Hoar, George Frisbie, 1826-1904

The Republican Christmas tree

A large Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments labeled with political offices and presidential appointments. Thomas Collier Platt and Matthew S. Quay, who is dressed as a woman, are standing in front of the tree. In queues on both sides are diminutive figures anxiously awaiting their presents, including from right to left, Jerry Simpson, Joseph B. Foraker, William E. Chandler, William McKinley, Whitelaw Reid, Thomas B. Reed, Levi P. Morton, Benjamin Harrison, William B. Allison, George F. Hoar, John Sherman, Chauncey M. Depew, and Robert T. Lincoln. Caption: The two big bosses have full charge of it, and the most obedient boys will come in for the best gifts.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-12-25

“Give it another twist, Grover – we’re all with you!”

President Grover Cleveland, wearing military uniform, gives a twist to the British Lion’s tail as it stands on a small island labeled “Great Britain” just off the coast of the “United States” where Cleveland and his backers are standing. Among Cleveland’s backers are Thomas B. Reed, Charles A. Dana doing a headstand on the “N.Y. Sun,” George F. Hoar holding a rifle, William E. Chandler wearing a grenadier’s bearskin hat and holding a sword, Henry C. Lodge with a sword, John T. Morgan, and Charles A. Boutelle also wearing a bearskin hat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-08

Not this time!

President Cleveland is at the helm of the “Ship of State,” its sails labeled “Honest Pensions, Wilson Tariff Bill, Sound Financial Policy, Adherence to the Traditional Policy of Non-Interference,” [and] Economic Government,” as it sails past the “Rocks of Disaster” upon which are the remains of a shipwreck labeled “Sherman Silver Law, McKinley Bill, Fraudulent Pensions, [and] Jingoism,” and a group of marooned sailors labeled “McKinley, Lodge, Tom Reed, [and] Quay.” Also present are Benjamin Harrison, Whitelaw Reid, George F. Hoar, and William E. Chandler. Caption: The political wreckers see their hopes again indefinitely postponed.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-06

“Let us have peace”

President Grover Cleveland and British Prime Minister Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, are dressed as Native Americans, smoking peace pipes filled with “Common Sense Tobacco.” Sitting with Cleveland, also dressed as natives, are Richard Olney, Robert R. Hitt, Charles A. Boutelle, Nelson Dingley, George Frisbie Hoar, William E. Chandler, John T. Morgan, and Henry Cabot Lodge. Sitting with Salisbury are Joseph Chamberlain, Arthur James Balfour, George Joachim Goschen, and the Duke of Devonshire, Spencer Compton Cavendish. In the foreground is a hatchet in a hole, to be buried, possibly over the Venezuela boundary dispute.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-22

The only thing that would scare our thick-skinned senators

The U.S. Senate chamber is reduced to pandemonium when a Senate Page announces the unexpected arrival of “Investigators Lexow and Goff.” Among the senators scrambling for cover are Arthur P. Gorman, Matthew S. Quay, Calvin S. Brice, Edward Murphy Jr., and George F. Hoar. Caption: The awful scene that would ensue if investigators Lexow and Goff should unexpectedly appear in the U.S. Senate chambers.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-27

Waiting for the good times to blow over

A large female figure holds a cornucopia labeled “Prosperity 1895,” floating toward rays of light that illuminate industrial facilities. She hovers above a group of men gathered around a platform with a banner that states, “Protection Issue and Victory in 1896.” Several of the men are shaking their fists at her. Among those identified by name and unidentified are “Hoar, Elkins, Tom Reed, Lodge, [and] Hale,” and William B. Allison, possibly Thomas C. Carter, John Sherman, Joseph B. Foraker, William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, William E. Chandler, Whitelaw Reid labeled “Tribune of N.Y.,” Charles A. Boutelle, and Matthew S. Quay.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-10-09

Even worse than he thought it

The spirit of General Winfield S. Hancock holds a paper that states “Governors Island 1880. The Tariff is a Local Issue. Gen. W. S. Hancock.” He stands among congressmen in a congressional chamber where senators or representatives from “Maryland, New York, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, Kansas, [and] Pennsylvania” are tearing off sections of a large paper labeled “The Tariff?” that apply to their respective states. Caption: Shade of General Hancock–They laughed at me when I said the tariff is a local issue; but I was right, after all!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-05-02

The old woman of the Senate is doing her best – at a hopeless job

George F. Hoar is seen as an old washer-woman, with a large brush labeled “Magazine Articles and Speeches,” white-washing senators from a bucket labeled “Defense of the Senate.” He is applying a fresh coat to Thomas C. Pratt while others wait in line.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-11-03

The Republican schoolma’am and her pupils

An elderly woman sits in a chair on a platform, instructing her students in lessons that have probably been taken from the “Republican Campaign Text Book” sitting on a table on the right, or from the “Republican Press” at her feet. Reciting their lessons are pupils identified as “Boutelle, Reid, Reed, Foraker, Harrison, Hoar, Allison, Lodge, McKinley, Sherman,” and “Stewart,” who is standing on a stool and wearing a dunce cap labeled “Silver Dunce.” Caption: The Schoolma’am–Who were responsible for all the cyclones, dry spells, frosts, floods, landslides, chills-and-fever, mosquitos and everything else that plagued the country? / Chorus of Scholars–The Democrats! / The Schoolma’am–To whom does the country owe its present good crops, fine weather, health, wealth and general prosperity? / Chorus of Scholars–The Republicans!! / The Schoolma’am–Correct! – all go to the head!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-08-28

Coroner Harrison is a little too previous

Uncle Sam reclines in a chair with his feet resting on a foot stool. On a table next to him are medications labeled “Tariff Reform Tonic” and “Repeal of Sherman Silver Law Elixir.” Benjamin Harrison stands at center holding a large “Certificate of Death – Died of Democratic Rule.” He is attended by several men with their mourning hats, including Thomas Collier Platt, Charles A. Boutelle, Whitelaw Reid, George F. Hoar, and Thomas B. Reed. They have come to pay their last respects.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-06

A hint from the world’s fair – why not have a “bureau of public comfort” in every large city?

At center is a place for Republicans to go to commiserate while awaiting the next election. Such stalwart Republicans as George F. Edmunds, John Sherman, William M. Evarts, George F. Hoar, and Thomas B. Reed wait there. Surrounding vignettes show a prominent citizen being escorted by two “Bureau of Public Comfort” guards who keep the press at bay, a sewing station for women’s clothing after a round of bargain shopping, a room where anarchists can blow off some steam “without disturbing anybody,” an educational facility to help orient newcomers to the ways of the city, and a hypnotist who attempts to convince servants to work in the country. Caption: Some of the useful purposes it might serve.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-10-25

The return from exile

William McKinley, as Napoleon I, rides a white horse labeled “Ohio” and carries a sword labeled “McKinley.” He is on the banks of a river, leading an army that includes Benjamin Harrison, Thomas B. Reed, John Sherman, William E. Chandler, William M. Stewart, Matthew S. Quay, Chauncey M. Depew, George F. Hoar, and Whitelaw Reid. On the other side of the river is the U.S. Capitol with the date “1896” above it. Caption: They do not see the Waterloo before them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-12-13

The Republican Ponce de Leon and his followers

A group of conquistadors labeled “Hoar, Sherman, Depew, Harrison, Reed, McKinley [as Ponce de León], Wanamaker, W. Reid, Boutelle, [and] Foraker” gather around a pool of water labeled “High Protection Doctrine,” drinking the water. Frogs in the lower right corner are labeled “Monopolist.” Caption: They think it is the fountain of political youth and strength; but it is only a stagnant pool that is almost dried up.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-24

The national honor and credit in good hands

President Cleveland holds papers labeled “National Honor and Credit” behind his back, as he faces a group of newspaper editors and legislators labeled “Tribune, N.Y. Sun, Tom Reed, Hill, World, Teller, Stewart, Vest, Peffer, [and] Hoar.” Charles A. Boutelle is at the back of the group holding a paper labeled “Boutelle Resolution.” The U.S. Capitol is in the background behind President Cleveland.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-31

The “peanut” Hagenbeck and his “senatorial courtesy” animal show

David B. Hill as the animal trainer Carl “Hagenbeck” performs a circus act with trained animals labeled “Murphy, Pugh, Chandler, Peffer, Morgan, Coke, Higgins, Stewart, Teller, Cullom, [and] Hoar.” Hill is standing at center with a bag of “Peanut Politics” at his feet. He holds a whip in his right hand and a string in his left, which is attached to a ring in the nose of “Murphy” as a dancing bear. “Pugh” as a monkey sits on the floor. The other animals are standing on short pedestals arranged around the rear of the cage.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-02-07

Old jokes in new political clothes

In this vignette cartoon various presidential candidates are depicted with their trappings. David B. Hill as “The Political Suburban Resident” is overloaded with packages labeled “Low Political Jobs, Petty Schemes, Unsuccessful Intrigues, Tricks, [and] Peanut Politics.” William McKinley is “The National Political Brooklynite” pushing a stroller containing papers labeled “High Protection.” Thomas Collier Platt is “The Obstreperous Cook” with William L. Strong and Levi P. Morton standing in the background. Thomas B. Reed is “The Political Lady with the Big Hat” which is labeled “Presidential Boom” and obscures the view of Benjamin Harrison, John Sherman, and William B. Allison. William A. Peffer is “The Amusing Political Hayseed” of “very ordinary” intellect, but long on whiskers, and George F. Hoar is “The Voluble Political Mother-in-Law” who clears the “U.S. Senate” when he stands to speak.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-01-30

“Who laughs last laughs best”

Grover Cleveland drives a stagecoach labeled “Administration Coach” carrying “Columbia” and being pulled by two horses labeled “Honest Principles” and “Sound Policy.” The coach is stuck in a hole labeled “Deficit” and “This Hole Dug by Republican Party.” Arthur P. Gorman, standing at the rear, uses a large stick labeled “Wilson Bill” and a board labeled “Bond Issue” to try to get the wheels out of the hole. On the right, in a “Bog of Public Contempt,” are Whitelaw Reid, John Sherman, Thomas B. Reed, George F. Hoar, and Benjamin Harrison. They are laughing at Cleveland.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-02-21

In his second childhood

George F. Hoar is in the “Senatorial Nursery” as an oversized infant strapped into a chair, watching a young boy, a Senate “Page,” manipulate a jumping jack toy that is labeled “Queen Lil,” the deposed Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-02-28

A senate for revenue only

Uncle Sam sits on the Speaker’s desk in the “U.S. Senate,” bound by tape labeled “McKinley’s High Protection Monopoly Tariff,” facing a group of senators labeled “Coal Senator, R. Road Senator, Collar and Cuff Senator, Sugar Senator, Steel Rail Senator, Lumber Senator, Copper, [and] Iron Senator,” and David B. Hill holding a large knife labeled “Peanut Dave.” Seated among them is George F. Hoar. Caption: What are we here for, if not for our private interests?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-03-28

The wars that never come

George F. “Hoar” sits with a broken drum labeled “Hawaiian Bluster,” Henry Cabot “Lodge” holds a broken rifle labeled “Behring Sea War Thunder,” and John T. “Morgan” sits with a bent and beaten-up bugle labeled “Nicaraguan War Blast.” A large female angel of “Peace” stands behind, spreading her wings over them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-05-29