Your TR Source
Republican National Committee Chairman George B. Cortelyou holds a cup and parades a Republican elephant down Wall Street as bulls and bears run away.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-29
Uncle Sam puts his hand on President Roosevelt’s shoulder as Uncle Sam holds a paper that reads, “states pledged for Roosevelt.” Various men are around them: James J. Hill, Perry S. Heath, a “grafter,” and “Wall Street.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-19
Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna stands in an “anti-Roosevelt boom” machine while J. Pierpont Morgan pushes him and says, “Let ‘er go, Mark.” The “Wall St. gang” looks on and prepares to let the machine sitting on a “Wall Street” building and a “brokers’ building” go.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01
President Roosevelt holds “the law” sword and an “anti-trust shield” that has several arrows headed toward it: “sugar trust,” “ship yard trust,” “Wall St. promoters,” “oil trust,” and “steel trust.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01
Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna and “Wall Str.” hold blunderbluss guns and stand behind a tree. They watch President Roosevelt holding a “popularity” flag as he rides a Republican elephant walk toward the “Chicago convention.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-14
In the corner, President Roosevelt gallops toward the presidency in “1903,” but the larger cartoon shows Roosevelt at the bottom of a “1904” mountain with labels of “Hanna,” “Panama affair,” “Wall St. opposition,” and “a sane democracy.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-15
President Roosevelt jumps through a “N.Y. Sun” hoop that a “Wall Street magnate” holds and onto a “Republican presidential nomination 1904” horse. Caption: Roosevelt for 1904. And all Wall street cannot stop him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-10-10
This cartoon summarizes a number of important political events in 1903, including presidential and vice presidential aspirations, the Panama Canal, Tammany Hall, equal rights, and the Post Office scandal. President Roosevelt is in the center with his gun in his hands and his foot on a dead “graft” bear.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11
Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna puts his finger to his lips as he stands on a stage beside a sign reading “Hanna for president.” Several raised hands are positioned below him: “Rathbone,” “trusts,” “subsidies,” and “Wall Street.” The “trusts” holds a top hat labeled “watered stocks.” Hanna’s hand is outstretched, either to wave away the cheering supporters below, or to take the offered hat.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11
A “Roosevelt Ltd” locomotive appears around a bend while traveling on a set of railroad tracks that lead “to nomination.” Crouched in the foreground behind a rock, J. Pierpont Morgan has placed a large log labeled, “The Sun New York,” on the tracks and holds back a bulldog—”Wall Street.” Caption: Mr. Morgan—”I guess that will derail it, all right.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-15
Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna holds an “opposition” broom and runs away from the “Roosevelt tidal wave” that has “endorsement by state conventions” in the crest of the wave. “Trust opposition” and “Wall Street” barriers break down in the water.
Richard Keith Culver’s political cartoon could stand as a picture of the nation’s, or the Republican Party’s, approbation of President Roosevelt. More than a year before the nominating convention, the United States was experiencing peace and prosperity, and the young president’s personality and reform policies captured the public’s affection. It was rather unprecedented that state parties were declaring their endorsement of Roosevelt’s re-nomination so early.
President Roosevelt attempts to climb the “1904 second term” train with Uncle Sam as the conductor. A large “Wall St.” bear growls in his face.
This Boston Traveler political cartoon looked ahead to the 1904 presidential election and correctly forecast that Wall Street was generally unhappy with President Theodore Roosevelt’s reforms and trust-busting initiatives. The landmark and iconic anti-trust case, United State vs Northern Securities, was before the Supreme Court but would not be decided until early in 1904.
President Roosevelt drives the G. O. P. elephant who is attached to the “Washington or Bust” wagon. They are headed toward “renomination 1 mile” and followed by “Wall St.” and “Hanna.” Caption: “Across the Continent came the ox-drawn, white-topped wagons bearing the pioneers * * * * who entered into this country to possess it.”–President Roosevelt’s speech at Portland, Oregon.
The dateline on this cartoon, clipped and pasted into the White House cartoon scrapbook, makes for confusion, as it was typeset “1901.” Yet May 23 fell on a Saturday that year, and President Roosevelt was indeed on a speaking tour of the Pacific Northwest.
A man offers President Roosevelt a glistening “steel merger” on “Wall St.” and Roosevelt reaches his hand into his pocket.
The suggestion of this political cartoon was that President Roosevelt was duped by big business during the resolution of the Wall Street Panic.
President Roosevelt types on a typewriter as a “scout” stands nearby. On the ground is a paper that reads, “The game has all left the country. Mumbo, the scout, reports cigarette boxes thicker than ever on the trail ahead. Looks hopeless. ($22.00)” Beside Roosevelt’s desk is a box of “asbestos message paper.” Caption: It is reported that three New York men are going to hunt in Africa ahead of Mr. Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-10
President Roosevelt watches an elephant drink from the “Old Wall St. Spring.”
Cartoonist W. A. Rogers illustrated a situation most voters accepted as fact; that despite reforms, scandals, exposures, laws, trust-busting, Muckraking articles, congressional hearings, and party platforms pledging finance transparency, the major political organizations maintained connections to Wall Street and relationships with trusts.
Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou and Chair of the Democratic National Committee Thomas Taggart roll barrels of money toward their respective party’s headquarters. Behind them is a doorway to “Wall St.” They tell each other, “There’s nothing in it.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-15
President Roosevelt’s “letter of acceptance” spotlight sheds light on a “Democratic mule” with a number of tags on its jacket: “free trade fallacy,” “absurd theories,” “unsettled financial policy,” “shifting foreign policy,” and “promises to Wall St.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-13
In an article for the National Review, A. Maurice Low analyzes the possibility that Germany would come to the protection of the Atlantic Coast while the Great White Fleet travels to the Pacific and highlights the recent developments in the relationship between Germany and the United States. He argues that Roosevelt should seek another term of office, and that William Jennings Bryan has nothing to offer the American people, while deriding the failure of the Democratic Party at large. Finally, quoting financial representatives from several banking houses, Low explains that the fall of securities prices is a natural course correction. As an example of the bright future of American growth, he describes the construction of Gary, Indiana, a city built for the manufacturing of steel.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10
President Roosevelt is ready to make a counter-attack against the Democratic Party. Roosevelt is especially frustrated by Alton B. Parker’s plea about the common law being sufficient. According to Roosevelt, Parker will not use the federal powers of the U.S. to take a firm stand against the trusts. Roosevelt suggests to George B. Cortelyou that they should have people at party headquarters who can “receive all people and talk to them pleasantly.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-01