Above, The Honor of the Country in Danger, by artist Bernhard Gillam. The centerspread cartoon in the October 29th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine, this was part of the “Tattooed Man” Series, it is one of twenty-two cartoons which ran in Puck in 1884, satirizing the candidacy for President of Republican Maine Senator, James G. Blaine.

James Blaine was a politician widely regarded as openly, flagrantly corrupt, and an arrogant, unrepentant liar. Which is why this Puck cartoon poses that his candidacy (as the Republican nominee for President in 1884) was placing “The Honor of the Country in Danger”. It was Blaine’s monumental reputation as a liar — with even many Republican leaning newspapers turning against him (including Harper’s Weekly, and its famous cartoonist, Thomas Nast) — which resulted in the first post-Civil War Republican loss of the Office of President.

Click on the above cartoon, to view it — and the captions embedded within it — in greater detail.

In the “Tattooed-Man” series, Blaine was depicted as being tattooed from head-to-toe — like a carnival freak (which is how the series initially started, in an April 16th, 1884 cartoon; click here to see it) — each of his tattooes hilighting his more outstanding lies and acts of corruption.

I didn’t really think I’d be running this Blaine material at this point (unless, God Forbid, the candidate at the bottom of the G.O.P.’s morality, and equivalent in every way to Blaine — Newt Gingrich — had somehow snatched the nomination.) I didn’t (earlier) see these Blaine cartoons as applying in anyway, to Mitt Romney. And I still don’t see the corruption aspect applying. But, the liar aspect, has these past few months, come into vivid perspective. I’d originally been willing to give Romney the benefit of the doubt, that his drastic changes in stance, on a wide variety of subjects, from the one time he held public office (one term as Governor of Massachusetts, more than a decade ago), to his conveniently radical moves to the right, for G.O.P. primaries — I had been willing to believe this was merely him genuinely evolving his opinions in a particulr direction. (Not a direction I in anyway agree with, but nonetheless, possibly genuine.)

In the last month or two, though, he is suddenly putting on yet another set of faces for his opinions. Changing what he said mere months ago (and acting as if he never said such things, and that they weren’t recorded on camera!) Plus engaging in bald-faced lies concerning facts, so bad, that even long time Republicans, such as the head of General Motors, is calling him a liar. Romney’s lies have risen to a level not seen in my lifetime (from a President or Presidential nominee), since Richard Nixon (whom the general public — even those who supported him — called “Tricky Dick”).

So, here you are, with more James Blaine cartoons. Above, two close-ups on captions, found within Gillam’s cartoon, both of which have import on the current electoral fight for the Presidency. First, we have “Honesty No Requisite for the Presidency (Blaine’s Theory)”. And beside it (held in the hand of monopolist & stock market manipulator Jay Gould), is “Four Supreme Court Judges to be Appointed by the Next President”. While it is highly doubtful that whoever wins Tuesday’s election, will get to appoint that many judges to the Supreme Court, it is likely that he’s get to appoint one or two. And with the Supreme Court already highly tilted towards Conservatives, merely one more appointment under Republicans, will result in radical extra-legislative, right-wing activist opinions being passed down.

Next up, we have our third posting of extracts from the extremely rare 1888-published cartoon booklet, Blaine Language (click on the title, to find the prior two parts). This is the rarer of a pair of 1888 political comic books (one each aimed at the two parties), by writer Henry Liddell and artist G. Roberty. Above, from the rear cover of the companion title (Evolution of a Democrat — A Darwinian Tale), we have an ad for the subject of our posting, Blaine Language from Truthful Blaine.

The “Together with Jim’s Great Ten-Cent Republican Variety Show and Strictly Moral One-Horse Circus“ part of the ad, refers to the larger part of the Blaine Language booklet, which consists of a series of individual cartoons, done in the style of circus and vaudeville/theater billboard posters of the day, satirizing James Blaine. We continue below with our presentation of those cartoons.

Click on the above & below pictures & cartoons, to view them in greater detail.

Well, I was surprised to find the above (I only recently acquired my copy of Blaine Language, and am reading it for the first time, as I scan it). But, we are presenting Blaine Language in full, so…

I’m 99.9% certain James Blaine was not a Mormon. Otherwise the outcries from some Evangelical Republicans, that Mitt Romney is the first non-Christian, or cult member, nominated by a major party for the Presidency (as they were complaining about him prior to his winning the nomination, but I guess they’ve decided to place politics above their long held religious beliefs), would be wrong. Searching the internet for an answer, it would appear that the above is a smear against Blaine, for attempting to defend Mormons against enactment of a national law outlawing their practice of polygamy. (Ironically, given the Mormon Church’s position on it, Blaine’s defense of Mormon polygamy, is why gay marriage today remains at the state level, rather than having been outlawed at the national level, in the 1880s/90s!) The law also would have gone after Fundamentalist Mormons who had fled the United States, to live in Mexico (such as Mitt Romney’s family) — click here to see an article on this, on a Utah History website, which took the article from a publication by the University of Utah.

Beneath, I find the below interesting (with its march of the “Blaine-Invincibles”), given the answers that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney gave to an off-beat question posed to each (in person, on the spot) by Reader’s Digest, asking them what their favorite word was (to which my response would have been, “like anyone has one…???”). Anyway, Obama’s answer was “grace”; Romney’s answer was “indomitable”. I’m sure everyone will have their own take on that, but frankly, Romney’s answer makes me shudder.

Above, Blaine presented as the “Republican Taffy Man”, I guess, for stretching the truth.

Below, Truthful James in “The Kampaign Lyre”.

Above, two-faced Blaine, pretending to be akin to the common workman, while in truth being a rich railroad baron (to see some similarly themed cartoons, click here).

We still have one more posting’s worth of extracts of Blaine Language remaining. These will eventually be posted, sometime after the Election.

Beneath, a simultaneous allusion to the story of “George Washington and the Cherry Tree”, and, an inference to Blaine as a political attack dog/ mud-slinger.

Doug Wheeler

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