POLITICAL "CAPITAL"

THE "people are in a very puzzled and despondent state ef mind about the political situation, and have got beyond the point at which they look for the appearance of the ideal etatesman uniting the purest motives with the highest ability. They can get the pure motives, and they can get the high abili ty; but somehow, owing to no matter what circumstances, to get a man who unites both into a leading place in the govern ment is a work of such difficulty that most people have given it up as (for the present at least) a bad job, and are willing to con Went themselves with any man who, for whatever motive, will do good work. It so happens, too, that the work to be done at this moment is not work which calls either for the highest order of genius or the highest aspirations. A man may do it very well without being a Moses or a WASHINGTON-without, in short, being either a prophet or a hero. He has neither to lead a race out of captivity nor call a nation into existence. The task before the American politician of to-day is the simple and somewhat homely one of preventing public officers from stealing and dividing the public money, and of preventing the government from cheating its creditors; and when a man offers himself for this work, there is no general disposition to ask whether he is a statesman of the first rank, or whether his political judgment has always been sure or his voice been always heard on the right side. In fact, they go so far es to say that to make capital in this way is a good thing to do, and they wish all politicians to engage in it. They are ready to forbear all curious inquiries into the motives or antecedents of men who will undertake to put an end to cheating and stealing. In fact, the voters of the country are sticking notices up offering the highest offices in their gift, and "no questions asked," to any body who will bring in a few plunderers of the state. Mr. TILDEN has achieved his present success simply owing to his having, before any body else of his class, understood the exact nature of the situation. He perceived sooner than his competitors that the time had come to stop preaching, and to begin making arrests and drawing up indictments. He now finds, and his competitors find, that his acuteness has rendered him the highest service, and his enemies actually play into his bands."-The Nation, October 7, 1875.

TWEED-LE-DEE AND TILDEN-DUM.

برة الارت

REFORM TWEED. "If all the people want is to have somebody arrested, I'll have you plunderers convicted. You will be allowed to escape; nobody will be hurt," and then TILDEN will go to the White House, aud I to Albauy as Governor."

THE CARTOON THAT CAPTURED TWEED

*

*Nast never fully credited the account of Tweed's capture until years after, when it was confirmed in a letter from Alvey A. Adee, who had been Secretary of the American Legation at Madrid. Mr. Adee in his letter (January 28, 1892) says:

I remember the incident well-in fact, it was I who found the picture among a lot of Harper's Weeklies on a top shelf in a dark closet in the house of a friend, Don Benigno S. Suarez, No. 3, Calle de la Flora. It made you famous in Madrid. Very truly yours,

ALVEY A. ADEE.

SOLDIERS "Whose side were you on?"

REFORMED USUFRUCT-"I-I was-busy in court with a Railroad Case!"

CHAPTER XXXIX

There were not many more pictures before election day. The Northern and the Southern soldier asking in chorus of Tilden "Whose side were you on?" and Mr. Tilden's reply, " I-I was busy with a railroad case," was the subject matter for one of the most effective. The Republican Elephant stepping on the twoheaded tiger was perhaps the best in the matter of drawing. The so-called "Southern Claims " in the balance against bread; the preparations to fire again on Fort Sumter; The Democratic Wolf stripped of its lambskin of Reform; Tilden, as Eve, tempting Charles Francis Adams with the Democratic nomination for the Massachusetts governorship-these were among the final shots. The "Southern Claims" referred to consisted of a mat

ter of something more than two billion dollars claimed as loss and damage by war, for which bills of allowance were expected to be passed in the event of Democratic victory. The feeling over this possibility became sufficiently strong to induce Mr. Tilden to write a letter, pledging himself to resist any such bills-a declaration accepted by his Southern constituency with sufficient salt to make it palatable. It was in reference to these Southern Claims, in a small drawing entitled "The Solid South," that Nast first used the dollar mark symbol in the spelling of financial issues. The "bloody shirt" bannered to the breeze in these final days. Even Curtis, who had once protested against all reference to the

SOLID

CHANGE POLICY

"Jefferson Davis and the secessionists merely endeavored to enforce with bayonets the doctrines of Mr. Tilden," he says, and in another place warmly commends President Grant's order to General Sherman to use all military force to protect citizens, "without distinction of race, color or political opinion in the exercise of the right to vote." Again, of South Carolina, "There is no doubt the Democrats in that State mean to carry it for Tilden and Reform' by means of the shot-gun," and he proceeds to denounce the "Democratic derringer means of winning elections, using terms as severe as it was ever possible for Curtis to employ. This volley was fired in the last issue of the Weekly previous to the election, while in the same paper Nast's pictures were a front page of Tilden emptying his "barrel" of money into the ballot box, and a large double page of Columbia-the fine emble

99

matic figure for which the artist's wife was most frequently the model-making ready to turn the political Wheel of Fortune." On the back page appeared the "Lion and the Lamb," an excellent satire on the citizen who is particularly fierce before election day, yet fails to go to the polls on account of bad weather. And thus closed the Centennial presidential campaign.

Yet the struggle was far from ended. Both parties were confident of triumph, and on the day following the election both claimed success. The party of Tilden was jubilant, for the telegraph on election night brought news favorable to their candidate. But early next morning Zachariah Chandler, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, obtained special information, or counsel,† concerning Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana which led him to make the public statement:

"Rutherford B. Hayes has received one hundred and eightyfive electoral votes, and is elected."

The Democrats jeered and reviled this report. They had been

*Once, during a visit to Washington, Mrs. Nast was presented to Chief Justice Drake. "Hail, Columbia!" he said by way of greeting. Judge Drake was of the tall Yankee type, and Mrs Nast's prompt reply, "Why, how are you, Uncle Sam?" greatly amused the eminent jurist.

+ Said to have been supplied by John C. Reid, editor of the New York Times.

too sure of the Solid South to calmly surrender any portion of it, though it was demonstrable that, in addition to the white Republican voters in each State, there were more colored voters (acknowledged Republicans) in the Southern States than of all the white suffragists combined. Both parties now vigorously claimed the victory and threats of violence became numerous.

MY DEAR SIR-Please at once to communicate with some reliable person, in three or four principal towns and in each city of your county, and request him (expenses duly arranged for at this end) to telegraph to WILLIAM M. TWEED, Tammany Hall, at the minute of closing the polls, not waiting for the count, such person's estimate of the vote, Let the telegraph be as follows: "This town will show a Democratic gain [or loss) over last year of-[number]; or this one, if sufficiently certain: "This town will give a Republican (or Democratic] majority of" There is of course an important object to be attained by a simul "would not play false, taneous transmission at the hour of closing the polls, but And yet would wrongly win," not longer waiting. Opportunity can be taken of the usual half-hour lull in telegraphic communication over lines be will not avail. If we Republicans are swindled again we were swindled last Fall, the outrage. Prosecutors, fore actual results begin to be declared, and before the responsible to God and you, and such as you, will be Associated Press absorb the telegraph with returns and magistrates, municipal authorities, are all in the pool; we have nothing to hope from the ministers of justice, and the interfere with individual messages, and give orders to villains have no fear of the terrors of the law. I appeal to watch carefully the count. Very truly yours, you, and anxiously await the result. Yours, HORACE GREELEY. NEW YORK, October 2, 1869

SAMUEL J. TILDEN, Chairman.

THE PROSPECT IN NEW YORK.
"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT"

UNCLE SAMMY'S BAR'L