Silver question

Casting pearls before – silverites

Treasury Secretary Lyman J. Gage tosses notes that state “Free Silver is Ruin,” “Sound Money,” “The National Honor is above Politics,” “A fifty-cent dollar would mean greater hardship to the laboring man than to the capitalist,” “Financial Reform Needed,” and “Sound Money is necessary to our Prosperity” among diminutive legislators who all have pointed ears like swine. Gage holds a paper that states, “Had there been a uniform banking system, specie payments would have been maintained, and hundreds of millions lost through depreciation of government notes would have been saved to the people,” and in his pocket are papers labeled “Sound Money Tracts.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-03-23

The free silver highwayman at it again

A highwayman identified as a “Silverite” holds two handguns labeled “Free Coinage” and “McKinleyism.” Papers extend from a pocket labeled “Paternalism” and “Wild Cat Schemes.” He is holding up a stagecoach labeled “National Prosperity” with passengers labeled “Lawmaker, Banker, Farmer, Workingman, Manufacturer, [and] Merchant.” The “Lawmaker” and the “Merchant” have both hands raised, while the “Banker, Farmer, Workingman, [and] Manufacturer” are reaching into their pockets.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-22

The spring athletic meeting

Grover Cleveland lifts a heavy weight labeled “Silver Question.” He has several medals pinned to his chest. With him are “W.E. Russell,” David B. Hill, Robert E. Pattison, Adlai E. Stevenson, James E. Campbell, and William R. Morrison. On the right, refusing to touch any of the weights labeled “Silver Question, Tariff Question, [and] Cuban Question,” are William McKinley, Shelby M. Cullom, Levi P. Morton, Robert Todd Lincoln, Thomas B. Reed, Benjamin Harrison, [and] William B. Allison. Uncle Sam is part of a large audience seated in the background. Caption: One strong man has shown his ability to lift the heavy weight; – now let’s see what the others can do.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-05-13

They both claim him

William McKinley sits on a wooden horse labeled “High Protection” with a “Silverite” on the left and a “Gold Bug” on the right pulling him in opposite directions. Caption: Eastern “Gold Bug.” –He’s ours! –he hasn’t said so yet, –but he will! Western “Silverite.” –Not much; he’s ours! –he’s said so already; lots of times!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-05-27

In the pantheon of the sun

Charles A. Dana sits at a desk. A diminutive David B. Hill, labeled “I am a Democrat,” stands on the desk next to a large book labeled “Speeches of D. B. Hill.” In a niche in the background is a bust of Benjamin F. Butler. Caption: Editor Dana (enthusiastically)–There he is, fellow citizens of this glorious republic, the greatest statesman the world has ever seen, and all that’s left of the Democratic Party!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-04-10

May the new year do better

An elderly man labeled “1898” carries a sack labeled “Nuisances” filled with diminutive figures labeled “Spain, R. H. Davis, Crank, Quay, Esterhazy, Paty de Clam, Mercier, Yellow Journal, Prize Fighter, Croker, Platt, Tanner, Aguinaldo, [and] Free Silverite.” Also shown is Joseph Pulitzer. Above are two angels carrying a putti labeled “1899” between them. One angel is labeled “Prosperity” and holds a cornucopia; the other is labeled “Peace” and blows a trumpet.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-01-04

A hint to the fifty-sixth Congress

A gladiator labeled “Sound Money,” holding a sword labeled “Currency Reform,” stands over a fallen gladiator labeled “Free Silver” who appeals to the crowd for mercy, but instead receives the thumbs-down gesture.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-12-07

Out of a clear sky comes a fierce nor’wester!

Several men are on a ship at sea, with a waterspout labeled “Western Republican Silver Sentiment” and looking like Thomas H. Carter bearing down on the ship. At the helm, labeled “Sound Money,” is John Sherman. Others on deck are “Platt, Allison, Reed, McKinley, Quay, Morton, Hackett, Wellington, Chandler, Burrows, Clarkson,” and an unidentified man who may be George F. Hoar.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-03-25

Still a donkey

The Democratic donkey, wearing a harness labeled “Democratic Party” and bandages labeled “Defeat in 1896,” “Free Riot Plank,” “Bryanism,” and “Free Silver,” sits in front of a revolving saw blade labeled “Silver Question” at a sawmill.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-10-05

In battle array, – and there’s not much doubt about the result

William Jennings Bryan rides a donkey labeled “Popocracy,” and holds a sword labeled “16 to 1” and a string attached to a small cannon labeled “Boy Orator,” at the head of a small army of followers. Among those identified are “Stewart, Watson, Coxey, Lease, Peffer, Tillman, [and] Altgeld,” and possibly Joseph C. S. Blackburn. They are armed with farm tools, brooms, and a large sword labeled “Silver Syndicate” carried by Stewart. Their military standards state “Repudiation, Down with the Supreme Court!!, [and] Dishonesty” and “D–n the Savings Banks, The Loan Associations, The Life Ins. Co’s – The Institutions of the Gold Bugs!!” Across a plain is a large army with flags that state “National Honor” and “Allied Armies of the Sound Money Democrats and the Republican Party,” with the U.S. Capitol and the White House in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-30

The wind won’t hold out

William Jennings Bryan sits on the side of the road “to Washington,” his bicycle tires going flat. At the upper left, a vignette labeled “How he started” shows Bryan starting his ride to Washington, on a bicycle with tires labeled “Free Coinage Wind” and “Populist Wind.” Caption: How he started. How he will finish.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-08-26

Put in his place

William Bourke Cockran, labeled “Democratic Sound Money League,” delivers a speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City, during which he presses down upon the back of William Jennings Bryan who is lying on papers that state “The Financial Fallacy of 16 to 1.” Caption: Falsehood crushed to earth will never rise again!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-09

The Supreme Court, – “as it may hereafter be constituted”

A trial is taking place at the U.S. Supreme Court where the regular justices have been replaced by hayseed justices. In the foreground is a “Waiting Pen for Gold Bugs and Millionaires” where “W. Rockefeller, J. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Astor, Sage, Vanderbilt, [and] Gould” are waiting. Caption: If the silverites ever get a chance to put their populistic and revolutionary platform into force.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-09

Making-up for a new rôle

David B. Hill is dressed as a hayseed with hat and feather labeled “I am a Popocrat,” a fake beard labeled “Populism,” and a button labeled “16 to 1” on his vest. He is holding a feather labeled “I am a Democrat” in his left hand and a mirror, in which he admires himself, in his right hand. He is sitting on a plank labeled “Repudiation” that rests on beams labeled “Popo Platform.” At his feet are torn papers that state “Hill’s Chicago Convention Speech.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-16

“Blowing” himself around the country

William Jennings Bryan stands on the back of a railroad caboose using a bellows labeled “16 to 1” to blow paraphrased fragments from speeches at rural citizens as the train passes. Some of these include, “[Our people] do not need the lessons of history!”, “They know it all!”, and “The popular intuition is better than reasoning and what the people say goes.” Traveling with Bryan are several newspaper reporters.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-16

Bryan’s gas

William Jennings Bryan as a soda jerk stands behind a counter offering a cup of “Boy Oratory” or “Bryan’s Free Silver Soda” to a farmer holding a “Vote” in his hand. A sign on the wall behind Bryan states, “Flavors. Anarchy, Repudiation, ‘Cross and Grown,’ Populism, [and] 16 to 1.” Caption: It won’t go down with the American farmer, as the Vermont and Maine elections show.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-23

Political pirates

William Jennings Bryan, as a pirate on a ship labeled “Popocracy,” stands on a barrel, playing a violin, attempting to lure a nearby ship labeled “National Prosperity” close enough so that his band of pirates can board it. Among those pirates identified are “Tillman, Altgeld, Lease, St. John, Sewall, Watson, Peffer, Sulzer, Waite, Debs, Bland, Wm. Stewart, Hill, Blackburn, [and] Coxey.” The men are armed with guns, knives, and rifles. Blackburn has a patch labeled “1895” over his right eye. Caption: Trying to lure a rich prize, in good old buccaneer fashion.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-23

A noisy mob; – but the sound money police are closing in on them

William Jennings Bryan is being carried in a chair by four men, two of whom are labeled “Tillman” and “J.F. Williams,” down a street, behind a group of crazed men labeled “Free Silver, Riot, Repudiation, Populism, Anarchy, [and] Class Hatred.” Two of the men are carrying small flags that state “Down with Supreme Court” and “Down with Property Holders.” Policemen labeled with the states of the Union and holding billy clubs labeled “Sound Money Vote” are lining both sides of the street.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-02

Buncombe and Boodle

William Jennings Bryan is pictured as a puppet being manipulated by a well-dressed man sitting on a large money bag labeled “Silver Mining Syndicate” and listing names and dollar amounts: “Hearst $75,000,000, Fair 40,000,000, Mackay 40,000,000, Wm. Stewart 40,000,000, W. A. Clark 30,000,000, Moffatt 30,000,000 [and] J. P. Jones 25,000,000.” Byran is holding cymbals labeled “Free Silver and Prosperity” and “Promises of Good Wages.” His audience is a laborer with his lunch pail labeled “Labor” and in his back pocket a “Bank Book.” Caption: They can never catch American labor with that combination.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-10-07

He did not think so in ’92

William Jennings Bryan casts a vote for the nomination of James B. Weaver, the Populist Party candidate in 1892, instead of the Democratic Party candidate, Grover Cleveland. Bryan supported the “Populist Platform ’92 – Free coinage of silver at half its commercial value, unlimited paper money for everybody, the confiscation of all railroad, telegraph and telephone lines – in short, trailing National Honor in the Mud of Repudiation” over the “Democratic Platform ’92 – Bimetallism through international agreement or by such safe guards of legislation as would ensure the parity of both Gold and Silver and preserve the National Honor.” Caption: “When the Democratic party is engaged in a struggle, as it is now, any man who deserts it in the face of the enemy will never get back unless he comes in sackcloth and ashes.” From Bryan’s speech at Petersburg, Va., 1896.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-10-14