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 Frontrunner McKinley: A Defeated Napoleon

 


 "To Ask the Major to Define His Position On the Financial Question…"
  Cartoonist:  William Allen Rogers
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   June 6, 1896, p. 553

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

Click to see a large version of this cartoon

Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
Continuing the theme of mocking candidate William McKinley’s ambiguous position on monetary policy, the Ohio governor is presented again as a crazed-looking Napoleon sitting upon a “Financial Question” sawhorse. The quote under the image may be taken from a circular distributed throughout New York State by McKinley’s supporters there. The document, discussed in an editorial from the same issue of Harper's Weekly as this cover cartoon, criticized the “unfair attacks” on the candidate. Editor Schurz, however, found its arguments unconvincing and stated bluntly that McKinley did not deserve the Republican presidential nomination because he “has no convictions whatever on the currency question.” The caption’s use of “Major” is a reference to McKinley’s service with the Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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