This cartoons marks the beginning of a dramatic shift in the journal’s editorial position. In the months leading up to the convention, cartoonist William Allen Rogers and editor Carl Schurz had vilified William McKinley and other Republican presidential candidates for waffling on the money question, even occasionally accusing them of succumbing to the free-silver temptation. However, after the Republican platform’s endorsement of the gold standard, Harper's Weekly backed the Republican ticket of McKinley and Garret Hobart, the vice-presidential nominee.