---
title: '"The Temptation of Saint Samuel" (Puck, 1913)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/temptation-of-saint-samuel-puck-1913/
description: Uncle Sam kneels before a copy of the Constitution, hemmed in by women carrying purses marked 'votes for women'.
section: Collection
---

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3. "The Temptation of Saint Samuel" (Puck, 1913)

[!["The Temptation of Saint Samuel", 1913 US cartoon: Uncle Sam kneels before a copy of the Constitution, hemmed in by women](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/temptation-of-saint-samuel-puck-1913.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/temptation-of-saint-samuel-puck-1913.jpg)

# "The Temptation of Saint Samuel" (Puck, 1913)

Uncle Sam kneels before a copy of the Constitution, hemmed in by women carrying purses marked 'votes for women', in the pose of a saint tempted in the desert. The tell: religious iconography lends the scene the weight of a moral trial.

Published in the magazine Puck on 2 April 1913, this lithograph from the woman suffrage campaign shows Uncle Sam kneeling before a copy of the Constitution while women carrying purses marked 'votes for women' crowd around him. The composition copies the pose of a saint tempted in the desert. That is transfer: the weight of religious iconography is lent to a political scene. The cartoon's own stance is not stated, and the temptation frame can be read as mocking either Uncle Sam's resistance or the women's pressure.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

[← "Well, Missy! Heah we is!" (Puck, 1913)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/well-missy-heah-we-is-puck-1913/) [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/)

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