Blaine, James Gillespie, 1830-1893

The opium-joint of the Republican “irreconcilables” — a cheap way of being happy

In an opium den labeled “Bloody Shirt Joint – Blaine and Reid Managers,” James G. Blaine passes out pipes labeled “Tribune Editorials, Blaine’s Augusta Speech, Blaine Speeches, [and] Speeches” to fellow Republicans labeled “Chandler, J. Roach, Evarts, Cornell, Logan, Hoar, Foraker, J. Sherman, Brady, Dorsey, [and] Reid,” Unidentified is Elihu Root and the man dreaming of becoming the “Secy. of Navy.” They have resorted to opium as the panacea for their political woes and while in their drug-induced stupor they dream of Blaine’s ascendancy to the presidential throne and of themselves becoming members of Blaine’s cabinet.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-09-23

On the threshold of office–what have we to expect of him?

Print shows the members of the late James A. Garfield’s cabinet looking at Chester Arthur; on the wall in the background are four frames with three portraits and a question mark. The portraits are labeled “First Failure – Tyler, Second Failure – Fillmore, [and] Third Failure – Johnson”.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-09-28

Leap-year

Near a wetland labeled “Campaign Swamp” are William M. Evarts and John G. Carlisle as two cranes on the left. Several frogs identified as “Lincoln, Arthur, Robeson, Edmunds, Cameron, Sherman, Logan, Grant, Davis, [and] Blaine” perch on the right. Another small frog, labeled “Me Too,” who may be Jay Gould, rides piggy-back on a larger frog that may be William H. Vanderbilt. “Lincoln” is making a leap over “Arthur” across a bit of water toward a board labeled “Presidential Nomination 1884” that is part of a dock or wharf. Caption: It would not surprise us to see the above acrobatic feat performed by this rising young frog.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-03-26

“The sleeping party”

A woman labeled “Republican Party” sleeps in the background, while members of her court, some dressed as women, also sleep in the foreground. Depicted are Whitelaw Reid, Murat Halstead, Russell Sage, John Roach, Jay Gould, Benjamin F. Butler, James G. Blaine, William H. Vanderbilt, John Logan, Cyrus W. Field, two dogs labeled “Phila. Press” and “Chicago Tribune,” Chester A. Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, William W. Phelps, John Sherman, Simon Cameron, George F. Hoar, Alonzo B. Cornell, Stephen W. Dorsey, Thomas J. Brady, William M. Evarts, George M. Robeson, William E. Chandler, and Joseph W. Keifer. Caption: She bungled with the civil-service reform distaff, and she and all her court were condemned to sleep for __ years.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-26

The only source from which he gets absolution

Whitelaw Reid, pictured as a bishop, absolves James Gillespie Blaine, who is kneeling on a long list of scandals, at a confessional labeled “Tribune Sanctum.” On the floor between them is a statement published in the “N. Y. Tribune, Sept. 30, 1872” stating, “The startling exposure of Speaker Blaine’s venality in connection with the Union Pacific Road, Eastern Division, entirely destroys, of course, whatever credit some people may have given to his evasive denial of the Oakes Ames bribery, and puts the whole case of the Crédit Mobilier upon a different basis. *** Now it is shown that Speaker Blaine never deserved his good reputation. He has taken bribes in another case.” Caption: W. R. – “I absolve you! Go forth a pure and a guiltless man!” – Puck (aside) – “But that won’t save him on ‘Judgement-Day.'”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-03

The political Courtney

At a boathouse is an exhausted James Gillespie Blaine, suffering from “Guano Gout,” being attended by Jay Gould, Whitelaw Reid, George M. Robeson, William Walter Phelps, and Stephen B. Elkins who is searching a box of patent medicines labeled “Remedy, Record Cleaner, Tariff Fever Cure, R.R. Record Purifier, Tattoo Eradicator, [and] Vermont Reviver (Homoepathic)” for a cure. John A. Logan readies the racing shell labeled “Aggressive Campaign” that may be stuck in “Monopoly Mud,” and Stephen Wallace Dorsey, at the entrance to the boathouse, carries oars labeled “Soap” and [Star] “Router.” Hanging on the wall are shells and oars labeled “Guano Statesmanship, Speaker Ship’s Record Boat, Senatorial Record, [and] Tariff Issue.” Grover Cleveland waits in his racing shell labeled “Reform” and Carl Schurz stands at the entrance to the “Independent Boat House” which is next to the “Democratic Boat House.” In the background is a crowded grandstand. Caption: Logan – “Come, Jim, show some nerve, or nobody won’t believe you’re in the race! Ain’t you never going to be aggressive?”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-10

The pyrrhic victory of the Mulligan guards in Maine

James Gillespie Blaine is dressed as a knight, with the plumes of his helmet labeled “Speakership Record, Mulligan Letters, [and] Credit Mobilier.” He holds papers labeled “Aggressive Cash Campaign,” and rests his left hand on the head of William Walter Phelps who is holding a sword and a battered shield labeled “Blaines Magnetism.” Whitelaw Reid, wearing a paper hat, carries a standard that states “Moral Ideas,” (crossed out) “Soap and Success!” Stephen B. Elkins presents a “Report” to John Alexander Logan and Blaine that states “Great Victory in Maine! Blaine Vindicated! Cost $265,000.” Charles A. Dana sits in the lower right corner pouring “Personal Animosity” into cannonballs labeled “Personal Animosity, Spite, Mud Bombs, [and] Malice.” Frederick Douglass holds a sign labeled “Mulligan Guards Blaine’s Record” that appears to have drawn considerable enemy fire. On the left, “A. M. Clapp” turns his empty pockets inside out and George M. Robeson looks at an empty cash barrel. In the background, there is action at the “Whiskey Arsenal, Fort Cleveland, Polls, [and] Fort St. John” and casualties on the battlefield. Caption: “Another victory like this and our money’s gone!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-17

“Blaine will be vindicated in November” — N. Y. Tribune

James Gillespie Blaine, dressed like a Roman statesman, stands on a pedestal that states, “What are you going to do about it,” a phrase attributed to Boss Tweed. The ghost of Tweed stands behind Blaine, weeping, holding a paper that states, “Why wasn’t I vindicated? I cast my anchor windward too!!” At the base of the pedestal are books and papers, some labeled, “20 Years Casting My Anchor to Windward,” “Burn this,” and “20 Years No Deadhead.” Whitelaw Reid stands at center, appealing to Blaine. On the left are various bank officers who committed crimes and got caught. Some hold papers that state, “I saw various channels in which I could be useful. President Dodd, Bank Breaker,” “I cast an anchor to windward in the Marine Bank. J. D. Fish, Bank Breaker,” “I would ‘sacrifice a great deal to get a settlement’ Captain Howgate, U. S. A., Defaulter,” “I did not prove a deadhead in the enterprise. A. S. Warner, Albion Bank Breaker,” “I received very large sums of money without one dollar of expense. Ferdinand Ward, Swindler.” Albert S. Warner was President of The First National Bank of Albion; Henry W. Howgate was a Disbursing Officer in the U. S. Signal Service. Caption: Chorus of Non-Magnetic Swindlers – “Why shouldn’t we be vindicated, too? We saw various channels in which we could be useful. We were no deadheads.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-24

Nursing our infant industries

Several congressmen and senators are dressed as women nursing symbols of American industry. Sherman and Blaine feed “American Swine” as it sits on a rocking horse. William D. Kelley, known as “Pig-Iron Kelley,” hugs a tin-man labeled “Iron” with a locomotive for a head and clutching a pig labeled “Pigdron” [sic]. Thomas Ochiltree kisses “American Beef,” Warner Miller hugs “Wood Pulp,” John P. Jones comforts “Silver Mining,” Charles W. Jones combs “Cotton,” and George M. Robeson and John Roach pass “Ship Building” off to “John Bull” hiding in the bushes. Uncle Sam sits with Liberty in the upper left.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-06-27

The hoaxer hoaxed

Print shows New York Herald editor James Gordon Bennett, holding a shotgun and carrying a bag labeled “Game Bag for Sensations J. G. Bennett,” standing next to a scarecrow labeled “$500.00 Herald Cheque” and “This is not the Original Hartman.” The scarecrow, armed with bombs, a knife, and a handgun, looks like Leo Hartmann who was apparently involved in the 1879 assassination attempt of Alexander II, Emperor of Russia. Looking over a stone wall is Secretary of State James G. Blaine who stated in the press that he could not make a statement regarding the extradition of Hartman prior to a request for such action by Russian authorities. In the background, on a mound of earth labeled “Russia,” Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, is sitting on a large chair labeled “Chair of Alexander III,” reading the “New York Herald.” An opening beneath the chair is labeled “The Real and Only Hartman Private Office” and shows a man who also looks like Leo Hartmann, waving. Caption: J.G.B. – This has been a hard hunt for a sham Hartmann!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-09-07

They will have to come to it

James G. Blaine and John Logan stand next to a grave as Whitelaw Reid places a wreath labeled “To the Memory of Discord” on the grave. The tombstone states, “To the Memory of Sectional Strife Buried Nov. 4th 1884.” Caption: This decoration day will give our Blainiac friends a good opportunity to recognize an established fact.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-05-27

Two political paths

“Evarts, Reid, Robeson, Logan, [and] Blaine” and William W. Phelps stand on the remains of a bridge “washed away by the freshet of Nov. 1884” labeled “Partisan Civil Service” and find it difficult to get to the other side of the river. In the background, on a solid “Civil Service Reform” bridge are President Cleveland, members of his cabinet, Carl Schurz, and others unidentified, one holding a sheet of paper labeled “A Mugwump Engineer” and others holding a board labeled “Tariff Reform.” In the upper left corner is a flag pole with a banner that states “Non-Partisan Civil Service” and a municipal building labeled “Good Government.” Caption: The Democrats have the Mugwump bridge, and a fair chance to reach the goal; but our Republican friends seem to have struck a pretty hard road to travel, just at present.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-06-10

Gulliver-Cleveland takes possession of the enemy’s fleet and deprives them of their strength

President Cleveland, as Gulliver, has a rope labeled “Good Policy” tied to the ships of the “Republican Party,” and pulls them toward the opposite shore where a group of men, including Ambassador Samuel S. Cox, Thomas A. Hendricks, Samuel J. Randall, and Charles A. Dana, wait beneath a banner labeled “Democracy” with the United States Capitol on a hill behind them. On the Republican shore are William M. Evarts, Whitelaw Reid, James G. Blaine, John Logan, and others.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-06-17

Harmony and envy

Three monks, Whitelaw Reid, James G. Blaine, and John Logan, walk a few steps ahead of a band of merry revelers composed of Puck, Puck’s figure for the “Independent” party, President Cleveland labeled “Reformed Bourbon” with a woman on the right labeled “North” and a woman on the left labeled “South,” and an African American man. Reid carries a sack labeled “Bloody Shirt” and “Irreconcilable Editorials” and Logan is reading “Paradise Lost.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-08

The new leader and the old chorus

John Logan, labeled “New Leader” of the Republican Party, the “party of Reform and Puritee,” holds a paper that states “Logan Speec[h] at Boston July 1885.” He is standing in the street between the White House and the U.S. Treasury, leading a chorus of tramps identified as “J. Gould, Field, Mahone, Roach, Riddleberger, T. Platt, Ex leader [James G. Blaine], Robeson, Keifer, Chandler, Brady, [and] Dorsey,” and an unidentified blind man who looks like Benjamin F. Butler. Some carry battered hand-pails labeled “Empty Hopes.” On the United States Treasury building is a sign, “Notice No Tramps,” and on the White House, where President Cleveland is leaning out a window, is another sign that states “No Tramps Admitted.” Uncle Sam, as a policeman, is leaning against the wall.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-15

A Lenten dream

A mermaid labeled “Presidency” swims in water with a clear view of the fish that are attracted to her. Depicted are David Davis, Grover Cleveland, Joseph E. McDonald, Benjamin F. Butler, Robert Todd Lincoln, John Sherman, Sereno Payne, Chester A. Arthur, William T. Sherman, John Kelly, Samuel J. Tilden, Allen G. Thurman, Abram S. Hewitt, Roswell P. Flower, John Logan, Thomas Bayard, James G. Blaine, Ulysses S. Grant, Roscoe Conkling, Samuel J. Randall, and Winfield Scott Hancock.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-03-12

The political Sam’ls of Posen

Print shows a large group of political peddlers trying to sell their goods to Columbia as mistress of the house. Among those shown are Samuel J. Tilden selling “Tribulation Toys”; Benjamin F. Butler with “Elastic Politics” suspenders; Ulysses S. Grant, “306” on his watch chain, with a sack of “War Record” and “Old Clo’s”; Roscoe Conkling with a bag of “Stalwart Stationery”; James Gillespie Blaine offering his card “J. Blaine Fancy Goods” with a bag of “Southern Policy [and] Fancy Notions”; Thomas Hendricks; Chester Alan Arthur; David Davis peddling “D. Davis’s Soap will Scour Both Parties”; Abram S. Hewitt; William Evarts; Allen Granbery Thurman with a sack of “Rag Babies”; John Alexander Logan peddling “Logan Bombast”; Grover Cleveland with a sack of “Clean Shirts”; Thomas F. Bayard peddling “Dodge Salve” and “Bayards No Policy”; John Sherman with “Honest Hosiery”; and Winfield Scott Hancock with “Clean Gloves.” Dashing up in the background are “Johann Kelly & Co., Samuells Randall & Co., [and] Gen. Sherman U.S.A.” Uncle Sam is sitting, in the upper left, with his feet on the railing of the second floor porch. Caption: Columbia – “Not to-day – some other day!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-07-25

Peace, and the good will of all men

A large group of men are gathered around a monument to bust Ulysses S. Grant that includes “Grant’s Last Letter.” Some of the men are laying wreaths at the base, labeled “Southern Soldiers, Northern Soldiers, Our Friend, [and] Old Soldiers.” Some of the men are labeled “Capital, Labor, Republican, Democrat, Irish, [and] German.” Standing in the background, separate from the others, are William M. Evarts, Whitelaw Reid, James G. Blaine, John A. Logan, George M. Robeson, and another man. Caption: Another lesson for the “Bloody Shirt” patriots.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-05

The resistless march of reform – the “hostiles” must go!

A large group of politicians, newspaper editors, Tammany Hall bosses, and others are dressed as Native Americans. One carries a banner that shows a crude drawing of the Tammany tiger labeled “Flathead Tribe.” The group is on a long march in opposition to President Cleveland’s civil service reform agenda. In the upper left corner is the “Blainiac Reservation” and in the opposite corner is Cleveland and his cabinet laying tracks for the “Reform R. R.,” keeping ahead of the “Administration Construction Train.” In the foreground, Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks is leading the Democratic donkey labeled “Bourbonism,” carrying two baskets, one with “Old Ideas” and the other labeled “The Perennial Pappooses” holding Charles A. Dana and Benjamin F. Butler. Standing just to the right is John Kelly carrying Philip H. Dugro in a cradleboard.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-12

Blundering in a perilous position

A camel has collasped under the weight of its burden labeled “Amendments,” with Samuel J. Randall riding on top. Concerned travelers include John Kelly, Samuel J. Tilden, Henry Watterson, Sereno Payne, Morrison, Abram S. Hewitt, Grover Cleveland, Carlisle, Charles A. Dana, Thomas Bayard, Benjamin F. Butler, and Samuel S. Cox. Bones labeled “1880 Local Issue, 1876 Fraud, [and] 1872” lie in the sand nearby. A “November Simoom” is approaching in the right background. On the left, an elephant labeled “Republicans” carrying among others James G. Blaine, John A. Logan, and Roscoe Conkling, races toward an oasis. Caption: “If its back is broken, we are lost!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-03-19