Peffer, William Alfred, 1831-1912

President Roosevelt looks at three men from the “lens of public opinion.” William Jennings Bryan says, “The president is carrying out all my ideas.” Representative William Sulzer says, “The president has taken up my policies.” William Alfred Peffer says, “The president is going in the right direction.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham depicts President Roosevelt and three maverick politicians sizing each other up. The optics — literally, an absurd use of chart-graphics as might be found in textbooks — are rather absurd, and hardly relevant to the point of the drawing. Relevance to medical breakthroughs in optometry did not serve to elucidate the cartoon’s theme.

Members of the Democratic Party labeled “Sound Money Democrats” cast votes for President William McKinley and show their support for the “Sound Money” platform of the Republican Party. On the left is a little man representing a faction of the Populist Party, flying a banner with a portrait of William Jennings Bryan; and in the background is the deserted Democratic Party Platform, flying a banner labeled “Democrat No Nomination.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The man under the Populist banner is Senator William A. Peffer of Kansas, one of six Populists to serve in the United States Senate. He served one term, 1891-1897, but maintained political ambitions, and Populist ideals. Among the “Gold Democrats’ who stayed loyal to President Cleveland in 1896 and declined to support William Jennings Bryan, some continued to support Republican President McKinley in 1900. This cartoon seems more appropriate for 1896, but shows how shunned Bryan was among some Democrats with long memories and “Sound Money” principles. They are not labeled, but some of Democrats shown voting for McKinley are (foreground) John M. Palmer, the so-called National Democratic Party candidate for President in 1896; and (background, with shaded spectacles) William C. Whitney, who had been President Cleveland’s Secretary of the Navy. Whitney was a hunting partner of Theodore Roosevelt, and whose son Harry married Gertrude Vanderbilt, founder of the Whitney Museum of Art; and whose other son William married Helen Hay, poet and daughter of Roosevelt’s Secretary of State John Hay. The daughter of Harry and Gertrude was Flora Payne Whitney, who engaged to be married to Theodore’s son Quentin when the latter was killed in aerial combat in World War I.

President Cleveland drives a stagecoach carrying a female passenger labeled “National Credit” and a trunk labeled “Gold Reserve.” The horse team is labeled “Firmness” and “Common Sense.” A pack of dogs is trying to rattle the horses. The dogs are identified as “Dana, Pulitzer, Frye, Bland, Sickles, Peffer, Reed, Boutelle, Wolcott, Pugh, Stewart, Jones, Morgan, Teller, [and] Lodge.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-13

Members of the U.S. Senate look down on five diminutive members seated in the front. They are identified as “Hill Repudiated by New York,” “Murphy Repudiated by New York,” “Gorman Repudiated by Maryland,” “Brice Repudiated by Ohio,” and “Smith Repudiated by New Jersey.” Among the senators present are Adlai E. Stevenson, William M. Stewart, George F. Hoar, Charles A. Boutelle, John Sherman, Daniel W. Voorhees, William E. Chandler, John M. Palmer, Justin S. Morrill, John P. Jones, Matthew S. Quay, and William A. Peffer.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-12-11

Presidential candidates are on display in a gallery for the press. Among the candidates are Jerry Simpson, William A. Peffer, Robert E. Pattison, David B. Hill, James E. Campbell, William C. Whitney, William E. Russell, Adlai E. Stevenson, Levi P. Morton, Robert T. Lincoln, William B. Allison, Thomas B. Reed, William McKinley, and Benjamin Harrison who is standing next to a stack of books and a sign that states, “My Friends Say I Am Not A Candidate.” Down the center of the gallery are several newspaper editors, some with magnifying glasses and telescopes. Among them are Joseph Pulitzer, Charles A. Dana, Whitelaw Reid, Henry Watterson, Joseph R. Hawley, Murat Halstead, and Evan P. Howell, and an unidentified reporter for the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-11-20

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

An angel labeled “National Credit” with wings labeled “Sound Financial Policy” and “Repeal of Sherman Silver Law” rises above the flames of the wreck of the “U.S. Treasury.” Among the wreckage lie William McKinley bowled over by the “McKinley Bill,” John Sherman being crushed under the weight of large silver coins, Green B. Raum sitting in an empty safe labeled “U.S. Treasury,” with Benjamin Harrison and Charles Foster hanging onto the safe, and William A. Peffer among the lumber on the left.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-27

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

At center, Uncle Sam and President Cleveland shake hands, with a portrait of Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii, in the background. The surrounding vignettes feature a cast of characters, identified or referred to in the text as “Croker,” “Parkhurst,” and “Tammany” reform, “Iago Manley” and “Othello Reed,” “Peffer, Lease, Dana, Pulitzer, [and] Depew,” Harrison sitting in his over-sized top hat, and Thomas Collier Platt turning a crank that manipulates George R. “Malby” as “Speaker” of the New York State Assembly, David B. Hill sitting in an over-sized “Senatorial Chair N.Y. State,” and “McKinley” dressed as Napoleon I, riding a “War Tariff” rocking horse. Each scene includes “Valentine” text, such as this for “Peffer” and “Lease,” each holding papers labeled “Speech”: “From bleeding Kansas’s wind-swept plains, / Where whiskers take the place of brains, / You come with all your verbose strength / Of speeches of unending length. / Here, take the hint Puck gives – resign! / Let Mary be your Valentine”; and this for McKinley: “McKinley Bill! McKinley Bill! / Why do you ride that hobby still? / The cause of pool, combine and trust, / And idle mill-wheels red with rust. / Mistaken Man! We’ll never pine / For you to be our Valentine.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-02-14

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

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

President Cleveland appears as an explorer, with cabinet members John G. Carlisle and Walter Q. Gresham, in a jungle, where they have come across a band of monkeys labeled “D. Hill, C. Dana, W. Reid, Blackburn, Vest, Jones, Pugh, Foraker, Wolcott, Teller, Morgan, Peffer, [and] Stewart.” Caption: Pioneer Cleveland is bound to carry political enlightenment forward, even if the simian statesmen don’t like it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-22

Senators labeled “Stewart, Peffer, Vest, Jones, Teller, [and] Wolcott” are being thrown out of windows in a building labeled “U.S. Senate” by laborers and other citizens. Papers labeled “Anti-Repeal Drivel” and “Obstructionist Nonsense” have been thrown out with them. Caption: What a pity this is only a fancy sketch!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-01

President Cleveland, a railroad engineer, drives a locomotive labeled “Administration R.R.” that is roaring out of a tunnel labeled “Business Depression Tunnel,” and knocking out of the way legislators who are placing “Dilatory Admendments” and “Teller’s Dilatory Tactics” on the tracks, trying to derail the train. Among the legislators are Francis M. Cockrell, James Z. George, James L. Pugh, William A. Peffer, George G. Vest, James D. Cameron, William M. Stewart, Henry M. Teller, John P. Jones, and Edward O. Wolcott.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-10-11

William A. Peffer grabs for the ropes of a hot air balloon labeled “Populism” that has burst in two places while high above the Washington, D.C., area.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-10-10

Several men dressed as maids and holding brooms stand on shore or awash in huge waves labeled “Business Revival” and “Sound Money.” The men are identified on their bonnets or on their brooms as “Hoar War Tariff,” “Bland Free Silver,” “Wolcott Silver,” “Teller Free Silver,” “Jones Free Silver,” “Reid High Protection,” “Stewart Free Silver,” “Carter,” “Peffer,” “Crisp,” and “Blackburn Free Silver.” “McKinley” holds the largest broom labeled “Prohibitory Protection.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-08-14

A wagon labeled “Free Silver” is filled with a group of “free silver” supporters identified as “Tillman, Boies, Sheehan, Bland, Blackburn, Bryan, Sewall, Pattison, Sibley, Jones, Geo. Fred Williams, Peffer, [and] Altgeld.” Tillman holds a pitchfork with flag labeled “Repudiation” and Altgeld holds a burning torch. The wagon had been harnessed to a mule wearing a halter labeled “Democracy.” It has broken loose and is gathering speed as it rolls backwards down a hill. Caption: Silver Lunatics–Hip, hip, hurrah! Just see how much faster we are going since we cut loose!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-08-12

A “Silver Mine Owner” depicted as a “silver-tongued ventriloquist” sits on a box labeled “16 to 1” on a stage, with William Jennings Bryan as a dummy sitting on his lap, holding papers labeled “Free Silver Harangues.” In two boxes at the mine owner’s feet are dummy Arthur “Sewall” on the right and dummies William A. “Peffer,” Benjamin R. “Tillman,” John Peter “Altgeld,” and George Fred “Williams” on the left. Caption: If the show succeeds, he’ll get all the profits.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-08-12

A fireworks display is being prepared. An “Anarchist” and John Peter “Altgeld” are lighting a rocket labeled “Altgeld Anarchistic Boom,” and several men identified as “Bland, Crisp, Teller, Waite, Blackburn, Wolcott, Morgan, [and] Stewart” are lighting rockets around a large medallion labeled “Free Silver Coinage Craze” with a silver coin labeled “In 16 to 1 We Trust.” Blackburn is holding a rocket labeled “Silver Speech” and on the ground are fireworks labeled “Snap Silver Resolutions.” At a table on the right, labeled “Coin’s Financial Hocus Pocus Game,” is William H. Harvey operating a shell game, and behind him is William A. Peffer, the “Windy Man from Kansas.” Caption: They are making great preparations for their Populistic Pyrotechnical display; but it will be only another fizzle.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-07-03

William C. “Whitney” is the ringmaster at a circus where “D. B. Hill” is performing a horse riding trick by trying to ride two horses at once, a small horse labeled “Gold Standard” and a larger horse labeled “Free Silver.” Also in the ring is a clown labeled “Harvey.” Among those in the audience are William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas B. Reed, John Sherman, George F. Hoar, William B. Allison, William E. Chandler, William F. Peffer, Whitelaw Reid, Grover Cleveland, and Joseph J. C. Blackburn or Charles A. Boutelle. Caption: The New Ringmaster–Gentlemen of the audience, the great equestrian, “The Senator,” will perform his thrilling feat of riding two horses simultaneously! – Brace up, Dave, everybody’s looking at you!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-06-26