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Let Us Have (Cartoon) Peace, Post-Election
JOSEPH KEPPLER (1838-1894) plausibly can be called the father of American political cartooning, for he was at least as influential as Thomas Nast; only a few years subsequent to Nast's impact; and with as much influence of the genre as Claypoole Johnston, Bellew, Matt Morgan, and a few others.
Viennese-born Keppler founded two pictorial humor magazines in St Louis before moving to New York, first on the staff of Leslie's Weekly (in a sense, the Democratic Nast) and then founded of PUCK in 1876 -- first as a German-language political/humor weekly; then in English. It was the first (and very) successful cartoon journal to publish front-, center-, and back-page color cartoons.
This cartoon appeared the week of the 1880 election, It was forecast as a close contest, and was indeed. Printing schedules meant that issues needed "lead time," so Keppler could not comment on an uncertain victor. He relied on a device he frequently employed: "hiding" faces and caricatures in the elements of the drawing like rocks and tree branches. So here we can find Garfield and Hancock and their running mates Arthur and English; and, for good measure, other politicians of the day. Ladies representing the GOP and Democrats shake hands "Now That a President 's Elected."
(BTW, the Republican James Garfield won, only to be murdered six months later by a disappointed office-seeker.)
