The nmain goal of the union blockade in the South was to was to crush the life out of the Confederacy. This was done to prevent the Confederacy from receiving supplies, therefore, demoralizing them and starving them leading to their surrender.
Because it offers the historian an objective snapshot of the public sentiment of the time, which the cartoonist (should be) distilling for their readers, according to their feelings, for mass appeal. I say objective as it is usually very easy to decipher their subjective viewpoint according to the publication. The value of this is that it is tapping into how the masses 'feel' rather than how subjective facts can be built to form historical opinion. It becomes especially valuable prior to this century, when public sentiment is harder to garner as we were less technologically advanced.
Answer:
By 1900, the White House staff included one "secretary to the president" (then the title of the president's chief aide), two assistant secretaries, two executive clerks, a stenographer, and seven other office personnel.
