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The Irish Question |
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“The Blainiac Programme” |
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Cartoonist: Friedrich Graetz |
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Source: Puck |
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Date:
July 23, 1884, p. 331
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Click to see a large version of this cartoon |
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Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
This cartoon mocks Republican presidential nominee James Blaine's foreign policy
in general, and his anti-British stance in particular; the latter of which was,
critics charged, slanted to appeal to Irish-American voters who usually voted
Democratic. (For a more complete explanation, see "Is This 'The True
American Policy'?"). Dressed ridiculously in ill-fitting armor, Blaine
solicits for Irish votes, having pierced the British Lion with an American
flagpole. The presidential nominee, a former secretary of state, is armed with
the sword of a "vigorous foreign policy," which worried the
Independent (Mugwump) Republicans who bolted their party to endorse Democratic
nominee Grover Cleveland.
Penetrating Blaine's cabbage-helmet is the quill pin of Gail Hamilton, his
campaign biographer. Hamilton was the pen name of Mary Abigail Dodge, a
journalist, essayist, fiction writer, and women's rights advocate, who was a
cousin of Blaine's wife. She spent winters in the Blaine household, and may have
been his speechwriter. The cabbage-helmet possibly refers to a passage in her
book Gala Days (1863). "Cabbage" is also a slang term for petty theft.
Beating his drum behind Blaine is Senator John Logan, the Republican
vice-presidential nominee. |
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