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 Vice-Presidential Nominee Theodore Roosevelt

 


 “Branded But Not ‘Broken’ "
  Cartoonist:  Udo J. Keppler
  Source:  Puck
  Date:  September 12, 1900

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Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
Here, Democratic Puck portrays Republican vice-presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt as part Wild West gunslinger, part untamed stallion. Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio, chairman of the Republican National Committee, looks dismayed as the candidate shoots off “Wild Talk.” Even though Hanna had tried unsuccessfully to stop Roosevelt’s nomination, after the convention the New York governor offered his full cooperation to the party chairman: “I am strong as a bull moose, and you can use me to the limit.” Hanna agreed, and Roosevelt embarked on a 21,000-mile campaign tour through the Midwest, Far West, Border States, and his home state of New York. He delivered 673 speeches to an estimated audience of three million Americans. As satirist Finley Peter Dunne remarked through his popular character, Mr. Dooley, of the GOP vice-presidential nominee, “he ain’t runnin, he’s gallopin’.”

The hectic pace was revealed in a campaign aide’s diary entry describing one of Roosevelt’s days on the hustings:

7 a.m. Breakfast
7:30 A speech
8:00 Reading a historical work
9:00 A speech
10:00 Dictating letters
11:00 Discussing Montana mines
11:30 A speech
Noon Reading an ornithological work
12:30 p.m. A speech
1:00 Lunch
1:30 A speech
2:30 Reading Sir Walter Scott
3:00 Answering telegrams
3:45 A speech
4:00 Meeting the press
4:30 Reading
5:00 A speech
6:00 Reading
7:00 Supper
8-10:00 Speaking
11:00 Reading along in his car
Midnight To bed

In his campaign speeches, Roosevelt defended the gold standard, charged that Democratic rule would “paralyze our whole industrial life,” and chastised Bryan for appealing “to every foul and evil passion of mankind.” As commander of the “Rough Riders” cavalry regiment during the Spanish-American War, he was forceful in defending McKinley’s foreign policy: “We are a nation of men, not a nation of weaklings.” Roosevelt pointed out that the question was not “whether we shall expand—for we have already expanded—but whether we shall contract.” In New York, he condemned Bryan’s association with Tammany Boss Richard Croker, who was embroiled in the Ice Trust scandal .

 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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