“House-Clearing at Washington” by an unknown cartoonist. Frank Leslie’s Budget of Fun, June 1, 1864.

In this Budget of Fun cartoon, President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Henry Seward clean the White House of annoying rats. In the left foreground, Governor Horatio Seymour of New York and New York Herald managing editor Frederic Hudson appear respectively above and below the box of rat poison bearing the name of a leading Lincoln supporter, editor Henry Raymond of The New York Times. Seymour had been a particular thorn in the president’s side by vocally opposing the administration’s policies and publicly sympathizing with the New York City draft rioters in July 1863. In the center foreground, the rat representing Peace Democrat Clement Vallandigham has collapsed.

In the center, Lincoln takes care of his opponents in the presidential election by stepping on Democrat George B. McClellan and trying to sweep Radical Republican John C. Fremont into “An Appointment” trap. No office was actually offered to Fremont, but he did withdraw from the campaign in late September. Conservative Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, a foe of Fremont’s, was removed from his post to appease the Radicals.

The rat atop the doorframe (upper left) is Benjamin Butler, a controversial Union general who had been touted by some as a possible presidential candidate who could unite War Democrats and Republicans dissatisfied with the Lincoln administration. He declined to run, however, and was ordered to New York City in October to prevent election-day riots. Hanging off the cabinet is a cage holding the rat of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who in early 1864 had to end his campaign challenging Lincoln for the Republican nomination. The president accepted Chase’s resignation in June not long after this postdated cartoon was published. The rodent on the doorframe (upper right) is Congressman Fernando Wood, a major Peace Democrat and former mayor of New York City. The bottle of poison near Seward (left) is named after Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, who helped elect Lincoln in 1860, but became a frequent critic of the president.

http://elections.harpweek.com/1864/cartoons

In a 1957 speech, the political cartoonist Herbert Lawrence Block, better known as simply Herblock, said that the first responsibility of the press was to ''use its freedom to protect the rights and liberties of all individuals'' by speaking out “and, if the occasion arises, raise bloody hell.'' Herblock raised “bloody hell” for more than half a century in the name not of false journalistic “balance” but instead in the name of the American ideal of individual freedom faced with institutionalized oppression. Born October 13, 1909, Herblock gave birth to the term "McCarthyism" with his March 29, 1950 cartoon (above) showing a Republican elephant crying out “You mean I’m supposed to stand on that!” as Republican politicians push the embodiment of the party to stand upon the tower of tar buckets that Senator Joseph McCarthy had employed to smear the names of innocent people in his Red scare reign of terror. Herblock’s clear eye and incisive pen aided him in seeing past the distracting show to the real wrongs underneath. Later, his "Mr. Atom" character concisely depicted the insanity of nuclear war lost in the nationalist hysteria of the Cold War. Few other artists in twentieth century America ripped the mask from as thoroughly or humorously as Herblock.

http://artblogbybob.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury strip (shown above searching for Ronald Reagan’s brain in 1987), although highly praised and awarded, contributes to the blurring of the line between government figures and celebrity by bringing serious issues to the “funny pages.” Doonesbury and its children literally take more of the bite out of the already toothless modern American political cartoon by prioritizing laughs over social commentary.

Dr. Seuss was an artist of some of the political cartoons during World War 2. He drew very often. Over to the right is a drawing of a political cartoon that Dr. Seuss himself drew during World War two. First, you identify all that is in the picture, then you think about what is happening or what had happened, in this case, what happened. Then you connect. The meaning behind this picture is that the Nazis worked hard to take over other countries. And the United States did nothing to help. The United States resulted in isolation from the war. They decided it was a European problem, instead of an American problem. So it shows the bird as an American because of its hat, the known hat for July fourth. It is very patriotic. Anyway, they showed the patriotic bird turning its back to the Nazi bird with the little wristband, that is cutting down the tree. So that is a way to show that Dr. Seuss did not like the isolation that America did.

http://moderntypewriter.wordpress.com/page/13/

-- Ed Reep

The establishment of Joseph Keppler's magazine Puck, whose cartoons drew artistic guidance from German and Italian archetypes marked a significant moment in which the ideas of an intellectual elite could be successfully relayed to the masses. Using the medium of illustrated humor, Puck ridiculed the prominent figures of the day and engaged in fascinating commentary about the relationships between political activity and popular culture. This comparison points to Keppler and company's understanding of politics as America's true national pastime, a concept that still lingers with us today. Furthermore, the commercial success of the magazine as well as the triumph of certain liberal missions such as the prevention of General Grant's third presidential term remain a testament to the efficacy of Keppler's work. Puck celebrated its four hundredth issue with a lithograph which summarizes the perspective of the magazine, its artistic director, and the Mugwumps he believed in: "Men May Come and Men May Go, but the Work of Reform Goes on Forever!"

Political cartoons are for the most part composed of two elements: caricature, which mock the individual, and allusion, which creates the situation or context into which the individual is placed. Caricature as a Western discipline goes back to Leonardo da Vinci's artistic explorations of "the ideal type of deformity"-- the grotesque-- which he used to better understand the concept of ideal beauty. While caricature originated around the Mediterranean, cartoons of a more editorial nature developed in a chillier climate. A merchant class had emerged to occupy positions of leadership within the growing villages and towns, which meant that a core of people existed who would respond to Luther's verbally abusive attack and be economically capable of resisting the all-powerful Catholic Church.

Benjamin Franklin's "Join or Die", which depicts a snake whose severed parts represent the Colonies, is acknowledged as the first political cartoon in America. The image had an explicitly political purpose from the start, as Franklin used it in support of his plan for an intercolonial association to deal with the Iroquois at the Albany Congress of 1754. It came to be published in "virtually every newspaper on the continent"; reasons for its widespread currency include its demagogic reference to an Indian threat as well as its basis in the popular superstition that a dead snake would come back to life if the pieces were placed next to each other.

Joseph Keppler the most commercially and critically acclaimed cartoonist of the Gilded Age was born in Vienna in 1838. Joseph followed his father to America in 1867. By the time he left his homeland at age twenty-nine, he had graduated from the Austrian Academy of Fine Arts, appeared as featured actor at a Viennese theater, and in 1864-65 contributed to the popular illustrated humor magazine Kikeriki!. Shortly after his arrival Keppler "fell in with a distinguished crowd of journalists, writers, and artists"-- including a young reporter named Joseph Pulitzer.

A Brief History of

Political Cartoons

"Join or Die" became a symbol to which all Americans could respond. Even though the Albany Congress was a failure, Franklin's snake had established a connection between a drawing and a specific political idea in the American imagination.

From the first distorted paintings by British and Flemish masters to Joseph Keppler and Thomas Nast's establishment of modern day American editorial and political cartooning, to some of the best examples of contemporary trends.

This cartoon byJoseph Keppler, one of 19th century America's pioneer political cartoonists, appeared in Puck around the late 1870s.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/puck/part1.html

Uncle Sam welcoming Immigrants Uncle Sam welcomes immigrants, carrying their belongings, into a structure called “U.S. Ark of Refuge.” A sign in front advertisesthe benefits of immigrating to the USA, such as “No Compulsive Military Service.” Created by Joseph Keppler, 1880.

http://www.corbisim.com/Enlargement/Enlargement.aspx?id=IH169000&ext=1&wdid=1fe763a649754faeab22f6c61f79dce3