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 The Tariff Question

 


 “The Blaine Tariff Fraud”
  Cartoonist:  Thomas Nast
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   November 1, 1884, p. 715

Click to see a large version of this cartoon...

Click to see a large version of this cartoon

Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
Here, a group of laborers accuse the candidate's policy stance on the tariff issue as being phony. The charge of deception against Blaine is reiterated in the caption ("fraud"), the dialogue ("duped"), the label on Blaine's ubiquitous peddler's bag ("masquerading"), and the mask of Benjamin Butler (Greenback-Labor party presidential nominee). To make matters worse for Blaine, the rich and unscrupulous Jay Gould slyly reaches his hand into the nominee's back pocket. On the wall in the background, cartoonist Thomas Nast's notion of a Blaine campaign poster ("Fort Boodle Co.") is pasted over a campaign poster for Butler, featuring the symbolic image of Charles Dana's New York Sun, which endorsed the Greenback-Labor candidate.
 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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