite about a third of the national party’s expenses, which was disappointingly less than hoped.

Alton B. Parker, William Jennings Bryan, David B. Hill, Arthur P. Gorman, Tammany Hall boss Charles Murphy, William Randolph Hearst, an unidentified rower, and Grover Cleveland sit in an eight-oared racing shell in a race against President Roosevelt, who is rowing as a single sculler in an eight-oared shell. The Democrats are proving to be poor scullers, as they are unable to manage their oars. Caption: Stroke Parker–Now […], boys, get together!

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist Keppler’s depiction of the 1904 presidential race is a fair analogy. Unseen in this battered, vintage copy is President Roosevelt, the lone sculler in the Republican scull, and far ahead. The only satisfied figures among the Democrats are candidate Alton Brooks Parker, presidential candidate, at the front, and former president Grover Cleveland, the party’s elder statesman whose influence succeeded in Parker’s nomination and a conservative platform. Mirroring the dissatisfaction of the Democrats is the cross-purposes of their oars in the water.

George B. Cortelyou, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, appears as Sisyphus rolling a large boulder labeled “Majority for Roosevelt” up a steep hill.

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Comments and Context

George B. Cortelyou is one of the most neglected of the important figures in the career and accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt. He worked for the United States Post Office and rose through the ranks until he was recommended to President Grover Cleveland to serve as his chief clerk. When William McKinley assumed the presidency in 1897 he named Cortelyou as personal secretary to the president upon the recommendation of Grover Cleveland, despite the part differences between the presidents.

President Roosevelt wears a white elephant costume labeled “Republican Party” with the U.S. Capitol in the background.

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Comments and Context

Trying to decipher Grant Hamilton’s cartoon, the historian likely will conclude that it is simpler than it might suggest. The “white elephant” metaphor probably does not apply; Roosevelt’s menacing grin was a simple caricature; and the caption “The Whole Thing” states the case in the political year of 1904 — it scarcely is an unfair attack.

President Roosevelt appears as a knight on horseback carrying a lance labeled “Reciprocity” over his shoulder with a sack labeled “Campaign Funds” hanging from it. In the background is a giant ogre labeled “Infant Industries” sitting against a castle with a club labeled “Dingley Tariff” nestled against his right arm. Over the castle is flying a banner of “High Protection,” and a despondent maiden labeled “Fair Trade” is standing at the top of a tower.

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Comments and Context

Invoking an earlier cartoon, when Puck was more charitable about President Roosevelt’s goals and challenges, the “after” part of this composition suggests that Roosevelt extorted campaign contributions from trusts, and that represented his design from the start.

Former president Grover Cleveland, as “Cincinnatus,” is working a field with a plow labeled “Domesticity.” An elderly woman labeled “Democracy” is standing in the field, holding a paper which states “Cleveland’s letter of retirement ‘Unalterable and Conclusive’.” She is perplexed as Cleveland gestures with his right hand for her not to approach him.

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Comments and Context

President Cleveland is depicted as Cincinnatus, the Roman citizen who yielded to pleas that he serve as leader during various crises, but always relinquished power and returned to his farm. George Washington is the American most frequently likened to Cincinnatus.

The “Dem. Party” donkey with six followers places “Cleveland’s cradle 1884” into a river. Pyramids are visible in the background.

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Comments and Context

This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior mirrors very closely — down to the poses and scenery — a Puck cartoon by Bernhard Gillam almost exactly 20 years previous. In both cartoons, the Democratic Party was desperate for a Moses to lead from the political wilderness. The party in 1883 had been out of national power for 33 years; at the time of this cartoon they had not occupied the White House for six years. Grover Cleveland had been the only Democratic president since before Abraham Lincoln. In fact, it is Cleveland’s name inside the empty cradle.

A family of bears dressed as humans stands near railroad tracks. The youngest cub is crying. A train labeled “Presidential Special” has just passed and standing on the back of the last car is President Theodore Roosevelt holding papers labeled “Speeches.” The mother bear indicates that Roosevelt is on a campaign tour rather than a hunting expedition. Caption: Mother Bruin–Don’t be alarmed, children! This is not a shooting trip!

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Comments and Context

This cartoon aims for an easy target — President Roosevelt and hunting, particularly for bears. He was an avid hunter, as the public knew. Many articles and chapters of books devoted were to the subject. In fact, only months after he was sworn in as president, Roosevelt went on a famous bear hunt in the canebrakes of Louisiana and Mississippi, and initial lack of success led well-meaning guides to rope a bear — which Roosevelt angrily refused to shoot — giving birth to the legend, image, and popularity of the “teddy bear.”

An elderly German American man, with one hand pointing to his head and the other pointing to a coin bank labeled “Savings Bank” on a table, winks to reinforce that he thinks his investments in the “U.S. Bonds” protruding from his vest and his savings are wise decisions. On the left is a poster showing a bust portrait of President William McKinley labeled “Expansion” and captioned “Gold Standard and Sound Money,” and on the right is a poster showing a bust portrait of William Jennings Bryan labeled “Anti-Expansion” and captioned “Repudiation and 16 to 1.”

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Comments and Context

The readership of Puck was reliably and generally regarded as German-American, above any other affiliation. It began as a German-language weekly and still published a German edition when this cartoon was published. Usually Democratic in its political views, except in years that William Jennings Bryan was not a candidate, this cartoon posed a question but strongly implied the answer: wise, thrifty, and sober German-Americans would support President William McKinley (as Puck did, editorially, that year.)

Illustration showing Admiral George Dewey as a circus clown, with William Jennings Bryan on a donkey labeled “Dem Party” and William McKinley on an elephant labeled “GOP” under the big top of a circus. Puck, as the ringmaster, stands in the background.

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Comments and Context

Admiral George Dewey was the Hero of Manila Bay. After following the orders of Acting Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt and moving America’s Pacific Fleet to the Philippines in contingency of war with Spain, when war came, the fleet completely destroyed Spain’s fleet with virtually no damage to the American Naval force. Dewey returned to America a popular man whose political prowess was less astute. He accepted the gift of a public-subscribed house and then signed it away to his new wife, a divorced Catholic woman, offending many groups of that day. He allowed himself to be drawn into politics — at least to dabble — by a brother-in-law who wound up abandoning Dewey’s ambitions. In the space of a year the hero widely was seen as an inept clown indeed. It took a lot for Puck to depict William Jennings Bryan, the ultimate Democrat nominee, as reasonably dignified, but the contrast was marked.

A cartoon depicting Uncle Sam patting President Roosevelt on the back, endorsing him for a second term as president. This copy appeared in “A Cartoon History of Roosevelt’s Career,” and the caption explains that the cartoon was widely circulated by the Republican party during the 1904 presidential campaign.

Collection

Dickinson State University

Creation Date

1904

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary writes that as Roosevelt is on a campaign tour of the West he is unable to accept the invitation to attend the Semi-Centennial of the Loyal War Governors’ Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-09-12

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary thanks Edwin Osgood Grover for the creed he sent to Theodore Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-09-12

Frank Harper tells Matthias Radin that Theodore Roosevelt is not likely to be able to grant Radin’s request for a few words of greeting due to the demands of the campaign.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-09-12