Political parties--Platforms

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

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

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

President Taft leads the Republican elephant in circles, creating a rut. Among those riding the elephant are Joseph G. Cannon, Nelson W. Aldrich, and James S. Sherman.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-10

Uncle Sam stands before two mirrors that distort the reflected image. One mirror is labeled “Seeing is Believing – the Republican Minority” and shows Uncle Sam as a tall, thin, gaunt figure. The other mirror is labeled “Seeing is Believing – the Democratic Majority” and shows Uncle Sam as a happily rotund figure. A man labeled “Underwood” is directing the viewer’s attention toward the Democratic image and a man labeled “Mann” is directing the viewer’s attention toward the Republican image.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-05-28

Uncle Sam, with a sword across his lap, as King Solomon, holds up an imp labeled “My Policies.” William Jennings Bryan, taking a hard line, and William H. Taft, appealing for mercy, address “Solomon.” A distressed Theodore Roosevelt, fearing for his policies, observes the proceedings from around the corner.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The cartoonist Udo J. Keppler borrows here from the Biblical account of two women claiming parentage of a baby in their shared household, after another baby died. The verdict of the wise King Solomon, as recorded in I Samuel chapter 3, responding to the unrelenting pleas of the women, was to threaten to cut the baby in two. One women pleaded to be released of her claim, so the baby could be spared. Solomon decreed that this woman must have been the mother — willing to lose her child so that it might live.

Draft of a speech with handwritten corrections. Theodore Roosevelt contrasts the Progressive Party platform with the positions of President Taft and Governor Wilson, with a particular focus on trusts, labor policy, and judicial power. Roosevelt also defends himself against allegations that the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company was illegally acquired by the United States Steel Corporation during his presidency.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1912

Draft of a speech with handwritten corrections. Governor Roosevelt rebukes several statements from William Jennings Bryan regarding economic policy, bimetallism, patriotism, and imperialism.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1900-09-06

A wagon drawn by a single donkey labeled “American Consumer” chases a carrot labeled “Promised Tariff Reform” dangling from a stick held by the wagon driver labeled “Republican Congress.” The wagon is transporting a bunch of bloated old men, each representing a “Trust” and labeled “Steel, Copper, Lumber, Sugar, Beef, Coal, Tobacco, Clothing, Watch, Leather, [and] Paper.” They are members of the “Stand Pat Club,” some waving “Stand Pat” pennants. One man holds a drum that states, “The tariff will be revised when public welfare demands it.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

There had not been a major revision of tariff schedules since the Dingley Act of 1897 as American politics approached the 1908 presidential campaign. A decade seemed like a long time to many people — especially to businesses and trusts who benefited from “protection.” High duties on imported products contributed to general revenue, but also enabled American manufacturers and farmers to compete against foreign competition.

A “Workingman” is bent under the weight of an enormous dinner pail labeled “Tariff for Graft Only.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck and its owner and chief cartoonist Udo J. Keppler, aimed at two birds, at least, with one cartoon in this cover drawing.

Presidential hopeful John Albert Johnson, as a logger, struggles to break free a jam of logs labeled “Reactionary Democracy, Wall Street Interests, Plutocracy, High Finance, Ryanism, Conservatism, Safe & Sane Fake, [and] Stand Pat Democracy,” which are preventing him from presenting his political agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Caption: “If it weren’t for these cussed logs, I could get my drive down to Denver.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Lost to history is the reform governor of Minnesota John Albert Johnson. To the extent he is remembered, it is a minor and last-minute challenger to William Jennings Bryan for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1908.

Several Republicans with presidential aspirations and/or delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, and a young boy holding a pillow labeled “Stand-Pat Press,” stand around “Stand-Pat” King Canute on the seashore with cliffs at their back, as he commands the rising tide of “Tariff Revision.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Samuel Ehrhart returned to Puck’s political-cartoon pages with a standard use of the King Canute legend, frequently employed by cartoonists; it was a misuse, actually, because the real story of Canute is not that the king tried to command the waves to recede, but to illustrate to his court that his powers were not unlimited.

The “G.O.P.” elephant laments a broken pail labeled “Full Dinner Pail” on the ground before him. The U.S. Capitol building is in the background. Caption: “Gosh! How am I to get that pail in shape for next fall’s campaign?”

comments and context

Comments and Context

As it looked ahead to the 1908 presidential campaign, and the plausible economic insecurity among voters in the aftermath of the October 1907 Wall Street Panic, Puck magazine able simultaneously to tweak its traditional opponent, the Republican Party, and its crosstown rival Judge magazine.

Theodore Roosevelt appears as Naomi and William H. Taft as Ruth from the biblical story of loyalty. Caption: Ruth Taft. — Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy policies shall be my policies.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

William Jennings Bryan, as a moose, rubs his antlers labeled “Government Ownership” and “Initiative and Referendum” against a tree labeled “Party Opposition” to knock them off, so that new antlers can grow. On the ground are antlers from previous years labeled “Imperialism shed in 1904” and “Free Silver shed in 1900.” Five heavily-bearded owls are perched on branches of the tree.

comments and context

Comments and Context

A rare two-color cartoon this late in Puck‘s publishing life is J. S. Pughe’s brilliant and simple presentation of of the policies, and changing policies, of William Jennings Bryan. Note that Pughe’s skillful caricature required no label of tag for readers.

Theodore Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan appear as hens among confused chicks labeled “Reciprocity, Anti-Money Devil, Over-Capitalization, Gov’t Control of Rail Roads, Income Tax, Anti Wall St., Campaign Fund Reform, Peace Movement, Anti Trust Laws, Peerless Leader, Rate Regulation, [and] Anti-Rebates.” The chicks are uncertain which is the mother hen. In the background is the White House as a chicken coop. Caption: Which is Mama?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Theodore Roosevelt held to core principles throughout his life. His speeches and writings on many issues asserted during his service as a young assemblyman, or in first major books, cannot easily be differentiated from speeches and articles from the last months of his life. The same might be said of William Jennings Bryan. Each man evolved, and reflected the exigencies of new conditions, but they can be contrasted with politicians whose loyalty is to parties first and thereby define their courses.

Theodore Roosevelt, holding upright a big stick that is almost as tall as he is, stands next to an enormous stick labeled “Party Expediency” with the club-end resting on a paper labeled “Tariff Reform.” A hand labeled “Tariff Graft” holds the larger stick by the handle.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck magazine, as was its wont in the years that led to and included the political era of reform, was a happy warrior but frequently skeptical about progress. As it celebrated, and supported, President Roosevelt, it sometimes was wary of substantial change in the American economy, political system, and labor relations. As a child burned by a hot stove is wary, so the Muckraking cartoon weekly proceeded cautiously.

A large bull labeled “Lincoln,” with the head of Abraham Lincoln, stands among the reeds of a swamp where a puffed-up frog labeled “Roosevelt” is standing on a piece of driftwood labeled “Progressivism” in a pool of water labeled “Practical Politics.” Caption: The frog who wanted to be as big as the bull.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-25

A man labeled “Wilson” wearing rubber gloves labeled “Fearlessness” and “Common Sense” touches a live electric wire that spells out “The Tariff.” In the foreground, Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft flee in fear of getting electrocuted. Caption: The live wire and the man with the rubber gloves.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-02

President Taft, wearing a suit of armor, holds a standard labeled “Campaign of the Full Dinner Pail.” A squire labeled “Sherman” is placing the helmet with plume labeled “W.H. Taft” over his head. Another squire labeled “Penrose” is drawing back the opening of the tent through which Taft can enter the fray.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-16