United States. Congress

In the first section of the cartoon, President Roosevelt intently looks in the weeds as he holds his gun. An African says, “It must be a herd of elephants he sees.” In the second section, Roosevelt runs toward the weeds with his gun raised. The African says, “Must be the white rhino!” In the third section, Roosevelt hits “a congressman” on the head as the African says, “Horrors!” Caption: A warning to all Congressmen to keep out of Africa during the open season.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In the last weeks of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency some cartoonists seemed unable or unwilling to surrender their focus on the incumbent, even as President-Elect William H. Taft assembled his cabinet and policy agenda.

President Roosevelt chuckles as he holds his gun and watches a lion roar in Africa. Caption: Roosevelt: “Poo, poo! Why, I could get a bigger roar out of Congress any day by just sending in a special message.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Jay N. “Ding” Darling drew one of his favorite subjects, Theodore Roosevelt, in a clever pastiche of a humor cartoon and a prescient political comment. At the time of the cartoon’s publication there were only two months before Roosevelt would embark, headed for a year-long African safari. His attention, as with most cartoonists and many citizens, was on that exotic expedition.

“Congress” holds a club, a pistol, a hatchet, and a knife with a box of dynamite behind him as he looks at a picture of “our next ex-president”–Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: The question, “What shall be done with our ex-Presidents?” is bein[g] discussed in Congress.

comments and context

Comments and Context

As Theodore Roosevelt was only fifty years old upon his imminent retirement; and as he famously was a strenuous polymath and cognoscente, there was much speculation, not the least among editorial writers and political cartoonists, “What shall we do with our ex-president?” The question occurred to Roosevelt too, and history knows his many subsequent pursuits, commencing with the African safari.

President Roosevelt holds his big stick and rides toward “Congress,” who is awake in bed, on a rolled up paper of the “president’s final message–positively the last.” “Congress” says, “Gee, but I wish he’d go away!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The immediate context of Edward Joseph McBride’s cartoon was the harsh war of words — and messages, and insults, and press statements, and motions of censure — between President Roosevelt and the Congress at the time. The genesis, at the end of his Administration, grew from disagreements over the proposed expansion of the Secret Service into an agency that, separately and later, became the FBI.

President Roosevelt sits up straight on a horse–“Congress”–that is sweating profusely and is extremely tired. Roosevelt does not have a drop of sweat and says, “I feel bully!” In the background is a sign that reads, “There and back–98 miles.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon appeared in Butte, Montana, the newspaper clipping was in the cartoon scrapbook assembled by President Roosevelt’s White House, but was reprinted from the Philadelphia North American. It is an early political cartoon by Herbert Johnson, who most recently had been producing humor cartoons for Life magazine and story illustrations for various journals.

Holding his big stick in his left hand, President Roosevelt points a finger at a bull terrier labeled “Congress.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The routinely partisan Democratic Women’s National Daily — at any rate consistently anti-Roosevelt — published this cartoon at the end of the president’s administration. Although Roosevelt is not depicted in a flattering manner, it is more a neutral observation of long-running disputes between the White House and Congress.

President Roosevelt holds Illinois Democratic Representative Henry Thomas Rainey over his knee as the president holds up a hot “liar” brand. Rainey holds a paper that reads, “Congressman Rainey’s speech on ‘job’ in the Panama railroad deal.” Roosevelt says, “Always room for one more!” In the background, another man has “liar” branded on his rear end and stands under an “Ananias Club” sign.

comments and context

Comments and Context

What Joseph Pulitzer and his newspaper the New York World were in yellow journalism’s incessant innuendos about malfeasance related to the Panama Canal, Democratic Representative Henry Thomas Rainey of Illinois was in Congress.

A “Congress” groundhog jumps in the air as it sees President Roosevelt’s face in its shadow. Meanwhile, Roosevelt’s face is depicted on the sun. Caption: Weather forecast for Washington: Continued storms and colder until March 4.

comments and context

Comments and Context

One of the political cartoonist’s best friends is the calendar –not usually when it concerns deadlines, because daily cartoonists often address clocks and stop-watches when ideas are sparse — but as holidays, events, and anniversaries present themselves as “hooks” for concepts.

President Roosevelt stands in front of a vault of papers. “Congress” says, “Give me them paperrrs!” Roosevelt replies, “Over my dead body!!” Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte says, “Don’t let him bluff you, boss!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist “Tom Bee” drew a parody of a stage melodrama to address the settlement of the Wall Street Panic that occurred more than a year previous to the cartoon. This drawing was prompted by questions in Congress and the Democratic press about details of the settlement, and more probably prompted by a desire to attack Roosevelt on his way out of office; that, and the attempts to tie the incoming administration of William H. Taft to alleged favoritism shown J. P. Morgan and big banks, was the theme of other cartoons and editorials.

President Roosevelt rides on a horse with a “Wild West show offer” in his pocket and shoots his gun between the “House” and “Senate.” He says, “I think I’ve got Buffalo Bill beaten to a frazzle!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

A frequent target, so to speak, of political cartoonists in the waning days of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency was to speculate on the waxing days of his subsequent career or pursuits. Roosevelt was relatively young at fifty years of age, and his many accomplishments in a variety of fields provided cartoonists with fodder.

President Roosevelt sits at a desk and holds several books “Problems of Gov’t,” Presidency,” and Constitutional Government” as he looks down at his “African hunting outfit.” Uncle Sam asks, “Theadore, what are you doing?” In the background, “Congress” reads a “tariff” book. Caption: Theodore–Gee Whillikins, I wish it would hurry up and be March 4th!

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Jay N. “Ding” Darling, despite his certified adulation of Theodore Roosevelt, nevertheless was able to tweak his heron and depict him as a schoolboy impatient for summer vacation of Christmas morning, or, his adventure of a lifetime, the large-scale exploration and hunting trip to Africa. The safari was planned to engage the president, almost immediately after leaving the White House, for nearly a year.

President Roosevelt looks at Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon who holds a “Congress” suitcase and says, “Come on and get busy. This’s my last chance at you!” The United States Capitol building is in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-03

President Roosevelt holds an “executive order” and a “classified service” umbrella to keep dry from the dark clouds of “political patronage.” Over a dozen “fourth class postmasters” run toward him as two “congressmen” look surprised.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The day prior to this cartoon’s publication — and, significantly, while Congress was recessed — President Roosevelt signed an executive order for the classification by competition of all fourth-class postmasters in fourteen states between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River, an area containing more than half of the United States population, and approximately a third of all such postmaster positions. That group of employees comprised one of American politics’ richest caches of patronage jobs, a source of influence and power for politicians.

President Roosevelt holds a “reform” gun and aims at a rabbit labeled “Congress” that is running toward a “Mar. 4” rock.

comments and context

Comments and Context

One of America’s great political cartoonists, J. H. Donahey of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, by 1908 and roughly a decade of work behind him, had come into his own. His concepts invariably were simple but incisive; and his drawings direct and handsome — here, making an arresting composition from a hunter, rocks, and a rabbit, no background except his trademark shading — a “look” that was copied by many of his peers in cartooning.

Two men–“Senate” and “House”–hold the “annual message to Congress” with many tabs sticking out of it: “judicial reform,” “forestration,” “trust regulation,” “army promotions,” “secret service,” “labor,” “parcel post,” “greater navy,” and “inland waterways.” President Roosevelt says, “For the last time, gentlemen!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

By late 1908, Clifford Kennedy Berryman of the Washington Star (formerly of the Post) had become the Capital’s semi-official cartoonist in a community of several newspapers and many cartoonists. He had perfected the technique of capturing likenesses, if not caricatures, and his congenital geniality kept members of both parties welcoming of his daily cartoons. Whether it was a non-confrontational personality trait, or good business to stay on his subjects’ good sides, Berryman was friends to, and of, all.

“Congress” holds a magnifying glass to read the large and tightly rolled “president’s message.” President Roosevelt walks away saying, “Now for the hunt.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

By 1908, Congress — or at least “Old Guard” and reactionary leaders in both houses — were not only weary of the strenuous president’s many messages, orders, and proclamations, but growing more hostile to them. Theodore Roosevelt, despite his imminent retirement, or maybe because of that fact, increased his initiatives.

President Roosevelt loads “the president’s message” on a cannon that he gets ready to fire at “the Sixtieth Congress.” He holds “the big stick” in his left hand. Caption: What is it loaded with?

comments and context

Comments and Context

In a rare political cartoon that treated President Roosevelt somewhat neutrally, James Calvert Smith assessed the day’s main news: delivery of the president’s last Annual Message to Congress.

Uncle Sam applauds as President Roosevelt leaves the stage. The sign reads: “Monologue: T Roosevelt in the Farewell Message–Next number: Congress in knockabout act.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The clear point of Floyd W. Triggs’s political cartoon, published after the delivery of President Roosevelt’s Annual Message (now called the State of the Union Address), is approbation — Uncle Sam’s and his own. And, by implication, a censorious prediction of Congress’s reaction to its themes and prescriptions.

Boys bring in “the president’s message” yule log from the “White House” to “Congress.” Several men look on and offer commentary: “Yes–but I’m looking for a few postscripts,” “Isn’t this his last message?” and “This will warm things up, probably.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The cartoons and drawing style of the Chicago Record-Herald‘s Ralph Wilder was so genial — in the tradition of his predecessor and now rival John T. McCutcheon of the crosstown Tribune — that the point of his political cartoon might have been lost.

President Roosevelt mixes a bowl labeled “message” with several ingredients–“ammonia,” “castor oil,” “ipecac,” “quinine,” and “sulphur”–on the counter beside the bowl. A sick “Congress” sits in the other room. On the wall is a sign: “Prescriptions Strenuously Compounded.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Herbert Johnson, a cartoonist for Philadelphia newspapers and, later,  the Saturday Evening Post magazine, and a career-long admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, reinforced the thematic preoccupation of this drawing, several times over.