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 The National Party Conventions

 


 “Ready to Ride and Spread the Alarm Through Every Middlesex Village and Farm”
  Cartoonist:  Edward Windsor Kemble
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   July 13, 1912, p. 7

Click to see a large version of this cartoon...

Click to see a large version of this cartoon

Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
Theodore Roosevelt and his supporters bolted the Republican National Convention in June and began establishing the Progressive Party, which met in August to nominate the former president for a third term. In this July cartoon from Harper’s Weekly, the candidate wears his Rough Rider uniform from the Spanish-American War and sits atop a hybrid animal having the trunk and hind of the Republican Elephant grafted over the body of the Democratic Donkey. The image of the hybrid political animal is similar to ones depicted in previous Harper’s Weekly cartoons during the campaigns of 1872 and 1900. The caption is taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Applied to Roosevelt in this cartoon, the lines imply that his national campaign will demagogically spread fear, rather than be patriotic like Revere’s ride.

 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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