Wetlands | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

The Republican Ponce de Leon and his followers

A group of conquistadors labeled “Hoar, Sherman, Depew, Harrison, Reed, McKinley [as Ponce de León], Wanamaker, W. Reid, Boutelle, [and] Foraker” gather around a pool of water labeled “High Protection Doctrine,” drinking the water. Frogs in the lower right corner are labeled “Monopolist.” Caption: They think it is the fountain of political youth and strength; but it is only a stagnant pool that is almost dried up.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-24

Uncle Sam’s dismal swamp

Uncle Sam sits on a log in a swamp labeled “Spoils System” from which snakes labeled “Quayism, Bardsleyism, [and] Tannerism,” and noxious fumes rise in the form of shades labeled “Raumism – Pension Swindler, Crokerism, McLaughlinism, Tweedism, Prendergast – Political Assassin, [and] Guiteau – Political Assassin.” Also shown among the tree roots is Charles A. Dana. Caption: It will have to be drained to get rid of the noxious miasmas that arise from it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-15

They are away off the track

Presidential hopefuls labeled “Davis, Tillman, Chandler, Lodge, Quay, Frye, Wolcutt, Turpie, Hoar, Morgan, [and] Hill” are wading through a swamp labeled “Financial Buncombe, Jingoism, Blunders, Demagogism, [and] Brag,” chasing a glowing chair with wings labeled “Presidency.” Puck, standing on the side of “Statesmanship Highway,” tells them they are taking the wrong way to the White House. Caption: Puck–My short-sighted friends, none of you will ever reach the White House by that road!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-03-04

They know the kind of decoys to use

Two men labeled “Political Boss” and “Public Service Corporation,” with shotguns, hide in tall reeds near decoys labeled “Respectable Candidates” trying to lure a flock of ducks or geese labeled “Votes.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-10-20

The new Democratic eucalyptus tree purifies a political morass

Grover Cleveland is pictured as a large tree labeled “Eucalyptus Clevelandus” with roots labeled “Honor” and “Honesty,” and branches that spread over swamp land from which rise gaseous ghosts labeled “Stupidity, K. K. K., Bourbonism, Butlerism, Dynamiter, Kellyism, Ward Bossism, [and] Spoils System.” In the background is a large building labeled “Democratic Head-Quarters.” Caption: The eucalyptus tree has recently been introduced into marshy and malarious regions, where it acts as a purifier of the atmosphere, driving away the deadly miasmatic vapors.–Encyclopaedia.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-08-27

Blaine O’Maine

James Gillespie Blaine runs through a swamp, chasing a firefly labeled “Presidency” that is thumbing its nose at him. Blaine is leaving a “Bad Political Record” behind him that begins with his “Early Life in Pennsylvania,” then “Becoming a Yankee” in Maine and “Being the First Carpet-Bagger,” where he was engaged in fishing for “Men and Votes,” and then as a Congressman and “Selling Agent of Little-Rock Bonds,” and finally as “Secretary of State” and the “American Bismarck.” “Mulligan Letters” are depicted throughout. The firefly projects a shadow of Blaine as a wicked hag on the white pages of his past.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-04-23

A great past and a pitiful present

Whitelaw Reid, John Sherman, George F. Hoar, and John Logan lift Uncle Sam above a swamp filled with several faces of corruption labeled “Blainism, Robesonism, Mahone Repudiation, Land Grab, Whiskey Ring, Rotten Ships, Pension Swindle, Fraud 1876, Star Routers, Salary Grab, Army Ring, [and] Sectional Issue.” Reid gestures toward a statue in the upper left that shows General Robert E. Lee surrendering to General Ulysses S. Grant and Admiral David G. Farragut at the base of a statue showing Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and a slave freed from bondage. Caption: Uncle Sam – “It’s no use lifting me up to look at your monumental record, gentlemen; what can you give me to stand on now!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-10-28

Leap-year

Near a wetland labeled “Campaign Swamp” are William M. Evarts and John G. Carlisle as two cranes on the left. Several frogs identified as “Lincoln, Arthur, Robeson, Edmunds, Cameron, Sherman, Logan, Grant, Davis, [and] Blaine” perch on the right. Another small frog, labeled “Me Too,” who may be Jay Gould, rides piggy-back on a larger frog that may be William H. Vanderbilt. “Lincoln” is making a leap over “Arthur” across a bit of water toward a board labeled “Presidential Nomination 1884” that is part of a dock or wharf. Caption: It would not surprise us to see the above acrobatic feat performed by this rising young frog.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-03-26

If you want to get rid of mosquitos, drain the swamp that breeds them

Uncle Sam, at the edge of a swamp labeled “The Tariff in Politics,” is being attacked by a horde of mosquitoes labeled on the wing as “Sectionalism, Subsidized Senator, Lobbyist, Graft, Kept Congressman, Protected Monopoly, Over-Protected, [and] Infant Industry.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-08-11

Pilgrim Elliott’s progress

Howard Elliott, nearly doubled-over under a heavy burden labeled “New Haven Rail Road,” walks through the “Slough of Despond” amid an atmosphere labeled “Demoralization.” Wedged under the burden on his back is a book labeled “Gospel of Efficiency.” He is making his way past a broken ticker tape machine toward a distant light labeled “Rehabilitation.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-09-24

Or bust

A large bull labeled “Lincoln,” with the head of Abraham Lincoln, stands among the reeds of a swamp where a puffed-up frog labeled “Roosevelt” is standing on a piece of driftwood labeled “Progressivism” in a pool of water labeled “Practical Politics.” Caption: The frog who wanted to be as big as the bull.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-25

To swat ’em is waste of time

A swarm of mosquitoes labeled “Trust” flies over a swamp labeled “High Protective Tariff.” An insert shows an oil can labeled “Revision Downward Oil – Wilson Brand.” Caption: Pour oil, and plenty of it, on the thing that breeds them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-07-24