Above, by artist Bernhard Gillam, from the centerspread of the September 24th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine, we have the 1884 G.O.P. Presidential-nominee, James Blaine, featured in the cartoon Blaine Will Be Vindicated in November.

The cartoon is a play on an argument given by the N.Y. Tribune (then a Republican mouthpiece newspaper, twisting and inventing “facts”, as per Fox News today), on why Blaine should and would become President. Blaine is seen here, posed as Caesar, while the N.Y. Tribune‘s editor Reid “interviews” him. The jist of the article (at least, as Puck would have it) was that the stock swindling and corruption in Blaine’s history, should be ignored, and would be forgiven/vindicated as nothing, by his election to President. A crowd of bank and stock swindlers ask that they, too, be forgiven. As do men atop the prison in the background.

Clicking on the above cartoon will allow you to view it in detail, and read the various texts inside it.

The pedestal upon which Blaine stands, has the carved words, “What are you going to do about it?” — the same words that Thomas Nast used repeatedly against crooked Tammany Hall politician, Boss Tweed (pictured behind Blaine, in black & white, in the style of Nast’s drawings). Tweed holds a placard lamenting why wasn’t he vindicated as well?

This is part of the series of cartoons depicting Blaine as a “Tattooed Man”, covered head-to-toe with his various sins. (Though in this cartoon, the ones on his arms are barely visible, and his face doesn’t appear tattooed at all — there really wasn’t an effort to make the placement of tattooes consistent from one cartoon to the next. And that wasn’t the point.)

To find prior postings in the “Tattooed Man” series, click here. And, for more details on the series, click here to read an excellent article by Harlen Makemson of Elon University, titled One Misdeed Evokes Another: How Political Cartoonists Used “Scandal Intertextuality” Against Presidential Candidate James G. Blaine.

Doug Wheeler

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