"Don't let us have any more of this nonsense. It is a good trait to stand by one's friends; but —"

A woman personifying the U.S. Senate bars her door against a hunched, self-pitying man slumped in a chair — labeled Shepherd, identifying Alexander Robey Shepherd, the scandal-tainted governor of Washington D.C.'s territorial government whom President Grant stubbornly continued to defend. The female figure points him away with cold finality while papers at his feet catalogue his offenses. Nast's caption, left deliberately unfinished, lets readers complete the damning clause: loyalty to corrupt friends is no virtue at all. The cartoon targets Grant's blind personal fidelity, a recurring Nast theme in 1874 as Republican credibility eroded ahead of the midterm elections that would devastate the party in Congress.