Presidents--Staff--Selection and appointment

Theodore Roosevelt was pleased to hear from Robert John Wynne. He notes that he appointed Wynne as Postmaster General and later Consul to Great Britain because he “needed in the public service a man of your high character and indomitable, aggressive courage.” Roosevelt looks forward to seeing Wynne in London and wonders if Wynne can arrange for him to meet Redmond. He asks whether it is alright for him to do so, as he does not know much about English politics.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1910-03-12

Jeter Connelly Pritchard reviews the results of the recent election in North Carolina and encourages President Roosevelt to appoint to his Cabinet a man from North Carolina, to encourage Republicans there. Pritchard has also advised Thomas S. Rollins to speak with Roosevelt about these matters when they meet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-17

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to say that Nick and Alice Roosevelt Longworth are visiting and describe his walks with Edith. He says he is appointing John McIlhenny as Civil Service Commissioner and John Greenway will take the Commissionership of the Land Office. Roosevelt adds in a post script that he just learned he is to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-12-01

Assistant Secretary of State Loomis approves of Elihu Root as Secretary of State, and will assist the Department of State in any way.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-11

At center, Father Knickerbocker, a symbolic figure for New York City, welcomes Santa Claus to the underground of New York City. The surrounding vignettes show Santa distributing Christmas presents and planning for next year. The “Angel of Peace” is hoping for an end to the hostilities between Japan and Russia.

comments and context

Comments and Context

At the center of Samuel Ehrhart’s collage of Christmas-themed gags is Uncle Sam and Father Knickerbocker (the New York City counterpart of Uncle Sam), rather overshadowed by a subway station resembling a palace. All of New York, and indeed the nation, was fascinated by the new subway system. It had opened its rail lines and station on the October 27, 1904, just before the presidential election. When the campaign was over, and the gaudy St. Louis World’s Fair closed in early December, the nation turned its eyes to a virtual Eighth Wonder of the World: miles of underground tracks in America’s biggest city.

President Roosevelt appears as Santa Claus gathering gifts, such as “Consulship, Ambassadorship, Secretary of Navy, Secretary of State, Governorship of Philippines” and others, to place into his bag of Christmas presents, which George B. Cortelyou is holding open. A paper in Cortelyou’s pocket is labeled “Post Master General.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon, published at the end of November 1904, between President Roosevelt’s triumphant re-election and Christmas, relies on the fact that the Roosevelt presidency was not merely to continue, but in fact begin a new term. It was traditional for vice presidents assuming the presidency after the death of their presidents, to adhere to the policies, and retain the personnel, of their former chiefs. This tradition was often practiced in the breach, especially when simple, practical matters intervened — political exigencies; voluntary resignations of staff members; unforeseen events, for instance.

President Roosevelt was unable to find a staff appointment for John W. Green.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-15

President Roosevelt thanks Henry H. Boyce for the letter. The daily paper will report that Roosevelt will retain William McKinley’s policies and Cabinet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-09-14

President-Elect Taft thinks he might have told Timothy L. Woodruff too much in regards to his plan to keep William Loeb as his secretary for a short time after his inauguration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-22

C. P. Connolly expresses his desire to be employed as President Roosevelt’s private secretary and asks William Allen White for his opinion. Connolly states his qualifications as a stenographer, court reporter, general secretary, and lawyer, and details his extensive professional experience and previous employment in New York and Montana. He knows men of prominence and is confident he can get letters of recommendation from them. Hoping there is a chance that Roosevelt will consider his application, Connolly is grateful for any assistance that White can offer.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-08

Myron T. Herrick writes to President Roosevelt about his plans as Governor of Ohio.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-10

Cornelius Newton Bliss writes to President Roosevelt explaining his decision to decline Roosevelt’s offer to name Bliss the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bliss names a few alternate candidates in his stead.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-10

Beekman Winthrop thanks Theodore Roosevelt for a letter concerning his appointment to a position. Winthrop informs the President that the first Republican Convention in the Philippines instructed delegates to vote for him in the Republican National Convention. Winthrop mentions that John Thomas McDonough is one of the delegates.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-16

Uncle Sam is pictured as a cadaver labeled “The Body Politic” that President William H. Taft, as Dr. Tulp, is using to instruct his cabinet members in the anatomy of the “body politic” based on “His Policies.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Still in a honeymoon mode — albeit in the first month of the new Administration — Puck Magazine’s chief political cartoonist Udo J. Keppler presents a dignified portrait of William H. Taft and his cabinet. Such drawings, sometimes allegorical but invariably neutral in tone, accompanied the advent of every presidential team.

A large Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments labeled with political offices and presidential appointments. Thomas Collier Platt and Matthew S. Quay, who is dressed as a woman, are standing in front of the tree. In queues on both sides are diminutive figures anxiously awaiting their presents, including from right to left, Jerry Simpson, Joseph B. Foraker, William E. Chandler, William McKinley, Whitelaw Reid, Thomas B. Reed, Levi P. Morton, Benjamin Harrison, William B. Allison, George F. Hoar, John Sherman, Chauncey M. Depew, and Robert T. Lincoln. Caption: The two big bosses have full charge of it, and the most obedient boys will come in for the best gifts.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-12-25

President Cleveland, as Cardinal Richelieu, embraces a young woman labeled “Civil Service” as he is confronted by a group of courtiers labeled “Manning, Barnum, C. S. Blackburn, [and] Hendricks”, also John Kelly and a man identified as “Party Boss.” Manning holds a paper that states “Bad Appointments – Higgins, Pillsbury, Troup, [and] Chase.” Includes text by “Manning-Baradas” and “Cleveland-Richelieu.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-05-06

Ulysses S. Grant recommends to President Chester A. Arthur some “friends” of his as political appointees. All the men shown were involved in scandals during Grant’s administration. Caption: General Grant “Don’t be troubled if a few fellows do decline. Here are some friends of mine who never refuse office.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-11-02

President Arthur appears as a magician on a stage, pulling cards out of a hat and tossing them into the audience. The cards are labeled “Secretary of Navy, Foreign Minister, Interior, Consulate, Collectorship, Soft Soap, Minister to Turkey, Quashed Endictment, Secretary of War, Protection, Postmaster, Promises, Gratitude, [and] Reciprocity.” On the stage are other magic devices, a “Great Machine Trick” showing cards and labeled “New Political Deal Trick,” a wheel labeled “Stalwartism Neutrality Halfbreedism,” a bottle labeled “Ever-lasting Patronage Bottle,” a cone labeled “Great Veto Extinguish Trick,” and a drum labeled “Last Grand Trick Resignation.” Among those in the audience are Carl Schurz, John A. Logan, Thomas De Witt Talmage, David Davis, Joseph W. Keifer, John P. Jones, Stephen W. Dorsey, Thomas J. Brady, William M. Evarts, Benjamin F. Butler, and Samuel J. Kirkwood. Caption: What Mr. Arthur must be to satisfy all the politicians.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-10-12

Grover Cleveland, as a shepherd, stands among his flock labeled “Treasury, Supreme Bench, Office, [and] Post Office,” telling a well-dressed wolf, who has a piece of paper in his pocket labeled “To the Victor Belong the Spoils,” that he cannot turn out corrupt Republicans in favor of spoils-hungry Democrats. Caption: President-elect Cleveland (to Democratic “Spoils” Wolf) – “I shall not discharge the corrupt Republican watch-dogs only to make room for you, my friend. That’s not the kind of civil service reform I mean!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-01-14

William Dudley Foulke objects to the appointment of Dulany as messenger because there are already messengers on the eligible list and Dulany has not been employed long enough to be classified as a messenger. Foulke points out that President Roosevelt would incur criticism for breaking established civil service policy when he claims to be supportive of civil service reform.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-04-16