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 Tilden and Tammany Hall

 


 "Democratic Presidential Candidate of 1876 to Democratic Presidential Candidate of 1872"
  Cartoonist:  A. B. Frost based on a George Colt design
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   September 2, 1876, p. S725

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Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
During the 1868 presidential election, Samuel Tilden served as campaign manager for the Democratic nominee, Horatio Seymour, and as chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee. A year later, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, then a Republican, wrote a public letter to Tilden accusing him of allowing the New York Democrats to commit vote fraud. Resurrecting the 1868 charge of vote fraud eight years later was one way that Republicans sought to paint Tilden as politically corrupt.

In this cartoon, Greeley, who ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee in 1872, appears as Banquo's ghost, accusing Tilden, who answers as a guilty Macbeth, of wrongdoing. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the title character murders Duncan, the good king of Scotland. When Banquo, one of Duncan's generals, voices suspicions that Macbeth has gained power through an evil deed, Macbeth orders him murdered as well. Banquo's ghost then manifests himself to Macbeth, persistently condemning the new ruler for his sins.

 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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