After unsuccessful attempts at winning the presidential nomination in 1876 and 1880, James G.Blaine won the Republican nomination for the 1884 presidential elections. The issue of Chinese Exclusion now decided and enacted into law, Harper’s decided to reprise some of Nast’s anti-Blaine cartoons.

Both Thomas Nast and Harper’s editor George W. Curtis could not endorse, nor support Blaine or their beloved Republican party. Nast and Curtis endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Grover Cleveland and became “Mugwumps” former Republicans who went over to the Democratic side for reasons of principle. Cleveland won the election.

For details on some of the cartoons featured here see:

• 8 March 1879 – “The Civilization of Blaine“
• 15 March 1879 – “A Matter of Taste”
• 15 March 1879 – “Blaine Language“
• 22 March 1879 -”Protecting White Labor” 
• 20 March 1880 – “Blaine’s Teas(e)“
• 1 May 1880 – “Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!“
• 8 May 1880 – “The “Magnetic” Blaine, or a Very Heavy “Load”-Stone for the Republican Party“