Civil service reform

“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

Why they dislike him — he will not prove himself a cat’s-paw in the enterprise

Grover Cleveland is a lion with his paw on a monkey labeled “T. Grady” on top of a rock labeled “Civil Service Reform.” Nearby is a small fire in which are roasting chestnuts labeled “City Spoils, State Spoils, [and] National Spoils Chestnut.” Cleveland is looking over his right shoulder at a group of monkeys in a tree. Among them are John Kelly, Charles A. Dana, Benjamin F. Butler, Henry Ward Beecher, and three monkeys labeled “Dynamiter, Ward Boss, [and] N. Y. Alderman.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-03

A summer smoke-cloud

Puck reclines before a table covered with alcoholic beverages, some labeled “V. H. Dusenbury’s P.P. Brandy” and “Puck Punch [No London Punch],” smoking and blowing smoke rings. Among the figures appearing in Puck’s smoke cloud are Chester Alan Arthur labeled “For a Good Veto” and fishing for “Popularity”; George M. Robeson at the helm of a boat carrying a large money bag labeled “Appropriation”; Jay Gould, Russell Sage, and William H. Vanderbilt sailing on a boat labeled “Monopoly”; Susan B. Anthony and another woman, George William Curtis labeled “Civil Service Reform,” Roscoe Conkling, Jay A. Hubbell labeled “Deform,” Ulysses S. Grant labeled “No Third Term,” David Davis, Robert Green Ingersoll boxing with Thomas De Witt Talmage, James Gordon Bennett, “Old Rossa” with “Dynamite,” Cyrus W. Field trying to net a “Coronet,” John Kelly and Samuel J. Tilden on a seesaw, William Russell Grace standing on a rock labeled “Public Esteem” with Seth Low trying to climb up, and James Russell Lowell on a “British Mission.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-08-09

Uncle Sam’s neglected farm

Puck’s “Independent Party” figure, holding a hoe labeled “Civil Service Reform,” talks to Uncle Sam who is sitting on a fence. Two figures argue on the right. One is labeled “Democrat, Bourbonism, Secession Record, [and] Stupidity.” The other is labeled “Republican, Monopoly, Pension Swindle, River & Harbor Steal, Credit Mobilier, [and] Bossism.” At their feet are farm tools and jugs labeled “Corruption Bourbonism” and “Spoils Switchel.” In the background are farm outbuildings labeled “Navy Dept., Post, Interior, [and] Indian.” Caption: New and Independent Party: “Look here, Uncle Sam, isn’t it about time you got rid of those two quarrelsome fellows, and gave the job to ME?”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-08-23

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

There’s a new policeman on the beat

Two crooks labeled “Robeson” and “Roach” walk down a sidewalk, whistling. They are being trailed by William C. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, as a policeman. Caption: “Cheese it!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-06-24

The three buddensieks of the American navy

George M. Robeson, William E. Chandler, and John Roach sit on the hull of a ship resting on its side with patches labeled “Repairs” partially covering holes. Caption: A historical picture.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-01

A new declaration of independence in the year 1885

President Cleveland stands at a table, his right hand on a long document labeled “Declaration of Independence July 4th 1885” that trails off the table, stating “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a President to dissolve the political bands which the machinery of his party has imposed upon him, he must speak in unmistakable words…” He is facing a group of men, one labeled “Tammany” and others labeled “Boss” and “Rural Boss.” They are standing near a passageway labeled “Exit.” Behind Cleveland are members of his cabinet, William C. Whitney, Daniel Manning, Augustus H. Garland, William F. Vilas, L. Q. C. Lamar, and Thomas F. Bayard who is holding a paper that states “The Cabinet ‘Solid’ on Reform.” On the wall in the background is a painting showing the presentation of the “Declaration of Independence July 4th 1776”.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-01

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

The administration’s hardest job

President Cleveland and his cabinet officers struggle to push and pull the Democratic donkey labeled “Bourbon Democracy” into a stable labeled “Reform Stables.” On the donkey’s hooves, acting as brakes, are the faces of John Kelly labeled “Spoils System,” Charles A. Dana labeled “Anti-Civil Service Reform,” “Mclaughlin”, [and] “J.R. M’Lean.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-22

A petty annoyance

President Cleveland walks down a path toward a building flying a banner labeled “Non-Partisan Government.” A diminutive Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice President, is tugging on Cleveland’s coattails, trying to steer him down a path labeled “Spoils System.” A small dog labeled “Aquilla Jones” is on a leash that goes around Cleveland’s right leg and is connected to Hendricks. Jones was appointed Postmaster in Indianapolis by Hendricks. Caption: The “tail of the ticket” wants to go backwards.

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

Still waiting

Print shows several men with brooms and shovels locked outside a fence with a large, spiked gate labeled “Civil Service Reform”, among them are Thomas F. Bayard, Samuel J. Tilden, Henry Watterson, Charles A. Dana, and John Kelly. Inside the fence, on the sides of the gate, are Chester A. Arthur and George W. Curtis. In the distance is the White House flying a flag that states “Possession is nine points of the law!!!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-15

Reform without bloodshed

Theodore Roosevelt stands in front of a desk holding a stack of papers labeled “Reform Bills” for Governor Cleveland to sign.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1884-04-19

The scarlet woman – whom shall she pay?

A woman wearing a red dress, holding money, stands between the “Health Department Bureau of Licences and Inspection” and an opening in a wall labeled “Graft.” In a cut-away showing the scene behind the “Graft,” the man (probably a plainclothes officer) who collects the money through the opening in the wall is passing money to a uniformed officer, who in turn passes the money to a large hand (probably that of a politician) entering the frame from above. It is a wild scene with a woman lying on a table, the body of a man stabbed to death beneath the table, a man rolling dice, others drinking, and a shooting taking place in the background. While the woman in red hesitates, the implication is that she has no choice but to pay the graft. Caption: She is here. Man is responsible for her. His laws against her and her traffic but afford opportunity for police extortion. You know this. You may wince at the idea of “regulation,” but is not regulation preferable to the vilest forms of graft? Of two evils, must the greater be chosen?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-01-15

Mrs. Partington outdone

A woman labeled “Blue Law Enforcement” stands on the shore of the ocean, using a broom labeled “Raids on Gambling Houses” to sweep puddles labeled “Police Graft” and “Gambling House Profits” back into the ocean as a wave labeled “The Tendency of Man to Gamble” rolls toward shore. Caption: Municipal Reformer — I’ll push this ocean back if it takes me a thousand years!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-08-21

The coming of the cat

Many rats take chunks of cheese labeled “Graft” from a large block of cheese labeled “Public Office” and run into a hole labeled “Statute of Limitations,” as a black cat with a collar labeled “The Recall” approaches through an open doorway.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-05-03

Note from Elihu Root

Elihu Root has been directed by President Roosevelt to inform the Civil Service Reform Secretary that he does not agree with their conclusions. Shorthand appears at bottom of note.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01