Political Humor 1880

   James A. Garfield was the Republican candidate for president of the United States in 1880. He was opposed by Democratic candidate Winfield Hancock. Garfield was elected and took office on March 4, 1881. He was shot by assassin Charles Guiteau on July 2 and died on September 19, 1881. He had been in office 200 days.

   During the 1880 presidential campaign, newspaper editors and publishers across the country took sides according to their party registration and beliefs. Often their partisan activity extended to fictional accounts or events. The editor of the Utica Morning Herald, Ellis H. Roberts, was a participant. He was a Lincoln Republican with an adroit sense of humor.

 

Utica Morning Herald, Monday, August 16, 1880.

POLITICAL

   CAPTAIN WILLIAMS, of the New York street-cleaning bureau, had an interview, Friday, at Saratoga, with General HANCOCK, as to the view relative to the law touching the disposal of garbage. Nothing would suit the country better than an opinion from General HANCOCK relative to democratic mud-slinging.

   SENATOR MORGAN, of Alabama, in an interview in the Washington Post, deals with the charges of fraud and violence in that state. In answer to the question, "does seventy-five thousand represent the real democratic majority in Alabama?" he is compelled to say: "Not at all. We have a majority of about fifteen thousand over greenbackers, republicans and negroes." The rest of the reported majority comes from preventing any opposition, and, as proof shows by refusing to count opposition votes actually cast.

   The New York Herald states that a delegation of woman suffragists called on Gen. Hancock Friday. They gathered from Hancock's remarks that he was in sympathy with their cause, and if elected president he would not veto legislation which would benefit them.

   It is almost universally admitted that the so-called electoral college should be abolished. The institution can not longer serve any useful purpose and it may again become the cover for frauds. The legislatures should be divested of the power to regulate the manner in which the votes of a state shall be cast. The mode of voting for president ought to be determined by the constitution itself, and be the same in every state of the union. Presidential counts ought also to be regulated by the constitution and not depend upon an act of congress or a joint rule—Buffalo Courier.

   Postmaster General Key says that there will be no more solid south after this year. If Hancock is elected there will be a split over the distribution of the spoils, and if Garfield is elected local questions will produce divisions.

MUM'S THE WORD.

    A democratic paper announces in large type that "Deaf Mutes are Organizing in Support of Hancock." To which the Rochester Democrat rejoins: This certainly is no news. When Hancock was nominated this order was issued to the democratic party:

   “Concerning our treasonable utterances during the war—Silence."

   ''Concerning our predictions that the war would be a failure— Silence."

   “Concerning our encouragement of foreign sympathy and interference with and for the rebels— Silence.”

   "Concerning our organized efforts to aid the rebels in scattering the germs of small pox thro' the north—Silence."

   "Concerning our efforts to aid and abet rebel agents in their design to fire northern cities and northern shipping—Silence."

   "Concerning our efforts to induce Union soldiers to desert the Union cause—Silence."

   "Concerning our efforts to defeat emancipation and the ratification of the constitutional amendments—Silence.”

   "Concerning our declarations that not one cent should be given to 'Old Abe Lincoln' and his 'hireling soldiers '—Silence."

   "Concerning our unfortunate relations, one and all,  with the late rebels— Silence, SILENCE, SILENCE!"

   “We can't afford now to make an issue with the republicans on record. 'Mum's the word' and a tremendous effort for success must be made without exposing the weakness of our rear."

   This was the order for the northern wing of this motley cohort of emaciated rag-and-tatters democrats. A similar order was quietly transmitted thro’ the southern ranks of the party which enjoined great care that praise of the war record of the candidate be not spread before the southern people.

A SPECIMEN BRICK.

   The following was received Saturday:

   SYRACUSE, Aug. 13.—Will you inform me if the following paragraph, clipped from a paper in this section, has any foundation in fact:

   At the home of Roscoe Conkling there can be discovered a Hancock club composed almost wholly of ex-republican soldiers. THEO G. ROBINSON.

   If a club can be made up of one ex-republican soldier, the paragraph is true—otherwise it has not the slightest foundation in fact.

   A call was made some time ago for a veteran’s Hancock organization to be held in City Hall. A reporter found two democratic soldiers around the hall and no more. The democratic statesman who spirited the one republican soldier into the original Hancock club made that one republican president of the Hancock veteran club and filled in the remainder of the names at Bagg's Hotel.

References:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_H._Roberts
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_garfield
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winfield_Hancock
4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagg's_Hotel