In this Harper's Weekly cover illustration, political cartoonist Thomas Nast (lower-right) presents to the nation the grand, gigantic Republican Elephant (a partisan symbol the artist popularized). Published months before the Republican nominating convention, the cartoon warns delegates not to choose a corrupt standard-bearer, i.e., James Blaine of Maine. The belt around the elephant reads "Civil Service Reform," and the words in the caption, "pure" and "clean," were often used to describe government operating under the merit system of civil service reform, as opposed to the corruption allegedly encouraged by the patronage (or "spoils") system of government service.