Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908

Creation Date

1885-05-06

Creator(s)

A flag the Independents will fight under

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, the Puck figure for the “Independent” party stands on a raised platform, hoisting a flag that states “For President G. Cleveland” showing a portrait of Grover Cleveland, while a female figure labeled “Democratic Party” gestures toward the flag. In the foreground, Benjamin F. Butler, dressed as a clown, and John Kelly, dressed as a Native American, are crying. Extending from Butler’s pocket is a string of sausages labeled “Tammany’s Nomination, Women’s Suffrage Nomination, Tewkesbury Pauper Nomination, Convict Party Nomination, Greenback Nomination, [and] Butler’s Nomination.” Kelly is labeled “Tammany” and carries a peace pipe labeled “Grady.” In the background, the disappointed Tammany delegation has gathered up their signs and is departing. Caption: When party lifts a flag like this on high, small wonder clowns and demagogues should cry.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-07-16

Creator(s)

Out of the frying-pan into the fire

James G. Blaine tries to climb over a wall labeled “National Garden Post No Bills” and “No Admittance to Lobbyists, Jobbers & Other Objectionable Characters.” He is carrying a bag over his shoulder containing fruit labeled “Jobs, Little Rock, [and] N. Pacific Bonds,” some of which are falling out labeled “Tribune Sponge” and “Mulligan Letters.” A guard dog on a leash labeled “Cleveland Machine” has chased Blaine to the wall and is standing on Blaine’s plumed hat labeled “Brag” and “Bluster.” Outside the wall is Puck’s figure for the “Independent” voter. Annotation: “After a well-known picture.”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-07-23

Creator(s)

The opening of the “aggressive” campaign

Whitelaw Reid, in the dark shadows of a street, pours alcohol from a large jug labeled “Tribune Tonic Crooked Campaign Brand” into the open mouth of an Irish man wearing a plumed hat, a cape labeled “Plumed Dynamiters’ League,” and holding a large knife labeled “Blind Animosity” and a stick with a bomb attached to the end. Stephen B. Elkins, crouched behind Reid, is keeping a lookout. Both are wearing plumed hats. On the wall behind them is a notice that states “Grand Mass-Meeting! Mr. W. Reid will speak on ‘The spread of American Ideas among the Irish’.” Puck’s “Independent” Party figure is walking down the street with Grover Cleveland.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-08-06

Creator(s)

Bottom’s dream

Puck’s stereotypical Irishman labeled “Democracy” appears in the role of “Bottom” from Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with Puck holding the head of an ass above him. He is holding a paper that states “Free Protection for Revenue Only. Free Revenue Reform for Protection Only. To the Civil Service Reformers belong the Spoils!!!” A host of fairies, insects, and minions of the night are gathered around him, including Theodore Roosevelt as a fairy standing on a snail labeled “N. Y. City Reform,” John Logan as a mushroom, John Kelly as a spider on a web labeled “N. Y.,” William Evarts as a bird with a long beak, unidentified man as a frog, James Blaine and George Robeson as owls, David Davis, Samuel J. Tilden as a grasshopper, Roscoe Conkling as a bird, Whitelaw Reid labeled “3 cts” and another man labeled “2 cts” as moths, and a diminutive Chester A. Arthur peering from behind Bottom’s feet. Jay Gould appears as a snake in the bushes. Among the fairies are “Randall, Carlisle, Dana, Cleveland, Cox,” and Henry Watterson. Uncle Sam and Columbia observe from behind a tree. Includes Bottom’s lines “I have had a dream – past the wit of men to say what dream it was. … But man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had” from the play.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-02-20

Creator(s)

Unknown

Our good ship “National Credit” in danger from a silver-spout

The bow of a ship approaches a waterspout labeled “80ct $” and “$2,000,000 a Month,” and a shark labeled “Panic.” Along the side of the ship are President Cleveland as captain, and several men, all unidentified, but may include George F. Edmunds, William M. Evarts, William F. Vilas, Edward L. Hedden, John Sherman, and Augustus Garland, among others. They are about to fire a gun labeled “Repeal of Silver Coinage Act” to break up the waterspout. Caption: Captain Cleveland “Fire that gun, boys – it’s the only way to break it!”

Collection

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896; Zimmerman, Eugene, 1862-1935

Creation Date

1885-12-16

Creator(s)

The carol of the “waits”

A group of office seekers labeled “McLean, Pulitzer, Dorsheimer, Blackburn, McLaughlin, Hill, [and] Dana” sing Christmas carols outside the “White House” where President Cleveland is visible through a window. Their carol goes: “God rest you, merry gentlemen, / May nothing you dismay; / Remember us poor spoilsmen left / This blessed Christmas Day. / Since Christmas comes but once a year, / Oh, let us share your Christmas cheer, / And chuck one little office here / On Christmas Day in the A. M.”

Collection

Creation Date

1885-12-23

Creator(s)

The old and the new year

Father Time presents the new year labeled “1886” to Puck standing in the foreground, holding his lithographic pencil. Behind him are scenes of events from 1885, such as President Cleveland’s inauguration on March 4, Fredinand Ward’s conviction and William Mahone’s defeat, publication of Pope Leo XIII’s “Encyclical” Immortale Dei, Louis Pasteur’s anti-rabies vaccine, Chinese attacked in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and Tacoma, Washington Territory, and the Grim Reaper strikes down Ulysses S. Grant, Alfonso XII of Spain, William H. Vanderbilt, composer Leopold Damrosch, Cardinal McCloskey, Thomas Hendricks, and Victor Hugo. Fighting continues in Bulgaria, Sudan, Tonquin, and Spain.

Collection

Creation Date

1885-12-30

Creator(s)

“A unit”

Grover Cleveland shakes hands with Puck’s figure for the Independent Party labeled “Independent Voter.” Behind them are bell tents with banners labeled “Reform.” In the lower left corner is a “Withered Flower” with the face of Roswell Pettibone Flower.

Collection

Opper, Frederick Burr, 1857-1937

Creation Date

1884-06-25

Creator(s)

Echoes from Governor Hill’s message

A large parrot with New York Governor David B. Hill’s face perches on a stand next to President Cleveland’s desk. The parrot fills the air with its cry, “A Public Office is a Public Trust,” repeating a statement once made by Cleveland and that appears on a sign on his desk. President Cleveland is sitting at the desk with his hands over his ears. Caption: Will this political poll-parrot ever stop imitating President Cleveland?

Collection

Wales, James Albert, 1852-1886

Creation Date

1886-01-13

Creator(s)

The Administration sawmill

President Cleveland stands next to a large “Reform Buzz-Saw” labeled “Pat. 1884 by G. Cleveland” at a sawmill, where three members of his cabinet “Manning, Whitney, [and] Bayard” are milling lumber labeled “For the Improvement of the Custom House” and “Props for the Navy.” A carpenter’s square labeled “Honesty” rests against some boards at Cleveland’s feet. A group of newspaper editors, congressmen, and a dog labeled “Blaine’s Pup” have entered on the left. Among them are “Dana, McLean, Vance, Eustis, Reid, Beck, Evarts, Sherman, Medill, [and] Edmunds.” They are standing just outside the “Secretarys Office” where Daniel S. Lamont is sitting. Through the open door is visible a wagon loaded with large logs labeled “Mormon Question, Silver Question, Tariff Ques, [and] Coast Defences.” Caption: Foreman Cleveland (kindly but firmly) “Boys, don’t monkey with the buzz-saw!”

Collection

Creation Date

1886-02-03

Creator(s)

Thanksgiving Day, 1885

President Cleveland stands at the head of a table with his cabinet officers around the table at placemats labeled “Bayard, Manning, Garland, Whitney, Lamar, Endicott, [and] Vilas,” as Puck delivers a large turkey on a platter labeled “With Compliments of all Good Citizens.” A notice on the wall in the background states “Public Office is a Public Trust.” The centerpiece on the table is labeled “Prosperity.”

Collection

Creation Date

1885-11-25

Creator(s)

In the jaws of death – a cold day for the Independent Party

Print shows Puck’s figure for the “Independent Party” in a small sailboat of that name, flying a banner labeled “Independents”, sailing through icy waters among large icebergs. In the background two ships labeled “Tariff Reform” and “Civil Service Reform” have wrecked on icebergs. Among the faces in the icebergs are Rutherford B. Hayes, Roscoe Conkling, George M. Robeson, William Mahone, George F. Hoar, James G. Blaine, Jay Gould, Cyrus W. Field, John Sherman, John A. Logan, Whitelaw Reid, Samuel J. Tilden, Hubert O. Thompson, John Kelly, Charles A. Dana, Thomas Hendricks, Thomas F. Bayard, Winfield Scott Hancock, Benjamin F. Butler, Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, Allen G. Thurman, Abram S. Hewitt, and Chester A. Arthur.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-11-07

Creator(s)

“Evacuation day” March 4th, 1885 – a Democratic dream

Print shows the Republican Party, led by Chester A. Arthur, laying down their arms, with George M. Robeson, James G. Blaine, Roscoe Conkling, Whitelaw Reid, Carl Schurz, John Sherman, Charles J. Folger, Robert T. Lincoln, John A. Logan, Ulysses S. Grant, James D. Cameron, George F. Hoar, George F. Edmunds, and Henry Ward Beecher, exiting a citadel in the background. They are surrendering the presidency to the Democratic Party, led by newspaper editors Joseph Pulitzer of the N.Y. World, Charles A. Dana, and Henry Watterson. Samuel J. Tilden “Old Ticket,” Benjamin F. Butler, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Hendricks, Winfield Scott Hancock, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Thomas F. Bayard are on horseback, and Tammany Hall, led by John Kelly, marches under the banner “To the Victors Belong the Spoils.”

Collection

Creation Date

1883-11-21

Creator(s)

A new way of “waking” the Democratic shaughraun

Print shows a small, rustic room crowded with members of the Democratic Party, some dressed as old women, others drinking and smoking clay pipes. One man, the “Shaughraun” labeled “Democratic Party,” is lying on a board that is resting on wooden supports. He is stirred to life by snuff sprinkled on his nose from a bowl labeled “Tariff Reform Snuff” by John G. Carlisle who is dressed in a formal uniform with sword. Among the crowd are Charles A. Dana, Benjamin F. Butler, and Samuel J. Tilden (all dressed as old women), Grover Cleveland, Samuel J. Randall, John Kelly, Henry Watterson, Abram S. Hewitt (dressed as an old woman), Samuel S. Cox, and Thomas F. Bayard (also dressed as an old woman), with arms raised in alarm and a broken pipe at his feet. On the far right are Thomas A. Hendricks drinking from a bottle labeled “Old Ticket Rye,” Winfield Scott Hancock, and Allen G. Thurman. Caption: “Captain” Carlisle shows that he is up to snuff.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-12-12

Creator(s)

Foes in his path – the herculean task before our next president

Grover Cleveland, as Hercules carrying a large club labeled “Honest Legislation,” encounters a group of troublemakers along the “Administration Road” to “Success” seen in the distant background. Among the problems to be dealt with are a “Rotten Navy” represented by a two-headed hydra labeled “Robeson” and “Roach” holding a club labeled “Lobby,” an old man labeled “Mormonism” with many wives dangling from his belt, Jay Gould labeled “Land Grabber” holding a club labeled “Monopoly” and carrying a sack with papers labeled “R. R. Land Grab, U. Pacific Land Grab, [and] Land Grab,” a stereotypical Jewish man wearing a top hat labeled “Bankrupt” and holding papers labeled “List of Preferred Creditors,” a vulture labeled “High Tariff” and “Over-Production” sitting next to the prostrate body of a man whose hat, labeled “Labor,” has fallen on a nearby rock, and two men, one labeled “Cuba” holding a paper that states “Please Help a Poor Man with a Treaty” and the other labeled “Mexico” holding a paper that states “Please Help Poor Mexico with a Treaty,” a snake labeled “Silver Swindle” among the rocks, and a man in the background labeled “To the Victor Belong the Spoils” holding a club.

Collection

Creation Date

1885-02-18

Creator(s)

The contest of beauty

A beauty contest is underway where “First Prize” is the “Presidency.” The presidential candidates, all dressed as women, are sitting on raised platforms around which men have gathered to admire their beauty. Two men in the lower left appear to be voting for number “1. The Empire State Enslaver.” Among those in the running are “2. The same Old Widow from Beanville, 3. The Mulligan Masher from Maine [holding fan labeled] J. Blaine, 4. The Delaware Darling, 5. The Indiana Dumpling [holding fan labeled] J. E. MDonald, 6. The Homespun Houri of Ohio, 7. The Illinois Pet, 10. Utica Immortelle, 11. The Buffalo Girl, 12. The Indiana ‘Sun-Flower’ [with ribbon labeled] W. S. Holman, 13. The Nation’s Ex-Favorite [holding fan labeled] U.S.G., 14. The Pension Ring Pocahontas [with fan labeled] Logan, 15. The Centennial Spinster Ex-Champion de jure, 16. The Free Trade Fairy [with fan labeled] Hewitt, 17. The Ohio Water Lily Ex-Champion de facto, 18. The Pearl of Protection [with fan labeled] Randall, The Sherman Sisters 19. The Tecumseh Twin, 20. The Treasury Twin, 21. The Virtuous Vermonter [with fan labeled] Edmund, [and] 22. The Fat Fairy.” Among those depicted are Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin F. Butler, James G. Blaine, Thomas Bayard, Joseph E. McDonald, Allen G. Thurman, Robert Todd Lincoln, Roscoe Conkling, Grover Cleveland, William Steele Holman, Ulysses S. Grant, John Logan, Samuel J. Tilden, Abram S. Hewitt, Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel J. Randall, William T. Sherman, John Sherman, George F. Edmunds, and David Davis.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-01-23

Creator(s)

No welcome for the little stranger

At center, Grover Cleveland holds an infant labeled “Civil Service Reform.” They are surrounded by a bunch of angry old men as orphans labeled “Hube Thompson, Eddie Hedden, Davy Hill, Hugh, Joe Blackburn, Charlie Dana, Eustis, Johnnie McLean, Pulitzer, A.P. Gorman, [and] Johnnie K,” and one as an old woman labeled “Hendricks.” On the left is the “Republican Home – No Civil Service Infants Wanted Here” and on the right is the “Democratic Home Restored in 1884.” Caption: Father Cleveland adopts the abandoned infant of the Republican Home, to the great disgust of the Jeffersonian household.

Collection

Zimmerman, Eugene, 1862-1935

Creation Date

1885-10-21

Creator(s)

Columbus Cleveland and his mutinous crew – “This ship shall not turn back!”

Grover Cleveland, as Christopher Columbus, holds a map labeled “Route to Reform,” aboard a ship surrounded by mutinous sailors labeled “Bayard, Whitney, Eustis, Sterling, Hedden, Pulitzer, Blackburn, Hill, McLaughlin, Jones, Thompson, Gorman, Grady.” Unidentified are Thomas A. Hendricks, John Kelly, Lucius Q. C. Lamar, and Charles A. Dana. A bird arrives from the left carrying a piece of paper that states “From Land of Reform.”

Collection

Creation Date

1885-11-04

Creator(s)

“The Mulligan guard lies, but – surrenders”

An explosion has occurred at the “Claim Agency, Formerly Republican Head Quarters” with William M. Evarts peeking through the opening in the tent to survey the damage. Several small kiosks labeled “Machine Republicans Meet Here, County Democracy Blaine Exchange, Tribune Blaine Organ, [and] Friends of Tammany Meet Here” have been blown over and damaged. Also knocked to the ground by the blast were “Keifer, [Blaine holding a paper that states “I Claim Everything”], Logan, W. Reid, Butler, Dana, Burchard [labeled “R.R.R.”], Robeson, Elkins, Dorsey,” and an unidentified man lying on the ground next to bags of “Soap.” On horseback, in the upper left corner, is Grover Cleveland holding a scroll labeled “Reform,” and a Puck character carrying a standard labeled “Independents.” Among the ranks are Carl Schurz, George W. Curtis, and Henry Ward Beecher. Strewn on the ground are papers that state “I.O.U. If we win. J. G., I.O.U. Conditional on Success, C.W.F., [and] I.O.U. If you get there, J. Roach”; and several of the downed “Mulligan Guard” hold papers that state “We Still Claim,” whereas Dana’s paper states “I Give Up.”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-11-19

Creator(s)