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English: The Finishing Touch”

	Cartoonist:  Edward Windsor Kemble
	Source:  Harper's Weekly
	Date:   November 2, 1912, p. 26

On the eve of the November 5 presidential election, this Harper’s Weekly cartoon shows Democrat Woodrow Wilson, in his academic attire, as a bullfighter about to inflict the deathblow to rival Theodore Roosevelt, who appears as the Progressive Party’s Bull Moose mascot. The animal has already been injured by the “Tariff Question,” “Political Deals,” “Campaign Contributions,” and “Investigations.” The last two points refer to Republican charges that Roosevelt had accepted a large donation from Standard Oil while the party’s presidential nominee in 1904. In response, Roosevelt produced a letter dated 1904 that directed the national party treasurer not to solicit money from large business corporations. In October 1912, a few weeks before the presidential election, a special Senate investigating committee headed by Moses E. Clapp, a Republican from Minnesota, held hearings on the matter. Nothing substantial was found, but press attention to the issue was not helpful to Roosevelt’s campaign. Holding the cape in this cartoon is William A. McAdoo, Wilson’s campaign manager and vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In 1913, President Wilson appointed McAdoo to be secretary of the treasury.