A.B. Frost, ‘the dean of American illustrators’, was famous for his images portraying rural life and sport in an unpretentious and often humorous fashion. Early in his career, however, Frost was an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly, a magazine based in New York City, who created biting, satirical political cartoons during the infamous 1876 U.S. presidential election.

Scandals during the Grant administration and an economic depression caused by a bank panic in 1873 made the Democrats’ message of civil service reform and improved monetary policy attractive to voters. Samuel Tilden, Democratic candidate for president, thus portrayed himself as a reformer and proponent of sound fiscal policy.

Frost’s cartoons attack Tilden as corrupt, accuse him of Confederate sympathies, and support instead the campaign of the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes.

The cartoon ‘Mr. Facing-Both-Ways’ has its roots in how the biblical term ‘double-souled’ (dipsychos in James 1:8) has been used to attack opponents. Such allusions build on John Bunyan’s 1678 The Pilgrim’s Progress (which introduces the character of ‘Mr. Facing-both-ways’—a man whose soul is divided between faith and the world), Goethe’s Faust (1808), and A. H. Clough’s Dipsychus (1850).

Frost’s two-faced Tilden alludes to the politician’s alleged hypocrisy. Tilden’s ‘public’ face declares his support of reform. The mostly hidden second face, however, directs viewers to consider his alleged Confederate sympathies, the Democratic Party’s support of ‘soft’ money (paper money not backed by gold), and corruption (Democrats in the House of Representatives fired staff who were Union veterans and hired Confederate veterans).

The document Tilden hides behind his back contains other accusations: Tilden was a ‘copperhead’, a northern Democrat opposed to fighting the Civil War, and a ‘sham reformer’ because of his early connections with the corrupt Boss Tweed Ring.

Thomas Hendricks, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, also appears in this cartoon at the lower right as a ‘rag-baby’ crawling out of Tilden’s top hat—a caricature signalling his own support for ‘soft’ money, whose inflationary effects are suggested by the rising balloon. The ‘fireworks’ of reform also emerging from the hat allude to the flashy and sometimes spectacular appearance of reform that was, in reality, ephemeral.

Tilden’s apparel also reflects his status as a rich corporate lawyer. Frost believed the multimillionaire Tilden corruptly gained his fortune by representing titans of industry. In terms of James’s Epistle, Tilden was one of the greedy, corrupt rich who should ‘wither away’ (v.11).

References

Gowler, David B. 2014. James Through the Centuries (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell)