The Lines Drawn

The first few paragraphs from the section of “The Lines Drawn” in the Harper’s Weekly news section are full of an arrogant attitude the men at the Democratic Convention probably held. The publication says that “the Convention at Tammany Hall represented every disloyal individual and class in the country” and it is full of hypothetical statements: “Had the Republican party doubted…had it quibbled…had it done exactly what the Democratic party did” (450). Having the publication of these hypothetical statements creates this sense that what they did is the only right way to have achieved success, and leads the audience of this publication to believe the same ideas. It is almost satirical the way this news section is written because the tone is very sarcastic with the use of hypothetical statements and rhetorical questions.

With concern to Leverenz’s argument, she states that it is written with “fear, inspired by the threat of a potentially violent cultural and political Other” (32). The writers think that if the “Other” is smarter than the people they are aiming for then they will lose the next war or rebellion, and that cannot happen because Americans are superior according to the past illustrations in this periodical. Ezra Jennings embodies this “Other” society is so afraid of, and that also makes what is published around his narrative almost comedic because he is so incredibly smart it contradicts what Americans want to believe.

Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. 28 July 1868, pp. 450.

Leverenz, Molly Knox. “Illustrating The Moonstone in America: Harper’s Weekly and Transatlantic Introspection.” American Periodicals: A Journal of History & Criticism, vol. 24, no. 1, 2014, pp. 32.