The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

V. Millerites Ridiculed by Scurrilous Cartoons

By the time of the Jewish year “1843” the hostility toward Miller and his associates had not only stepped up its tempo but had begun to express itself in the form of a motley array of antagonistic historical broadsides. These caricatures in cartoon form frequently bordered on the sacrilegious. They sometimes pictured the prophetic symbols of the Bible in ludicrous form, as well as ridiculing Miller and his associates. The Millerite papers referred to these pictorial diatribes as “cartoon prints,” a “new style of scoffing.” For example, the Signs of the Times of March 29, 1843, tells of the “caricature going the rounds” representing “Miller ascending to heaven with all the Millerites—so called—hanging on to him.” ³⁸ A still earlier one had been headed “The High Priest of Millerism Unmasked, or a brief account of a Millerite Camp Meeting, held in East Kingston, N.H., from June 28th to July 5, 1842.” Underneath were verses of crude doggerel attacking Himes by name and ridiculing the teachings of the Millerite group. PFF4 757.4

Picture 2: SCURRILOUS CARTOONS RIDICULE THE MILLERITES
(Upper left) non-millerite broadside discusses Millerite October 22 expectation -issued as a commercial venture; (lower left) caricature of a Millerite futilely preparing to escape coming fiery destruction of the world; (upper right) broadside burlesquing “Grand ascension of the Miller tabernacle” From its foundations at boston. Himes,- surrounded by money bags, Pictured as unable to ascend because forked-tailed devil is holding onto his coat tails; (lower right) attack on Miller as high priest of Millerism, in Crude Doggerel, Attacking himes by name and ridiculing Millerite teachings in general
Page 758

Another diatribe was called, “Vial of Wrath, and Junk Bottle of Destruction.” On this sheet sacred Christian truths were “wickedly scoffed at.” The resurrection of the dead was ridiculed, being caricatured by a cut of a skeleton rising halfway out of its coffin, and impetuously throwing its shinbone at a croaking toad sitting at the foot of the coffin. The ascension of the saints to meet their Lord in the air is “shown in a ludicrous light, in various attitudes of ascension, while the fat ones are described as being drawn up with hooks by the angels.” These slurring cartoons now became a distinct feature of the campaign of opposition. And as the time of expectation drew on, in 1844, such scurrilous sheets took on new boldness in ridicule and sacrilege. PFF4 759.1

Another broadside, about two by three feet, was called, “Grand Ascension of the Miller Tabernacle!” Centered underneath, in smaller type, was the subtitle, “Miller in his Glory, Saints and Sinners in one great CONGLOMERATION!” The upper half is a cartoon picturing the Boston Tabernacle leaving its foundations and soaring aloft toward the heavens, with numerous Millerites hanging on to it in ridiculous postures, with some falling off. And a basket of provisions hangs from the sky. PFF4 759.2

Miller sits on the roof on his chart; also on the roof stands a man surveying the heavens with a telescope. Below, the milling masses of Boston are looking upward in amazement and anger at the weird sight. Below, on the tabernacle rostrum, still attached to the old foundations, and on which the names of the leading Millerite papers are inscribed, stands Himes surrounded by moneybags, with a forked–tailed devil holding onto his coattails, saying, “Joshua V. you must stay with me.” The lower half contains several columns of doggerel ridiculing Millerism, and sections of prose retailing the wild stories and gossipy charges current regarding Millerism. And the final line reads, “Here endeth the End of the World and the Grand Tableaux of October 22nd, 1844.” PFF4 759.3

Still another scurrilous cartoon was lithographed in 1844. It pictures an iron safe, called a “Patent Fire Proof Chest,” with a rather senile-looking individual-ostensibly a Millerite—sitting in the lower section beside a barrel piled high with chunks of ice, and his hat hanging at the back. On the shelf above are crackers and cheese, a large decanter of brandy with a glass, and a box of Havana cigars surmounted by a bag of money. On the inside of the door are hung a ham and a fan. The occupant sits there thumbing his nose, and saying, “Now let it come! I’m ready.” ³⁹ An examination of scores of newspaper and periodical thrusts that now poured forth from the press against the Millerite leaders and teachings reveals the unreasoning prejudice that motivated this stream of attacks. Taunts, sneers, and misrepresentations henceforth dogged their footsteps with increasing persistence. As a case in point, beginning with the May 2, 1842, issue, the Universalist, of Hartford, makes a succession of thrusts at the Millerites, castigating them as “simple,” “deluded,” “ignorant,” “ridiculous,” “notorious,” “illiterate,” “excited,” “coarse,” “ill bred,” “blind,” “fanatical,” “evil,” “weak-minded,” “imposters,” and “humbugs.” ⁴⁰ PFF4 760.1

But the Millerites were unmoved by such tactics, praying for their tormentors and appealing to them for their own sakes to cease doing the “dirty work of the devil.” PFF4 760.2