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Title: A Correct chart of Salt River
Description: "Salt River," the fictitious river of political doom, is charted here as a meandering stream of Democratic misfortunes. The chart was purportedly "prepared by Father Ritchie," i.e., Democratic editor and Polk administration spokesman Thomas Ritchie. Swipes are taken at the Tariff of 1846, Polk's Vice President George M. Dallas, Martin Van Buren, and 1848 Democratic presidential nominee Lewis Cass. The river winds upward from the Ohio River (Ohio was a Democratic stronghold in 1848) to the Lake of Oblivion with an island on which sits the "Mansion of Despair." The "Fast Sailing Steamer Free Trade," captained by Lewis Cass and piloted by Ritchie, sets out on the "Slough of Despond" below (one of the landmarks in John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress). The ship approaches a fork, from which the "Old Fox Branch" on the right leads to "Cabbage Point" and the home of Martin Van Buren. Van Buren can be seen sitting in a rowboat on the river complaining, "Hard work this all; your fault 'John, ' with your D--d Free Trade." His son John, a Free Soil party leader and campaigner, encouraged Van Buren's bid for the party's presidential nomination in 1848. On the left Salt River continues past the "Sub Treasury Bluffs," "Noise and Confusion Shoals," "Two Face Points," and "Irish Relief Shoal" (a reference to Democratic support for anti-British insurgents in Ireland), to another fork, "Prince John's Creek." Here John Van Buren walks along the shore and calls, "Good bye Dad! We could not Gull the People." The main branch of the river continues to "Pillow's Cemetery" (named after Gen. Gideon Pillow, conspirator against popular Mexican War commander Winfield Scott and a friend of James K. Polk), "One Seal Island", "Casting Vote Point," and "St Anna Pass." The last is named after Mexican president and commander Santa Anna, whom the Polk administration returned from exile only to see him lead the war against the Americans. On Lake Oblivion is a small ferry boat heads toward the shore at upper right where it will connect with a train named "Tariff [of 18]42," bound for Washington. On the left is a funerary monument "In Memory of Dallas," a memorial to Vice President and former Pennsylvania senator George M. Dallas. Many of Dallas's fellow Pennsylvanians viewed him as a traitor to the state's interests in his support of the Tariff of 1846, which supplanted the popular 1842 tariff., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Library copy has manuscript written on lower right recto: March 5th, 1849., Retrospective conversion record: original entry.
Date: [1848]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1848-50 [P.2275.28]

Title: The nigger emperor of Nicuragua [sic] on his throne Attended by Chatfield & his Black guards witnessing the detention of the steamer Prometheus, by the English brig of war Express, at San Juan
Description: Racist political cartoon satirizing the fictitious "Nigger Emperor" of Nicaragua during the "Prometheus-Express" incident of November 1851, which threatened the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 between the United States and Britain to abstain from attempting dominion of Central America. Depicts the Emperor as a Black man, partially undressed, attired in a military uniform with epaulettes, a black plumed hat, a sword on his waistband, and black boots. He sits atop a barrel labeled “Jamaica Rum.” He has one boot off that exposes his sock. His trousers are off and draped over his right arm. He smiles with a cigar in his mouth and carries a bottle labeled “Brandy” in his left hand. He looks towards Frederick Chatfield, the United Kingdom’s consul in Central America from 1834 to 1852, standing in the right. Chatfield holds his hands up and says, “They shall pay the money or be blow to attoms for their temerity, let me again entreat your Majesty to condesend (sic) to draw your breeches over your imperial shins.” The Emperor gestures with his right hand to the two ships in the harbor and replies in the vernacular, “Nebber mine, Massa Chatfield, wedder to warm for wear beechum, Yankee hab to cum back and pay money to dis nigger, ya, ya, ya.” Behind the Emperor, several Black guards, attired in tall hats, smile and stand in formation. Also in the print is a small black dog sniffing the Emperor’s sock., The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 made Greytown, Nicaragua a free port, denying the British revenue. To circumvent this, the British charged harbor fees. On November 21, 1851, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s ship Prometheus refused to pay the British harbor fees. The British brig o’war Express fired three shots across the bow of the Prometheus. Vanderbilt then paid. However, when the ship arrived in New York he took his case to the U.S. government with the U.S. wanting Britain to withdraw from Central America. In early 1852, the Nicaraguan government sought to assert its authority over the Miskito kingdom. On April 30, 1852, Secretary of State Daniel Webster and British minister John Crampton negotiated a settlement that made Greytown a free city, protected the rights of the Miskito Indians, and established the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua along the San Juan River., Title from item., Erroneously dated 1839 by Weitenkampf., Appears in The old soldier, New York, February, 1852., Likely drawn by John L. Magee, who worked at 69 Nassau Street at this time., 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., 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: Magee, John L., artist
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851-28 [5760.F.107]

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