“A SAIL! A SAIL!”
PUCK, July 2nd, 1884.
This simple but effective cartoon hardly requires any further elucidation than is afforded by the date of its publication. It appeared on July 2nd, 1884, immediately after the nomination of Mr. Blaine at the Republican Convention at Chicago, and the consequent bolt of the Independent Republicans and so-called Mugwumps. With reference to the appearance in the picture of Mr. John Kelly in the attitude of a hostile savage, we need only say that the readiness of the Tammany Hall of that day to stab the Democratic Party in the back whenever it furthered its own ends by so doing was something that was more than suspected then, and that was conclusively proved in the first Cleveland and Harrison campaign.
SAMUEL J. TILDEN.
PUCK, August 11th, 1886.
“Mr. Tilden’s death is to be regretted by his friends and by his political enemies. He was a man of principles and ideas. He had ambitions that looked higher than to the mere accumulation of money or the acquirement of that cheap, ephemeral power which flatters some small souls. And beside this he had courage and independence, and the breeding and education of a gentleman. Many were forced, by conscience and conviction, to oppose his political aspirations; but all found him an adversary to be respected, and a man of dignity and power. History must record of Samuel J. Tilden that he did his best to purify a great party fallen into a frightful moral decadence in its own Capuan stronghold,—must note his wonderful work in the cause of civic honesty and good government, and his loyalty to his country at a time when all his affiliations must have inclined him to disloyalty or to an indifferent neutrality. And more than this, History must say of him that he suffered a cruel wrong with dignified fortitude, and by his wisdom and self-restraint relieved his country from a well-grounded fear of dangerous civil disturbance. Remembering this, it is easy for the most partisan spirit to forget much else, and to do honor to the dead statesman and patriot.”—Puck, August 11th, 1886.
