Shaw, Leslie M. (Leslie Mortier), 1848-1932

President Roosevelt assures Attorney General Bonaparte not to worry about press generated from the “Electric Combine” (presumably General Electric) situation and agrees with Bonaparte’s ideas for managing the effects from the distribution of the Appeal to Reason. Roosevelt is not surprised that Leslie M. Shaw, former secretary of the treasury, is acrimonious, and thinks the conservative party he describes would gain very little support.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-21

Arthur I. Vorys informs William Loeb that Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon or Leslie M. Shaw are the second choice of Florida Republicans if President Roosevelt does not seek another term. This is unlike the rest of the country, which largely supports Secretary of War William H. Taft after Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-09

The Department of the Treasury announces several changes to Sec. 5153 of the Revised Statutes regarding loans and collections from custom houses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-11

Senator Lodge, as requested by President Roosevelt, records in writing several matters about which they spoke. He hopes the Gas Company will release the Government, and wants to make sure that Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw does not take further steps before Congress acts. Lodge wants Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson to ask the House Committee for double the amount for the work with moths, and a word of encouragement from Roosevelt would be helpful. Finally, Lodge reminds Roosevelt to speak to Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte about giving a speech to French Canadians in Massachusetts in the coming winter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-17

Arthur F. Statter returns to William Loeb a letter from Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw to President Roosevelt. The letter comments on the report of the Currency Commission of the American Bankers’ Association.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-10

An article in The Press lists President Roosevelt’s Cabinet as violators of the law and how they should be dismissed from their positions. This dismissal is based on the Conrad-Bonaparte report which states it is a violation of the law for “laborers” to do clerical work. The article states every department in Washington employs laborers to do clerical work, so the Cabinet should be dismissed. The writer also discusses how the attorneys Conrad and Bonaparte are breaking the law about office rental and should also be dismissed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-14

Senator Lodge tells President Roosevelt about the establishment of a big German coaling station in St. Thomas, which indicates that German Emperor William II is “still hankering after those islands.” Lodge recommends quickly buying Greenland. In addition, Lodge recommends replacing Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, and disagrees with Shaw’s plan for issuing bonds. Lodge comments on various prominent events happening in the United States and the world and explains he is enjoying his time in “this old Italian town,” but is beginning to long for home. He wants to be near Roosevelt and not have to watch from a distance.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-10

Senator Lodge informs President Roosevelt that he did not intend to push for James B. Reynolds’s appointment to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and is sorry to hear of Secretary of the Treasury Shaw’s feelings about the matter. Lodge only suggested Reynolds when Shaw asked him for names. Lodge vouches for Reynolds’s competency and character.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-06

Theodore E. Burton returns the letter from Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-09

Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw’s personal assistant sends a guest list for President Roosevelt’s review. Shaw will be hosting a dinner for Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-09

Governor Carter of Hawaii informs President Roosevelt that due to some information that was unfavorable to the sale of bonds, he has dispatched Alatau L. C. Atkinson to follow up on the matter with the Department of the Interior. Carter mentions Atkinson’s credentials, and says that he possesses Carter’s confidence. He hopes that while Atkinson is in Washington, D.C., he might be able to advocate for several causes relevant to Hawaii.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-08

President Roosevelt stands behind a fence and tosses an extremely large pair of “Roosevelt’s shoes.” A number of men standing waiting to catch them: Secretary of War William H. Taft, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Iowa Governor Albert Baird Cummins, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes; and former cabinet secretaries Leslie M. Shaw and Philander C. Knox.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The immediate context of Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon was a public statement issued by President Roosevelt the previous day, on December 12, 1907. Hence the “Now” in the cartoon’s title.

President Roosevelt and the Republican elephant stand at the dock of the “G.O.P. Boat Club” as they watch Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Philander C. Knox, Leslie M. Shaw, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and Secretary of State Elihu Root try to row a boat.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoons like Clifford Kennedy Berryman’s “In Training,” typical of many during his long career in Washington, D. C., were closer to illustrated observations, reflecting current events, not attempting to criticize or persuade, than to classic political cartoons. They were editorial cartoons, not at all partisan, merely addressing political realities.

President Roosevelt sits on the springboard dipping his feet in the water as Secretary of War William H. Taft, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Iowa Governor Albert Baird Cummins, and Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette stand behind him on the board waiting. Former Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw stands on land in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This 1908 cartoon from early in the career of Jay H. “Ding” Darling displays his mastery of caricature and composition, as well as conception, for Ding squeezed a slightly new aspect from a familiar subject in the day’s news: whether President Roosevelt would run again, violating his own public declination in 1904, and whom he would support as his successor, was getting to be a tired topic.

President Roosevelt watches from the White House as New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of State Elihu Root, former Secretary of the Treasury Philander C. Knox, watch Secretary of State William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker roll two eggs — “Taft boom” and “Foraker boom”on the White House lawn.

comments and context

Comments and Context

As Easter approached in 1907, cartoonists like Clifford Kennedy Berryman of the Washington Evening Star found another opportunity to sail to deadline with a ready-made premise for the topic of the day — who would succeed President Roosevelt? Boys + White House + rivalry = easy variation-on-theme.

William H. Taft stands with a gavel in his hand as the delegates select President Roosevelt as the nominee. In the audience are Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes. A balloon in the top right-hand corner shows William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst holding signs that read, “Gov’t Ownership” and “Socialism” respectively as they step on Minnesota Governor John Albert Johnson.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Whether cartoonist Tyler McWhorter drew this cartoon as a prophecy or a hopeful dream, it was another cartoonist’s speculation on whether President Roosevelt would break his pledge of Election Night 1904 that he would not allow his name to be put into nomination in 1908. With its long caption, it also might have been an illustration for an article, or part of series. In any event the St. Paul Dispatch drawing was pasted in the White scrapbook, and presumably seen by the president.

President Roosevelt tells Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, “You remember what I said on election night!” They reply, “But, Mr. President, we love so much to hear you repeat it.” In the foreground a teddy bear shakes hands with a star and says, “Delighted!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman was not the only cartoonist to squeeze every ounce of speculation from a matter that was not open to speculation during Theodore Roosevelt’s second presidential term — his decision to succeed himself. He had (as the cartoon indicates) declaimed such intention; and his string choice of a successor was Secretary of War William H. Taft. Nevertheless, some politicians still dreamed, and some cartoonists still fell back on easy subjects.

President Roosevelt looks on as members of his 1906 cabinet laugh at papers with the heading, “Storer.” One chair is empty, and there are pictures on the wall of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, and Attorney General Philander C. Knox, all from 1901.

Comments and Context

This political cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, with its typically awkward depictions of public figures, addresses not the general composition of President Roosevelt’s cabinet, although it was within a week of this cartoon that Oscar S. Strauss succeeded George B. Cortelyou as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the latter moving to the Treasure portfolio.

It rather has to do with the denouement of a protracted and embarrassing contretemps between Roosevelt and erstwhile friends and political sponsors, Bellamy and Maria Longworth Storer of Cincinnati. The wealthy Storers of Cincinnati, friends of William H. Taft of their city, had a home in Washington, D.C., where they hosted friends like Taft when he was President Benjamin Harrison’s Solicitor General. They attached themselves to Taft’s friend Theodore Roosevelt, too, when he became Civil Service Commissioner in 1889.

In one vignette, “Congress” shaped like Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon looks at President Roosevelt. Caption: That he has three more days of grace. In another, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw hold a paper that reads, “President’s anti-third term declaration.” Caption: That it is irrevocable. In a third vignette, a man with a pickaxe sweats and smiles. Caption: That the president has gone. In the fourth vignette, “Dorsey” looks at a sign that reads, “Dismissal of colored troops—25th Infantry.” Caption: That he wasn’t in it. In the fifth vignette, William Jennings Bryan sits in a chair. Caption: That the N.Y. democracy did so splendidly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-29

President Roosevelt lights a “Taft boom” stick of dynamite outside of the “White House.” Beside him are previously lit sticks of dynamite: “Fairbanks boom,” “Shaw boom,” “Root boom,” and “Cannon boom.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-22