A confederacy against the Constitution and the rights of the people with an historical view of the component parts of this diabolical transaction [graphic].
Title
A confederacy against the Constitution and the rights of the people with an historical view of the component parts of this diabolical transaction
Description
Cartoon during the Bank War satirizing the Whig Party as greedy, anti-democratic, pro-Bank, pro-business infidels who worship in the Temple of Mammon to the false god of riches. Atop the temple, a white man, holding a flag inscribed "No Veto! The Bank! Down with Democracy!" kneels on a pedestal inscribed "Bank Candidate. War, Pestilence, and Famine." Within the temple sit symbolic and political figures including: the Devil representing the "Hartford Convention" of 1815, which debated Northern secession; the "High Church" as a clergyman pleading for donations to preach; the "High Priest" Henry Clay with his "U.S. Bank Book" sitting on his throne the "Chair of State"; the "High Chancellor," Bank of the United States president, Nicholas Biddle pouring out a bag of money to buy newspaper editors; a Northerner ("High Tarrif") discussing slavery, "You Southern Barons have black slaves will you not allow us to make white slaves of our poor population in our Manufacturing Baronies"; and southern pro-nullification senator John C. Calhoun ("No Tariff"), who bemoans his association with Whigs in his personal campaign against political rival Martin Van Buren. In the foreground, worshipers, including monkeys, pray and are chained near a printing press, pro-Bank newspapers, and flags and banners. The flags and banners denigrate "Jefferson," "democracy," and "equal rights" and support "high tariffs," the "merchant class," the "Bank of the United States," and "white slavery.", Title from item., Artist's initial lower left corner: H., Probably published by labor radical Seth Luther., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2001, p. 27, 30., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[1833?]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1833-20 [5760.F.43]
[Scraps no. 3. for 1832] [graphic] / Designed engraved and published by D.C. Johnston.
Title
[Scraps no. 3. for 1832]
Description
Plate four from the 1832 edition of "Scraps," Johnston's popular satirical series of societal caricatures published between 1828 and 1840, and in 1849. Depicts a montage of nine scenes lampooning contemporary social issues and everyday life such as fashion, religious hypocrisy, ignorance, vanity, country life, class inequities, the military, and higher education. Includes 'The Glass of Fashion & The Mould of Form' depicting a white man sales clerk falsely flattering a white man dandy trying on a puff-sleeved coat; "Faith and Works" depicting a hypocritical white man Deacon, near a fireplace, reneging the shelter that he promised to a cold, poor white woman outside his door while his African American servant offers her money; "Arrival of a Country Cousin" depicting a snobby, white, city gentleman snubbing his country cousin; "About to be Astonished" depicting a dimwitted gloating white man farmer about to intentionally kill a sleeping "varmint" and unintentionally kill his friend with a sickle; "Champagne [Campaign] or the Fatigues of Modern Camp Duty" depicting a grossly intoxicated troop of white military officers toasting their intellect and patriotism; "A Body Coat & A Coat of Arms" depicting a rotund and thin "John Smith" exchanging wrongly delivered coats; "The Able-Bodied Man & The Exempt" depicting a scraggly white soldier encountering an "exempt" hardy white gentleman; "Symptoms of Extravagance" depicting a white man, attired in rags, debating the necessity to "dress better on Sunday"; "College Acquirements" depicting an African American man and woman, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular, discussing 'de college for de colour'd circles' based on the beneficial effects of college on "Massa Bob," including his staying out later, no longer reading, and drinking champagne., Title supplied by cataloger., Printed in upper left corner: Plate 4., Published in D.C. Johnston's Scraps No. 3 1832 (Boston: D.C. Johnston, 1832), pl. 4., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Accessioned 1893., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator
Johnston, David Claypoole, 1799-1865
Date
[1832]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1832-Scr (d) [5656.F.24]