Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Turkey

Grasping hands at the plump federal surplus.

This amusing political cartoon was designed by Joseph Keppler and published in an issue of Puck magazine in 1888. The recent election of Republican Benjamin Harrison caused significant anxiety in terms of what would happen to the government surplus carefully amassed by Grover Cleveland. A ragtag group of politicians, businessmen, and government officials are scrambling to get their piece of the turkey, with nametags identifying some as the most notoriously corrupt of the past decade – Thomas Brady, George Robeson, Thomas Collier Platt, and more. The accompanying caption reads, “Chorus of Hungry Patriots – “For what we are about to receive let us be truly thankful!”