I’m pretty sure we could study history by checking out the comics from the past. I was browsing through a book which I had packed away during one of my moves called The Mormon Graphic Image. Really interesting. For example, in the 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast, an implacable foe of both Mormons and Irish Catholics, penned the question in Harper’s Weekly — 

“Religious Liberty is Guaranteed–But Can We Allow Foreign Reptiles To Crawl All Over US?” 

He branded both religions as “foreign” threats to liberty — The Roman Catholic Church depicted as a crocodile and The Mormon LDS Church as a turtle crawling over the Capitol. [Notice the Turtle looks like the MormonTabernacle and the crocodile-like the Vatican.]

Uncle Sam was bothered by several minority groups. In 1879, the San Francisco Wasp published a cartoon portraying 5-minorities troubling Uncle Sam: Chinese, Indians, Blacks, Irish Catholics, and Mormons.

Even more recently, President Obama gave Catholics the boot when he insisted they cover abortions in their healthcare plans. The 2012 political cartoon by Ramirez, shows Obama, the government taking  the position of “Church”:

It seems that  religion, government, and the popular voice of the media will always find conflict — it is not something new.

In the early days of the church, Latter-day Saints were forced to leave any town they called home:
“The Lord intends that WHITE FOLKS, and not the Mormons, shall possess this goodly land.” (Missouri). (Bennett, History of the Saints, p.193)

Harper’s Weekly expressed a similar feeling:

“A new programme for the Mormons is indicated. It is now proposed that they shall emigrate to one of the East India islands, and reliable information is said to have been received that they will do so.” (Harper’s Weekly, 21 July 1860, p. 454)

The Wasp was a San Francisco weekly publication named after the insect — implying the satirical magazine had a mighty sting. It could as easily been named after White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants of the time. Those who did not fall into the WASP category were grouped for ridicule and persecution.

 

You can see how the Vatican looks a bit like the outline of a crocodile:

 

And the Mormon LDS Tabernacle here as the back of a turtle:

 

 

 

 

Reference Book for the graphics (comics):

The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834-1914; Bunker and Bitton