United States. Congress

Gutzon Borglum outlines the parameters of his original contract, his struggles to amend the contract with the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission, and what he feels he should be paid in light of the multiple difficulties that have slowed progress on the monument. In spite of the current situation, Borglum vows that he will continue working on the monument until completion, whether or not he is paid what he believes he is owed.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1937-05-07

President Roosevelt encourages Congress to ratify the commercial treaty with Cuba.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1903-11-10

President Roosevelt is ending his time as president in “stormy fashion” as everyone in Congress now feels comfortable with attacking him. The press is also on the attack and Roosevelt has started two libel suits against the worst offenders. The statements he will make tomorrow regarding the British in India are being made at the suggestion of Mr. Morley and Mr. Bryce. Roosevelt has received a beautiful Holland rifle from his English friends for use on the African safari.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1909-01-17

Theodore Roosevelt will meet with the Swedish prince but the general policy is to discourage royalty from visiting as to not set a precedent that many would attempt to follow. Only Congress can declare a guest of the nation so the prince will only receive “informal hospitality.”

Collection

Newberry Library

Creation Date

1907-07-19

In a fox hunting scene, a man labeled “Special Privilege” rides on a horse labeled “Congress” through “The People’s Field” labeled “Trade, Individualism, Enterprise, [and] Opportunity.” He is following several dogs labeled “Land Trust, Oil Trust, Coal, Metal Trust, Lumber Trust, [and] Franchise Grabber” in pursuit of a fox labeled “Natural Resource.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The telling aspect of this cartoon by Udo J. Keppler is that a bloated hunter, “Special Privilege” is in pursuit of the fox labeled “Natural Resources,” and that he rides a horse representing Congress.

Secretary of War Taft informs President Roosevelt that he spoke to the bureau heads and Generals James Franklin Bell and Fred C. Ainsworth upon his return. He details the plans devised by the Army General Staff for three expeditions to Cuba. If military intervention is warranted, Taft favors “going with as much force as we can command, …to end the business at once.” He suggests Roosevelt inquire of Attorney General William H. Moody if they have the right to intervene in Cuba without asking permission of Congress.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-15

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.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-01

President Roosevelt informs Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw that opposition papers may be misunderstanding Shaw’s stance on Congress’s investigation of the Treasury Department, and Roosevelt wants to make sure he knows that fact.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-07

Gifford Pinchot offers his opinions on the 1918 midterm elections, which are happening at the same time as negotiations to end World War I. President Wilson described the elections as a referendum on his leadership, and hopes that the American public will return a Democratic majority in both houses. Pinchot believes that Americans are calling for Germany’s unconditional surrender, not the “peace without victory” being pursued by Wilson, so he hopes that a Republican Congress will be elected and that the country will “stop talking peace and get on with war.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1918-10-25

Gifford Pinchot drafts notes on President Wilson’s appeal for the return of a Democratic Congress in the 1918 midterm elections. Pinchot believes that Wilson’s interference is threatening the core principles of democratic government. He also notes that the Republicans have been leading, not following the administration’s war efforts, and that by returning a Republican Congress the American people would be showing their determination to fight through to “complete victory.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1918-10-25

President Roosevelt has consulted Attorney General Knox and asked that the law, or a constitutional amendment, be passed. As soon as Senator Platt can come to Washington, D.C., Roosevelt would like to see if he and Knox can “devise such a law.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-15

Theodore Roosevelt is glad to know that the western United States is growing tired of the immoral behavior of President Wilson’s administration and the United States Congress.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1916-05-13

Theodore Roosevelt discusses the problems of the United States’ modern industrial life, detailing the different effects of industrialization on the rural countryside and urban centers. Roosevelt explains how the health of the working class is an indicator of the health of the United States is as a whole. Roosevelt also discusses the role of government in regulating the economy, protecting wage-earners, and acting as a mediator in employee-employer relations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

Unknown

Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed holds a gavel and “Tariff Legislation.” While he is seated at the Speaker’s desk, he is mindful of a large man wearing a business suit, labeled “Protectionist,” sitting behind him.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-22

President Roosevelt discusses “the trusts” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He discusses the control and regulation of trusts, including recent legislation. Speech has applause noted.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-03

Theodore Roosevelt and a heavyset man depicting Congress, both in colonial dress, sit beside each other, locked in a stockade at the ankles. Congress, with arms folded, looks angrily at Roosevelt who, with arms folded, thumbs his nose at his adversary. Their backs are against the base of a column beside which stands Uncle Sam in a three-cornered hat, who guards them with a billy club.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon was published one month before Roosevelt finished his term. By the end of Roosevelt’s administration relations with the Senate were at a boiling-point. It had formally refused to accept, or “read,” Roosevelt’s last Annual Message and did not order the otherwise routine publication of presidential commissions such as the first conservation conference records, the “National Governor’s Conference.”

The spirit of General Winfield S. Hancock holds a paper that states “Governors Island 1880. The Tariff is a Local Issue. Gen. W. S. Hancock.” He stands among congressmen in a congressional chamber where senators or representatives from “Maryland, New York, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, Kansas, [and] Pennsylvania” are tearing off sections of a large paper labeled “The Tariff?” that apply to their respective states. Caption: Shade of General Hancock–They laughed at me when I said the tariff is a local issue; but I was right, after all!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-05-02

A crying infant labeled “Dingley Tariff” wears clothing labeled “Deficit from July 1st to Nov. 15th $44,411,144,” and holds a tiny pair of pants labeled “Dingley Tariff.” A man, possibly Nelson Dingley, holds a bolt of cloth labeled “New ‘Protective’ Measures” and a large pair of scissors and is standing next to the infant’s high chair.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-12-15

Uncle Sam climbs out of a flood of silver coinage toward elevated ground labeled “Repeal of the Sherman Law by the 53rd Congress” using a rope labeled “Public Opinion.” He is carrying a female figure labeled “Business Interests.” Waves labeled “Sherman Silver Purchase Act” crash in the background, while overhead the sun, as a gold coin labeled “Twenty Dollars,” shines brightly.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-13

President Cleveland, at the helm labeled “Congress” of a yacht labeled “Repeal,” races against British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone who is holding an oar labeled “House of Commons Majority” and piloting a boat labeled “Home Rule.” Gladstone’s boat has a broken spar and is bumping up against debris labeled “Opposition of the House of Lords” floating in the water. Caption: “Home Rule” is a good boat, but “Repeal” gets over the course a good deal quicker.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-27