Uncle Sam (Symbolic character)

Uncle Sam, as a matador, wipes the blood off his sword after dispatching a bull labeled “Beef Trust” in a bullring with a portly man labeled “Monopoly” anxiously leaning over the wall.

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In 1902, on the heels of filing an anti-trust action against the Northern Securities Company, President Roosevelt instructed his attorney general, Philander C. Knox, to bring a similar suit against the six largest meat processing and packing companies in the United States. It was claimed that they colluded, fixed prices, and stifled outside competition.

Uncle Sam pushes President Theodore Roosevelt, on a sled labeled “The ‘Teddy’ Flyer,” down a snow covered hill labeled “1905 to 1909.” In the background is a wrecked sled labeled “McKinley’s Policy.”

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This issue of Puck was dated just days before Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration to his second presidential term. That Puck, generally a Democratic journal, frequently had been partial to Roosevelt and his policies is seen by the favorable aura in the cover cartoon.

At center, President Roosevelt shows Uncle Sam and Columbia a large plant with flowers showing the members of his cabinet. The surrounding vignettes show a springtime dance of putti, Alton B. Parker shoveling snow at his home in Esopus, an art gallery, Irishmen marching in the rain on Saint Patrick’s Day, a woman cleaning house by sweeping a dust cloud of policemen out the door, and Roosevelt grafting a branch labeled “Indian School Mission,” with blossom of an unidentified bishop of the Catholic Bureau of Indian Missions, onto the “Interior Dept. Tree.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-03-15

President Roosevelt and Judge Alton Brooks Parker meet as boxers in a boxing ring, shaking hands before the start of the match. Uncle Sam, as the referee, stands in the background.

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With the dust settled from President Roosevelt’s active administration after William McKinley’s assassination, Democratic Party wrangling between factions favoring and opposing William Jennings Bryan — by mid-summer 1904, the rival presidential candidates were chosen, and the campaign could begin.

At center, Uncle Sam looks into a mirror while descending a stairway in a hall. “Swallow” and “Watson” are standing in the hall, holding candles. In the vignette at lower left, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Roosevelt, Fairbanks, Parker, and Davis, arrive in costume. On the lower right they are unmasked and engaged in a game with Columbia. On the middle left is “Bryan” as “An Old Timer,” and on the middle right “Taggart” and “Belmont” play a prank on an elderly woman with a “Bogie Man” labeled “Militarism.” At top left, bobbing for “Campaign Funds” are “Taggart, Bliss, Cortelyou, [and] Belmont,” and at top right “Odell, Shaw, [and] Hill” are “Jumping the Issues.”

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Puck, a major Democratic publication, seems extremely unconcerned with the outcome of the imminent presidential election: little more than a week before balloting, its center-spread cartoon — traditionally a forum for powerful, persuasive political cartoons — instead published genre cartoons on a Halloween theme. Yes, with politicians as the characters, but more humorous than partisan. It possibly saw the writing on the wall, a massive Democratic defeat.

Several vignettes illustrate the difficulty of catching a vice presidential candidate, including offering some “Possible Premiums,” such as a “Cabinet Portfolio,” a “Carnegie Hero Pension,” use of the “Vice Pres’ yacht Tailenda,” and a “10 years lease for pedestal in the Hall of Fame.” Caption: What’s the matter with the Vice-Presidential Chair?

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As the presidential nominating conventions of the political parties approached in 1904, Puck asked a question regarding the vice presidency that was not only humorous but legitimate. The country had been without a vice president since Theodore Roosevelt succeeded the assassinated William McKinley in September of 1901.

Uncle Sam, as Santa Claus with his bag of toys, hands a bag of money labeled “$10,000,000” to a little boy wearing a hat labeled “Panama” and holding a huge ship, some books, one labeled “Ledger,” and towing a model train. A railing on the right divides the space into an area with a Christmas tree and an area without. Hanging on the railing, looking in, are five boys labeled “Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, [and] San Domingo” who are depressed and possibly angered that Santa Claus/Uncle Sam has nothing for them.

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Only a month before this cartoon was drawn, on November 18, 1903, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was ratified between the United States and the very new Republic of Panama. It followed the declaration of Panama’s independence from Colombia in such short time that Secretary of State John Hay proposed and signed the treaty with Panama’s appointed representative, Philippe Bunau-Varilla in a New York hotel room; the “Minister” had not yet been to Panama.

Uncle Sam stands on steps, holding a large folder labeled “Root’s Portfolio” containing papers labeled “Army War College, Insular Policy, Modernized Military, Coast Defenses, [and] General Staff.” He is tipping his hat and saying goodbye to Elihu Root who is holding his hat, coat, and gloves.

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The short comment on this cartoon is that Elihu Root served as Secretary of War under presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. A man of credentials, accomplishments, and universal respect, he was only back in private life for a year and a half after this cartoon was drawn. Upon the death of Secretary of State John Hay in July, 1905, Roosevelt persuaded Root to serve in the cabinet’s premier seat.

Senator George F. Hoar, as an old woman waving an umbrella, yells at Uncle Sam as he confidently walks away from her with a shovel on his shoulder and papers labeled “Canal Plans” under his arm. Two diminutive figures labeled “Colombia” and “Philippines” are standing next to Hoar.

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George Frisbie Hoar, Republican Senator from Massachusetts, was an old-line part loyalist for years, but a maverick on the issue of expansionism. He was consistent on this issue, to the extent of speaking out against the Spanish-American War; a leading opponent of territorial expansion and acquisition of defeated Spanish possessions, he never actually joined the American Anti-Imperialist League. The organization, founded by Mark Twain and whose members included former president Grover Cleveland, made prominent arguments in public debates but was short-lived.

Uncle Sam offers a bouquet of flowers labeled “Reciprocity” to a woman labeled “Canada.” Uncle Sam is being held back by a businessman labeled “Trusts” whose feet are planted against a rock labeled “High Protection” and is pulling on Sam’s coattails, while the woman is being held back by a military officer labeled “Toryism” pulling on her fur wrap.

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Canadian reciprocity — a phrase routinely invoked as more palatable than “free trade”; almost a euphemism in arguments against high protective tariffs — was a common theme of some politicians and many business through the years. A shared boundary between the United States and Canada was one logical reason, and traditional amity between two similar peoples was another.

In a classroom, the rulers of several countries are the students. Most are identified by country and showing the attributes of their leaders, including, in the back row, “Russia” (Nicholas II), “Germany” (William II), and England (John Bull), and in the front row, “Austria” (Franz Joseph I), “France” (Emile Loubet), Uncle Sam, Japan (Meiji, Emperor of Japan), and Italy (Victor Emmanuel III). On the far left, sitting on a stool, is “Turkey” wearing a “Dunce” cap. The teacher labeled “Diplomacy,” at the front of the room, points to a blackboard on which is written “If the Boer War cost Great Britain $825,000,000 what would a world’s war cost?” While most of the leaders ponder this question, Russia and Japan glare at each other. There are three wastebaskets filled with weapons.

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“Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before.”

Uncle Sam, with a bundle of papers labeled “Canal Plans,” pats a diminutive man, wearing a hat labeled “Panama,” on the shoulder. The man smiles broadly and is leaning on a large sword. Canal construction equipment is just offshore, in the background. Caption: Uncle Sam — Well! Well! You boys have at last had a revolution which will help the whole world.

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Sometimes in cartoons, as well as texts — and perhaps more so, literally — history can “read between the lines.” Joseph Keppler Junior’s cover cartoon in Puck appeared one week after the United States and the new Republic of Panama concluded a treaty that recognized the latter’s national independence.

Uncle Sam holds a paper labeled “Protest against Russian Outrage.” He is standing with his back to a slightly open door revealing a skeleton labeled “Lynchings” and holding a handgun and rope in his closet. He looks at the skeleton, realizing he is caught in a double standard.

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Whether lynchings of Southern blacks were actually on the rise in this period — and statistics indicate so — publicity about them was on the rise, in magazines and newspapers (traditional and sensationalist press), in novels and plays, and in solemn political cartoons. President Theodore Roosevelt made a particular goal of his administration to publicize and condemn lynchings, and encourage anti-lynching legislation.

Uncle Sam uses a magnifying glass to see in his left hand a diminutive man labeled “Rumor Monger” yelling “Panic, National Disaster, Failures, [and] Ruin” into a megaphone labeled “Wall Str.” Caption: Uncle Sam — Well! Will this nuisance ever learn that the country governs Wall Street; not Wall Street, the country.

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Even Puck, whose cartoons can be seen as a weekly diary of current events and prevailing opinions, occasionally in the early Roosevelt years reflected unease on Wall Street, insecurity about labor peace, and such public feelings. However — and far more frequently, as in this cartoon — cartoonists and commentators like Joseph Keppler Junior depicted the second American “Era of Good Feelings” and the solid prosperity of the Roosevelt years.

A police officer holding a hat labeled “Law and Order” stands in a courtroom with a labor union “Walking Delegate” who has papers showing in his pocket labeled “Bribes” and “Broken Contract.” They are standing before Uncle Sam who is wearing the judicial robes of the judge. Caption: The Justice — You’ve distrubed the peace long enough and I’ve a mind to sentence you to hard labor – a most severe sentence in your case.

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Just at the time when President Roosevelt’s intervention in the Anthracite Coal Strike the previous year indicated a thaw in the perception of labor unions and strikes in the minds of the public and the government, there was an uptick in labor violence and major union-related public disruptions. At the center of many workers’ actions were “Walking Delegates,” originally regarded as mere representatives of national labor organizations. Then, their roles changed and they were often regarded as agents provocateurs. Cartoonists often depicted them as bloated leeches, taking advantage of workers through onerous union dues. Finally they were seen — and sometimes were — plotters of violence during strikes, andb attacks on “scabs,” worker who crossed strike-lines.

A larger-than-life “Spirit of Civilization” points with contempt to a man on a pedestal labeled “Russia.” Standing around the pedestal are John Bull, Uncle Sam, and symbolic representatives of other nations.

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Czarist Russia, so recently applauded by the world for land reforms, abolition of religious restrictions and other measures announced in a Ukase issued by Nicholas II, attracted universal condemnation for immediate reversals and counter-measures, especially pogroms against the Jews in his domain.

Uncle Sam, John Bull (cartoon figure of Great Britain) and William II, Emperor of Germany, stand before Mars, the god of war, who is lying on the ground, asleep. Caption: “Sh-h-h! ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.'”

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In the years preceding World War I, nations of the world formed alliances by open or secret treaties, ostensibly to secure peace, but often to establish spheres of influence or buy time for other goals. The “Dreibund,” a German term for three-part alliance, never happened, at least with Great Britain who seriously mistrusted Germany (and vice-versa), not the United States, especially vis a vis Germany. The size and latent awful strength of Mars, suggested by Keppler’s cartoon, was unleashed a dozen years later on the European continent.

Uncle Sam, taking a break from digging, leans on a shovel while speaking to a diminutive man wearing two handguns and a knife, and a sombrero labeled “Central America.” In the background is a sign that states “Panama Canal Route.” Caption: Uncle Sam — Now, young man, while I’m digging here, I’d like a long period of depression in the Revolution Business.

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This cartoon was drawn immediately upon the signing of the Hay–Herrán Treaty that ceded rights to United States to build a canal through Colombia. (The signatories were John Hay, United States Secretary of State; and Tomás Herrán, Colombian chargé d’affaires.) The treaty was signed on March 14, 1903, and this issue of Puck is dated March 25.

Uncle Sam and Columbia look at the Easter bonnet she has taken from a hat box, which has a battleship design and is labeled “U.S. Navy.” Caption: Miss Columbia — It’s all right in style, but altogether too small.

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Throughout 1903 (in fact all throughout his presidency) Theodore Roosevelt wrote messages, delivered speeches, and placed articles in which he hammered away at the need of the United States to enlarge its Navy, increase the number of specific ships, etc. For instance, on a national speech-making tour commencing at the time of this cartoon’s publication, Roosevelt made the necessity of Naval build-up a recurring theme, most forcefully at the dedication of the Naval Memorial Monument in San Francisco in May.

A laborer stands at center holding a rifle labeled “Law and Order” and a National Guard uniform labeled “Patriotism” which he is offering to Uncle Sam who is standing on the left with his hands behind his back. Standing on the right, behind the laborer, is a man labeled “Labor Agitator,” holding a whip that spells out the word “Expulsion.” He makes it clear to the laborer that he must choose between the union and service to the government, arguments raised as leverage in labor’s attempts to negotiate with the Department of the Army. Caption: The Labor Agitator — Give dem soldier clothes up! Yer can’t serve me and him, too!

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From its inception until the 1903 Efficiency in the Militia Act of 1903 (the reference-point of Ehrhart’s cartoon), the United States had had an ambiguous policy regarding state militias and the United States Army. Governors could choose to meld their state militias with the Army, or not, in random fashion, perhaps depending on local opinion and politics. New England governors who opposed the War of 1812, for instance, refused to send troops to assist the Army. This is the reason that Theodore Roosevelt assembled the Rough Riders, the First New York Volunteer Regiment; in times of need, Washington authorized volunteer regiments of limited duration, across the country. The 1903 act, also called the Dick Act after its sponsor Representative Charles Dick (R-Oh), and heavily pushed by Secretary of War Elihu Root, enabled the creation of National Guard units in every state, outlined their duties and restrictions (until a 1908 amendment, they could not be deployed overseas), and guaranteed funding by a schedule. This act also enabled the creation, and mandated funding, of training camps like Plattsburgh before America’s declaration of war in 1917. The immediate point of this cartoon is the short-lived attempts of union organizers to have their members retain union rights and contract provisions while serving in Guard units; or that union members be exempt from serving in Guard deployments. Such efforts were unsuccessful.