Then and Now — 1862 and 1882 / The Stalwart Medal

Bernhard Gillam's double-feature page skewers Ulysses S. Grant's political opportunism. The upper cartoon shows Grant literally costumed in crocodile skin — a visual pun on 'crocodile tears' — weeping before a wall-posted notice of his own 1862 General Order No. 11, which expelled Jewish civilians from the military department he commanded. He clutches a handbill advertising his 1882 Chickering Hall speech expressing sympathy for persecuted Russian Jews; his tears fall onto a placard reading 'Jewish Vote 1884,' implying his compassion is pure electoral calculation. The caption quotes Shakespeare's Henry VI: 'Oh, now you weep, and I perceive you feel the dint of pity.' The lower item depicts a mock medal satirizing Grant's 'Stalwart' Republican faction, engraved with whiskey rings and corruption slogans. Together the pieces argue Grant is recycling the same communities he once harmed for personal political gain.