1880s – Advertising trade card for Capadura Cigars featuring political caricatures of Rutherford B. Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, and Benjamin Butler distributed by a racist Brooklyn “Segar Store.”

Brooklyn, New York, 1880. Unbound. Very good. The front of this card advertising Capadura Cigars featuring Puck magazine inspired caricatures of Rutherford B. Hays, Ulysses S. Grant, and a rotundly grotesque Benjamin F. Butler enjoying a smoke together. Text beneath the illustration provides their supposed conversation:

Grant: No use talking, Capadura is the boss segar.

Hayes: I reckon, you’re right, old man.

Butler: You bet.

A caption along the bottom margin of the card reads, “The Capadura is now, ever has been, and shall continue to be the best five cent segar in the world.”

On its reverse, (truncated) a racist New York store owner, David W. Welton, appealed to white dissatisfaction with new black citizens and used the card to promote his “whites only” Brooklyn tobacco store. The advertisement reads:

Here you are.
‘Old Times’ Segar Store No. 2
No Injun in front of it.
White Store – Come to Stay – White People
And a White Man inside.
387 Grand St. Brooklyn, E. D. [Eastern District]
Give him a call. He will use you well. . Rutherford B. Hayes, was then the current U.S. President.

Benjamin F. Butler, a notorious failure as a general during the Civil War, had recently completed a final term as a congressman, and was considering a run for the governorship of Massachusetts.

Ulysses S. Grant, the famous Union Civil War general, had already served two terms as President of the United States after taking time off to travel the world following his tumultuous final four years. He was enjoying renewed popular support and encouragement to run for a third term by his supporters, known as the Stalwarts. They nominated him at the convention, but after 36 ballots, the delegates chose a surprise candidate, James Garfield, whom Grant readily supported.

These political caricature Capadura cards have occasionally appeared for sale on , however they did not contain a racist tobacco store advertisement on the reverse. . (Inventory #: 010440)