American Affairs [excerpt]

     One of the significant signs of the times is the practice of cartooning the President, which was dropped after the assassination of President McKinley and fell into desuetude for nearly two years. After the murder of Mr. McKinley it was claimed by some of the newspapers that the cartoons which had been published by the Opposition press, and especially by the yellow journals of Democratic proclivities, had in a measure incited the assassination, as these cartoons represented the late President as indifferent to the wrongs and sufferings of the common people and the ally and protector of plutocrats. Mr. McKinley’s murder caused such an outcry in the press that the newspapers deemed it the part of wisdom not to attempt to caricature President Roosevelt, and for nearly two years he was let alone; but now all that has been forgotten, and the President is more freely and offensively caricatured than perhaps any of his predecessors. The country does not appear to resent it. President Roosevelt is such an admirable subject for the spiteful ingenuity of the cartoonists; he does so many things which admit of skilful [sic] exaggeration, and he is such a shining mark for the shaft of satire and malice that perhaps it is not to be wondered at that he should be so frequently pictured by the newspaper artists.