Life, 1898-05-19 · page 7 of 20
Life — May 19, 1898 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Political Cartoon Analysis: Life Magazine, Page 419 **The Cartoon:** The top illustration depicts a fashionable military officer showing off an ornate document to a group of peasants or common people huddled on the ground, captioned "Spread it before the astonished eyes of the Day." **The Context:** The accompanying text discusses Captain Bainbridge anchoring a ship in Tunis harbor. The ship was loaded with silver dollars as a bribe—the U.S. was essentially paying tribute to the Barbary States (North African powers) to avoid naval attacks. The article notes the irony that this appeasement contradicted American independence principles. **The Satire:** The cartoon mocks the humiliation of the young U.S. Navy, reduced to paying tribute to foreign powers rather than defending American interests militarily. The peasants' bewilderment suggests public embarrassment at this diplomatic capitulation.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ship Crescent loaded with silver dollars which had been sent as a bribe from the Yankee nation to the Dey, they ex- claimed with one voice, ** What are ie here for “Where do we come in and other expressions indicating their displeasure. Of course, urgent as this, had Congress previously not been influenced by George Washing- ton and others to create a navy, the Bey of Tunis, and likewise the Bashaw of Tripoli, would no doubt have been simi- larly placated. Then they would have asked for more, and still more, Eventu- ally they would have come over to the United States and settled, and their an- cestors might, through inherited gifts, have been even more successful to robbing the country than some of our present politicians, Their dreams, however, were knocked in the head by our new navy, and so it happened that through a few ships, which our legislation had almost tabooed as being monarchical and unnecessary, we were still able to preserve our inde- pendence, although this had already been given a severe shock by the annual tribute we paid to a barbarous power. 7 # 4 in a case as FTER Captain Bainbridge had an- chored his ship in the harbor of Spread it befure the astonished eyes of the Dey.” Algiers, under the guns of the fort, so that he was practically helpless, the Dey proceeded to inform him that he considered the Americans his slaves, and they must do his bidding. He therefore commanded him to go on an errand to Con- Stantinople, taking a present to the Sultan, and also to con vey some Mussulmans to that potent Turk, Moreover, he directed that Bainbridge fly the Algerian flag over the Washington as an acknowledgment. of vassal- George age. ‘T's is a delightful in cident, and that the Dey should a ship named have selected the George as a peculiar mark of his pleasure has a tinge of irony. Particularly is this so when we consider that three years before George Washington himself, in. a speech before Congress, said that ‘‘to secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult and aggression.” Washington Be eehipse did as he was told. He hoisted the Algerian flag until he got beyond gunshot, and then pro- ceeded to Constantinople. But he got* Eowarb Presie.