Romish Politics — Anything to Beat Grant

Published during the 1872 presidential campaign, this wood engraving targets the Democratic Party's perceived alliance with Irish Catholic machine politics against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant. The composition centers on two confronting figures: a thuggish Irish ward boss — rendered in the simian caricature routinely applied to Irish immigrants throughout this era, carrying a shillelagh and a money bag — and an elderly figure representing liberal Protestant reform. Behind them, a wall plaque reads "The Bible / The Public School / Is an American Institution," anchoring the cartoon's core anxiety: Catholic demands to remove the Protestant Bible from public schools. The caption quotes the St. Louis Western Watchman endorsing Catholic-controlled schooling. Nast frames the exchange as extortion — religion weaponized as a bargaining chip to unseat Grant.