Harper's Weekly - Opposed Engravings

On opposite pages we have two images; one depicts the Senate members gathering to discuss the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, while the other depicts Miss Clack and Mr. Bruff sitting to discuss who may be responsible for the theft of the Moonstone. Each depicts figures sitting at a table, and in each scene a figure on the left of the table leans forward, while a figure on the right sits straight with one arm resting on the table. While the woodblock engravings are not identical, the similarities are apparent enough that it may have called for subconscious comparison between the events of the novel and the impeachment trials.

With these parallel images added to the overwhelming focus on the impeachment in previous pages there is, perhaps, an argument to be made that the eventual guilt of Sir Godfrey Ablewhite in the pages of The Moonstone may have—in an American readership—been compared and contrasted to the failure to find Johnson guilty in the process of impeachment. The guilt of an English gentlemen in contrast to the innocence of an American president may have aided in some small way to the development of an American identity and a belief in Reconstruction policies, as proposed by Leverenz.