The Ideological Influence of Political Cartoons on the 1884 U.S. Presidential Race

Abstract

During the 1884 presidential campaign, the battle between candidates Grover Cleveland and James Blaine signified a historic moment as cartoonists such as Thomas Nast, Joseph Keppler, and Bernhard Gillam brought the world of politics to their drawing board to communicate who should be selected for the highest office in the nation. The year 1884 was an important point in history as it was the first and only time that Nast and Harper’s Weekly supported a Democratic candidate since the Civil War. Utilizing original publications from Harper’s Weekly and Puck magazine, this essay underscores the influence of political cartoons and the public to reinforce agenda, and draws attention to the persuasive power of caricatures through symbols, satires and parodies, and Nast’s influence on other cartoonists.

Notes

1 Maxwell McCombs, Setting the Agenda: The Mass Media and Public Opinion (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2014), 1–23.

2 Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (Provo, UT: Renaissance Classics, 2012), 1–22.

3 McCombs, Setting the Agenda, 39–62.

4 Michael Kahn and Samuel West, Puck: What Fools These Mortals Be (San Diego, CA: IDW Publishing, 2014), 14.

5 Richard Scully, “Behind the Lines: Cartoons as Historical Sources. What Can the Study of Cartoons Add to Historical Thinking and Scholarship?” Agora 45, no. 2 (2010): 12–13.

6 Scully, “Behind the Lines,” 12–13.

7 Scully, “Behind the Lines,” 17–18.

8 David Spencer, “The Press and the Spanish American War Political Cartoons of the Yellow Journalism Age,” International Journalism Comic Art 1 (2007): 263.

9 Spencer, “The Press and the Spanish American War Political Cartoons,” 263.

10 David Spencer, “Visions of Violence: A Cartoon Study of America and War,” American Journalism 21 no. 2 (2004): 48.

11 Fiona Halloran, “Oppose Everything, Propose Nothing: Influence and Power in Political Cartoons of Thomas Nast,” in Drawing the Line: Using Cartoons as Historical Evidence, edited by Richard Scully and Marian Quartly (Melbourne: Monash University ePress 2009), 3.1 to 3.22.

12 Halloran, “Oppose Everything,” 3.1–3.22 in original source in Budd Leslie Gambee, Frank Leslie and His Illustrated Newspaper, (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Department of Library Science, 1964).

13 Albert Bigelow Paine, Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures (London: Macmillan, 1904), 184, Hathi Trust Digital Library, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044009987629&view=1up&seq=242 (accessed November 31, 2015).

14 Paine, Thomas Nast, 206.

15 Paine, Thomas Nast, 214.

16 Robert Kennedy, “Cincinnatus,” New York Times, February 10, 1884, http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0210.html (accessed July 11, 2017).

17 Ibid.

18 Maxwell McCombs, “A Look at Agenda-Setting: Past, Present and Future,” Journalism Studies 6, no. 4 (2005): 546.

19 Maxwell McCombs, “Building Consensus: The News Media’s Agenda-Setting Roles,” Political Communication 14 (1997): 437.

20 Fiona Halloran, Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 4.

21 Halloran, “Oppose Everything,” 3.1–3.22.

22 Steve Bell, “Steve Bell in America,” Political Cartoon Society, http://www.original-political-cartoon.com/cartoon-history/steve-bell-america/ (accessed July 23, 2017).

23 Halloran, Thomas Nast, 174–175.

24 Halloran, Thomas Nast, 175.

25 James Chalmer Vinson, Thomas Nast: Political Cartoonist (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014), 23.

26 Vinson, Thomas Nast, 23.

27 Vinson, Thomas Nast, 31.

28 Harlem Makemson, “One Misdeed Evokes Another: How Political Cartoonists Used ‘Scandal Intertextuality’ Against Presidential Candidate James G. Blaine,” Media History Monographs 7, no. 2 (2005): 1–16.

29 Kahn and West, Puck, 41.

30 Kahn and West, Puck, 14.

31 Ibid.

32 “I cannot vote for a Democrat,” n.p. 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.0760300d (accessed November 31, 2015); Carl Schurz, Can Honest Americans Vote for Jas. G. Blaine? September 25, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.1290200f)) (accessed November 31, 2015).

33 John Trenor, Blaineism. A Short Catechism for Honest Voters,, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://archive.org/details/blaineismshortca00tren (accessed November 31, 2015).

34 “Puck’s Pictures,” Omaha Daily Bee, June 7, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99021999/1884-06-07/ed-1/seq-1/. (accessed November 31, 2015).

35 Wong Ar Chong, Letter from Wong Ar Chong to William Lloyd Garrison, February 28, 1879, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Washington D.C, http://smithsonianapa.org/now/wong-ar-chong/ (accessed November 31, 2015).

36 Vinson, Thomas Nast, 24.

37 Paine, Thomas Nast, 497.

38 Paine, Thomas Nast, 497.

39 Halloran, “Oppose Everything,” 3.1–3.22.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Thomas Nast, “Grover Cleveland,” Harper’s Weekly, July 19, 1884, 457, Hathi Trust Digital Library, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000020243289&view=1up&seq=465&size=150 (accessed November 31, 2015).

44 Halloran, Thomas Nast, 256–257.

45 Thomas Nast, “An Independent Victory,” Harper’s Weekly, July 19, 1884, 465, Hathi Trust Digital Library, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000020243289&view=1up&seq=473&size=150 (accessed November 31, 2015).

46 Paine, Thomas Nast, 498.

47 John Adler, Doomed by Cartoon: How Cartoonist Thomas Nast and the New York Times Brought Down Boss Tweed and His Ring of Thieves (New York: Morgan James Publishing, 2008), 288.

48 Vinson, Thomas Nast, 36.

49 Thomas Nast, “The Republican Boss,” Harper’s Weekly, July 19, 1884, 472, Hathi Trust Digital Library, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000020243289&view=1up&seq=480&size=150 (accessed November 31, 2015).

50 Nast, “An Independent Victory,” 465.

51 Walter Houghton, Early Life and Public Career of Hon. James G. Blaine (Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Book and Bible House, 1884), 72.

52 Houghton, Early Life, 72.

53 Thomas Nast, “The Plumed Knight,” Harpers’ Weekly, June 5, 1880, Princeton University Library, Thomas Nast Collection, https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/10641902#view (accessed June 30, 2018).

54 Joseph Keppler, “You Will Never Succeed in that Armor, Mr. Blaine – This is the Winning Suit,” reprinted in What Fools These Mortals Be!, 70.

55 Nast, “Too Heavy to Carry,” Harper’s Weekly, June 14, 1884, 388, Hathi Trust Digital Library, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000020243289&view=1up&seq=396&size=125 (accessed November 31, 2015).

56 Thomas Nast, “Third Term Panic,” Harper’s Weekly, November 7, 1874, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.15785/ (accessed June 30, 2018).

57 “Grover Cleveland: Campaigns and Election,” Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/president/cleveland/campaigns-and-elections (accessed November 31, 2015).

58 Schurz, Can Honest American, 1.

59 Schurz, Can Honest American, 2.

60 Schurz, Can Honest American, 4.

61 “I cannot vote for a Democrat,” n.p.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid.

64 Samuel Thomas, “The Tattooed Man Caricatures and the Presidential Campaign of 1884,” Journal of American Culture 10, no. 4 (1987): 2.

65 Scott Seligman, “Rediscovered: An Eloquent Chinese Voice Against Exclusion,” Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, May 20, 2014, http://smithsonianapa.org/now/wong-ar-chong/ (accessed November 31, 2015).

66 Wong, Letter from Wong.

67 Ibid.

68 John Kuo, New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture (Baltimore & London: John Hopkins University Press, 1999), 197.

69 Kuo, New York Before Chinatown, 200.

70 “Chinese Exclusion Act,” National Archives and Records Administration, May 6, 1882, https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/?dod-date=506 (accessed June 30, 2018); Kuo, New York Before Chinatown, 197–224.

71 Thomas Nast, “Hands Off, Gentlemen! America Means Fair Play for All Men,” Harper’s Weekly, February 18, 1871, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005696252/ (accessed June 30, 2018).

72 Thomas Nast, “The Youngest to the Oldest,” Harper’s Weekly, July 18, 1868, Princeton University Digital Library, https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/10635189#view (accessed June 30, 2018).

73 Anson Burlingame, English and Chinese Text of the Burlingame Treaty, July 28, 1868, Online archive of California, http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb4m3nb03h/?order=2&brand=oac4 (accessed June 30, 2018).

74 Thomas Nast, “The Civilization of Blaine,” Harper’s Weekly, March 8, 1879, Georgia Museum of Art, http://emuseum.georgiamuseum.org/objects/18967/the-civilization-of-blaine;jsessionid=32C68B97BDAD0A58BBDC8B6DBBF1556F?ctx=1c24d0e3-7794-413d-ad11-6cd330736d51&idx=744 (accessed June 30, 2018).

75 Kuo, New York Before Chinatown, 197.

76 Frederick Burr Opper, “Blaine's Letter of Acceptance / F. Opper,” Puck, July 30, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645418/ (accessed March 18, 2018).

77 Bernhard Gillam, “One Thing he Cannot Shake Off / Gillam,” Puck, May 28, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645204/ (accessed March 18, 2018).

78 “Mr. Blaine and the Mulligan Letters,” June 5, 1876, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://archive.org/details/mrblainemulligan00unit (accessed June 30, 2018).

79 Joseph Keppler, “Auch eine tatowirte,” (German) Puck, November 15, 1876, reprinted in What Fools These Mortals Be!, 74.

80 Grant Hamilton, “Let Those Laugh Who Win,” Judge, June 14, 1884, reprinted in What Fools These Mortals Be!, 77.

81 Grant Hamilton, “Men Whom the American People Have Learned to Admire have been Tattooed,” Judge, June 28, 1884, reprinted in What Fools These Mortals Be!, 78.

82 Thomas, “The Tattooed Man Caricatures,” 2.

83 Henry Bunner, “Cartoons and Comments,” Puck, May 7, 1884, 146, Hathi Trust Digital Library, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009228332;view=1up;seq=164 (accessed November 31, 2015).

84 Kahn and West, Puck, 42.

85 “Puck’s Pictures,” Omaha Daily Bee.

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid.

88 Carolyn Kitch, The Girl on the Magazine Cover: The Origins of Visual Stereotypes in American Mass Media (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 5.

89 “Ten Thousand Copies of Puck Containing Tattooed Anti Blaine Cartoon,” Bismarck Weekly Tribune, June 13, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042588/1884-06-13/ed-1/seq-1.pdf (accessed December 1, 2016).

90 Lippmann, Public Opinion, 20, 191.

91 Lippmann, Public Opinion, 20–21.

92 Trenor, Blaineism, 1–16.

93 Trenor, Blaineism, 4.

94 Bernhard Gillam, “The Receiving-Vault of the Republican Politicians Who Defied Public Morality / Gillam,” Puck, June 11, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645208/ (accessed March 30, 2018).

95 Thomas, “The Tattooed Man Caricatures,” 2.

96 “The Republican Nomination for President,” St. Landry Democrat, June 14, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064537/1884-06-14/ed-1/seq-4.pdf (accessed December 1, 2016).

97 “Long List of Prominent Papers Who Go Back on Blaine,” Spirit of Democracy, June 24, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038115/1884-06-24/ed-1/seq-1.pdf (accessed December 1, 2016).

98 “They All Bolt Blaine,” Abilene Reflector, June 26, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84029385/1884-06-26/ed-1/seq-8.pdf (accessed December 1, 2016).

99 “Mistaken Newspapers,” Weekly Graphic, June 27, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066097/1884-06-27/ed-1/seq-1.pdf (accessed December 1, 2016).

100 Ibid.

101 Mark Summers, The Press Gang (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 279–297.

102 Frank Beard, “Another Voice for Cleveland,” Judge, September 27, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.15780/ (accessed March 31, 2018).

103 Glen Jeansonne, “Caricature and Satire in the Presidential Campaign of 1884,” Journal of American Culture 3 (1980): 241.

104 Bernhard Gillam, “Tell the Truth,” Puck, August 13, 1884, HarpWeek, http://elections.harpweek.com/1884/cartoon-1884-large.asp?UniqueID=26&Year= (accessed June 30, 2018).

105 Jeansonne, “Caricature and Satire,” 241.

106 Ibid.

107 Thomas, “The Tattooed Man Caricatures,” 12.

108 Bernhard Gillam, “The Olympus of Corruption – ‘Apollo Strikes the Lyre and Charms the Gods’ / Gillam,” Puck, October 8, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/item/2011661834/ (accessed March 30, 2018).

109 Ted Smythe, The Gilded Age Press, 1865–1900 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003), 111.

110 David Spencer, The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America’s Emergence as a World Power (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2007), 210.

111 Spencer, The Yellow Journalism, 210.

112 Ibid.

113 Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop, American Political Cartoons: The Evolution of a National Identity, 1754–2010 (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2011), 69–70.

114 Smythe, The Gilded Age Press, 112.

115 George Jurgens, Joseph Pulitzer and New York World (Princeton: University Princeton Press, 1966), 104.

116 “Grover Cleveland,” Miller Center, paragraph 4.

117 Ibid.

118 Maxwell McCombs, “Building Consensus,” 437.

119 Ibid.

120 Kahn and West, Puck, 14.

121 Spencer, The Yellow Journalism, 209.

122 Thomas Kemnitz, “The Cartoon as a Historical Source,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 4, no. 1 (1973): 81–82.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Flora Khoo

Dr. Flora Khoo is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Regent University. She is the recipient of the 2019 Kenneth Hardwood Outstanding Dissertation Award as well as the 2019 Mass Communication and Society Dissertation Award. Her academic research interests include media history, communication and terrorism, the U.S. presidency and public opinion.