This Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast pictures two future
presidents working together for reform in New York.
In November 1881, 23-year-old Theodore Roosevelt was elected as a
Republican to the New York State Assembly (lower house) to represent
Manhattan's 21st (or "brownstone") district. Although he
was the legislature's youngest member, he worked quickly and diligently
to make an impact. As a member of the Committee on Cities,
Roosevelt introduced four bills within the first 48 hours of the
legislative session: water purification, aldermanic election
reform, finance reform for New York City, and judicial reform.
Despite passage of only a significantly modified version of the
aldermanic bill, his efforts gained him the leadership of an informal
group of reform Republicans who were independent of machine
politics. The New York Times legislative correspondent,
George Spinney, also discovered that Roosevelt made good copy, and other
journalists soon followed his lead.
In the fall 1882 elections, the Democrats won control of both houses
of the state legislature and elected Grover Cleveland governor by a
landslide. Cleveland's tenure as sheriff and then mayor of Buffalo
had earned him a reputation as a reformer. As sheriff in the early
1870s, he cracked down on police corruption, and when elected mayor in
1881, he acquired the nickname "veto mayor" for
consistently blocking bloated municipal contracts and spending projects.
Cleveland improved Buffalo's sewer system and worked tirelessly to ensure that the
city was run on efficient business principles.
Roosevelt was reelected as state assemblyman by a two-to-one margin in the 1882 elections,
and nominated on January 1, 1883, to stand as the Republican candidate
for assembly speaker. Although he lost to the nominee of the
majority Democrats, Roosevelt served as minority leader. Despite
serious differences in political philosophy, Roosevelt and Cleveland
were both committed to honest, efficient government. To that end,
Roosevelt introduced into the new legislative session a civil service
reform bill modeled after the Pendleton Act passed by Congress in
January 1883. Cleveland privately discussed strategy with
Roosevelt and publicly endorsed the bill, which passed both houses and
was signed into law in May 1883.
In the fall 1883 elections, Republicans regained control of both
houses of the state legislature. In January 1884, Roosevelt lost
the Republican nomination for speaker to a party regular, but was
recompensed with the chairmanship of the Cities Committee. Aiming
to break the power of the party machines in New York City, Roosevelt
introduced three bills: one to raise liquor license fees
considerably (which failed); one to curtail the borrowing power of New
York City's government (which passed); and one to increase the
authority and accountability of the mayor.
The latter measure, the Reform Charter Bill, was considered the most
important because it attempted to undermine the power of the
machine-controlled board of aldermen and enhance the possibility of
electing a reform mayor. Cleveland backed the bill, further
alienating himself from the Democratic machine of Tammany Hall.
Roosevelt's floor speech on the bill earned him laudatory headlines in
the New York City dailies:
New York World: "Roosevelt on a
Rampage: Whacking the Heads off Republican Office-Holders in This
City"
New York Sun: "Mr. Roosevelt's Hard Hits: Making a Lively
Onslaught on New York's Aldermen"
New York Herald: "Tammany Defeated:
Mr. Roosevelt's Brilliant Assault on Corruption."
The Charter Reform Bill thereafter became known as
"The Roosevelt Bill" and soon passed both legislative
houses. In this cartoon, Governor Cleveland signs into law the
charter and finance reform bills which Roosevelt holds.
In the midst of his political triumph, however, tragedy
struck in Roosevelt's private life. In February 1884, his first
wife, Alice, and his mother, Mittie, died within hours of each
other. He did not seek reelection that year (but would be elected
governor of New York in 1898). Cleveland went on to win the
Democratic presidential nomination in 1884 and become the first Democrat
elected president since before the Civil War.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast and Harper's Weekly editor George William Curtis bolted
the Republican party after its national convention
nominated James Blaine for president, and endorsed Cleveland. Even before the party conventions,
though, Nast (as evidenced here) and Curtis praised Cleveland's reform
efforts. Although Roosevelt was unhappy with Blaine's nomination and respectful
of Cleveland's character and accomplishments, the assemblyman remained loyal
to the Republican party in 1884.
The theme articulated in the cartoon's caption,
"Reform Without Bloodshed," is reinforced by contrasting
documents in the foreground: a "Law and Order" book (left) for
New York’s reformed government and a newspaper (right) reporting riots
against Cincinnati’s unreformed government. On March 28, 1884, a
Cincinnati jury delivered a verdict of manslaughter and a 20-year prison
sentence to a horse-stable owner accused of killing two employees.
Thousands of city residents gathered at a mass meeting to demand
execution of the prisoner. When the sheriff refused to release the
convict, a riot ensued which took the police and National Guard nearly
two days to suppress. Before it was over, the courthouse and law
library were ransacked, then destroyed by fire. The National Guard
captain and a police officer were killed in the battle.
