An 1892 colour lithograph argues for the protective tariff. A tiger ridden by "Free Wool" is "The Democratic Mug-Wump Idol," John Bull swings a "Cobden Club" club at the tariff key-stone, and Uncle Sam, "Our next President," stands "On Guard To Protect All Our Industries."
A print built from quotations
This print argues with citations as well as pictures. Its catalog title is the run of Democratic platform phrases printed on the sheet, and the cartoon figures come with quoted lines: a Democratic slogan, a London newspaper, a remark by Henry Watterson about wool, and a section number from the McKinley Tariff. The archive describes a tiger ridden by a figure labelled "Free Wool," John Bull swinging a "Cobden Club" club at a tariff key-stone, and Uncle Sam standing guard before mills and farms.
The McKinley Tariff, Section 51, prohibits the entry of convict labor made goods, wares or merchandise in any port of the United States.
John Bull tries to knock out the Key Stone.
"The Tariff is a Tax."
"We wish success to the Democrats, the avowed champions of free trade" London Times July 20th 1892.
Democratic Progressive Platforms: "1888 Tariff Reform; 1892 Tariff for Revenue Only; "Tariff for Protection is Unconstitutional"
Free Trade.
Henry Watterson, the Free Trade Democratic Platform Maker, said: The duty on wool is the Key Stone of the whole Arch of Protection.
The Democratic Mug-Wump Idol
Our next President.
On Guard To Protect All Our Industries.
How the case is stacked
The archive tags three techniques. Card stacking fits the quotations: the sheet picks lines that set the Democrats beside Britain. The London Times line wishing "success to the Democrats, the avowed champions of free trade" does the most work, because it lets a foreign paper speak for the other side. The platform phrases run, under the heading "Democratic Progressive Platforms," from "Tariff Reform" to "Tariff for Protection is Unconstitutional." Name-calling fits "Mug-Wump Idol" and the casting of John Bull as the man trying to break the arch. Transfer is in Uncle Sam: the national figure is labelled "Our next President," so the country's own emblem is lent to one candidate.
Most of the quotations are presented as the opponents' own words, and the print offers no figures on prices, wages or revenue. A reader in 1892 was being asked, in part, to judge a trade policy by who in London approved of it. That is an argument from association. Whether the tariff helped or hurt the industries in the background is a question this print does not try to answer.
Maker and context
The Library of Congress record names no publisher, and the archive calls the issuer "Mixed." The tariff was already the subject of slogans four years earlier: the Democrats' Public Office Is a Public Trust banner of 1888 printed "REDUCE THE TARIFF ON NECESSARIES OF LIFE." The campaign print hub gathers the century's campaign sheets, 1800 to 1900.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Democratic progressive platforms: 1888 tariff reform; 1892 tariff for revenue only; "tariff for protection is unconstitutional," 1892. Publisher not named in the Library of Congress record.
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (published 1892).
