Judge — January 2, 1886 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon satirizes Democratic Party hypocrisy regarding federal spending. Two figures—labeled "honest Democrats"—argue before a judge about state appropriations. The caption mocks their selective morality: they claim to always vote "nay" on appropriations to cut costs, **except** for Indiana and Pennsylvania. The satire points out that these Democrats made exceptions for states they politically favored, contradicting their stated principle of fiscal restraint. The judge presiding suggests accountability for this inconsistency. The cartoon reflects Gilded Age partisan politics, when both parties criticized wasteful "pork barrel" spending while protecting funds benefiting their own constituencies—a practice the cartoonist suggests Democrats were particularly guilty of hypocritically.