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The Civilization of Blaine Cartoon

Description:

James Gillespie Blaine was a U. S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U. S. Senator from Maine and a two-time United States Secretary of State. He was a dominant Republican leader of the Third Party System, obtaining the 1884 Republican nomination but lost to Democratic Grover Cleveland.

In the Senate, Blaine was an ardent, vocal supporter of Chinese exclusion. He believed that the Chinese laborers immigrating to the American West Coast were a servant class of workers, little better than slaves, who were lowering the standard of living for all free laborers. In his opinion, it was the Chinese government that had violated the Burlingame Treaty by failing to ensure that their emigrants came to America voluntarily rather than as part of an exploited labor force. He also claimed that it was less costly for a Chinese worker to immigrate to the West Coast than for an American to migrate there from the eastern United States.Thomas Nast presented him as the leading eastern advocate of exclusion.

Creator:

Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly

Creation Date:

March 8 , 1879

Collection Title:

Harper's Weekly

Collection Number:

051 H236, 1879

Image Number:

march 8 , 1879