(Download the full-sized image.)
Creator:
Donnell
Publication:
Cartoons Vol. 2, No. 5
Publication Date:
November 1912
Description:
The 1912 Presidential election was a three-way contest:
- William Howard Taft, the incumbent president, represented the Republican Party, symbolized by the Elephant.
- Woodrow Wilson, the reform governor of New Jersey and former president of Princeton University, was the Democratic candidate, symbolized by the Donkey.
- Theodore Roosevelt, the former Republican president (1901-1909), ran on the Progressive Party ticket, symbolized by the Bull Moose.
In the early 20th century, "Bosses" and their political machines ran the Democratic Party in urban areas of the northeast. Wilson came out against these Bosses, claiming they undermined the political system through election fraud and corruption.
Pictured in this cartoon fellow Democrats: Charles Murphy, Boss of the New York Tammany Hall machine; Alton B. Parker, New York judge, ally of Tammany Hall, and the 1904 Democratic presidential candidate; Roger Sullivan, the Illinois party boss; and Thomas Taggart, the Indiana party boss.
Source:
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University