The Bosses of the Senate

The Bosses of the Senate is an 1889 political cartoon by Joseph Keppler, published in the January 23, 1889, issue of Puck.

Keppler's 1889 cartoon depicts corporate monopolists as dominating American politics as the "Bosses of the Senate".

Description

The cartoon depicts the United States Senate chamber as a body under the control of bloated, money-bag-bodied figures representing industrial trusts and monopolies — including steel, copper, oil, tin, and sugar interests — who tower over the senators of the 50th Congress. A sign on the wall reads "This is a Senate of the Monopolists, by the Monopolists, and for the Monopolists," a parody of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, while a door marked "People's Entrance" is shown locked.

Significance

The Bosses of the Senate is widely regarded as one of the defining editorial cartoons of the Gilded Age, which visualized public concern over the growing political influence of corporate trusts and lobbying during a period of rapid industrial consolidation. It is frequently cited in historical accounts of 19th-century American politics and in discussions of the antitrust movement that led to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The cartoon remains one of Keppler's most reproduced works, regularly appearing in textbooks and studies of the era.

See also

• Joseph Keppler
• Puck (magazine)
• Political cartoon