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Title: The meeting of the Friends. City Hall Park
Description: Cartoon portraying a distorted version of events surrounding New York Governor Horatio Seymour's "My Friend's" speech during the Draft Riots of 1863 when several African Americans were killed by working-class rioters. Portrays Seymour on the steps of City Hall in front of a riotous mob composed primarily of armed Irish-Americans who march past the building for "The Tribune," an anti-Seymour newspaper. Supporting Seymour from behind are a fool with a cap inscribed "Express" (i.e., a Pro-Seymour newspaper), and former Mayor Fernando Wood and Tammany boss Peter B. Sweeny, both "Copperhead" Democrats who advocated peaceful settlement with the South and who believed Republican philanthropy favored African Americans at the expense of working-class whites. Seymour placates the mob announcing that he is their friend and that he has ordered the President to stop the draft. At his feet is an African American with a noose around his neck. A white man holds the severed head of an African American man, and several more African Americans are seen hanging from trees in the background., Probably drawn by Henry L. Stephens., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Place of publication supplied by Reilly., Text printed below image: A friendly voice.—Governor, we want you to stay here. Horatio Seymour.—I am going to stay here, “My Friends.” Second Rioter.—Faith, and the Governor will stay by us. Horatio Seymour.—I am your “Friend,” and the “Friend” of your families. Third Rioter.—Arrah, Jemmy, and who said he cared about the “Dirty Nagurs”? Fourth Rioter.—How about the draft, Saymere? Governor.—I have ordered the President to stop the draft! Chorus.—Be Jabers, he’s a “Broth of a Boy.”, RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863-12 [P.2275.11]

Title: The Cincinnati platform, or the way to make a new state in 1856
Description: Antislavery cartoon criticizing presidential nominees James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge's support of pro-slavery forces over freesoilers in the violent political struggle in "Bleeding Kansas" during the Democratic Convention of 1856 in Cincinnati. Depicts a pro-slavery militia, carrying a flag labeled "Kansas and Liberty," that has marshalled a group of shackled, enslaved African American men who wear loin-cloths. Several of them clasp their hands together and look with pleading expressions at the white militiaman, behind them, and who carries a whip in his left hand and drives them forward. They march toward a settlement, which has a "Free Soil and Fremont" flag where homes burn and settlers and cattle lay wounded or dead. In the right is the corpse of an assaulted, white mother, who lies on the ground with her breasts exposed. Her naked, dead baby lies face down over her left arm. In the upper left, Buchanan and Breckenridge, standing in front of seated convention delegates on a platform, oversee the violence and comment about the freesoilers being a curse to the country who would surely leave if forced to work for "10 cents a day.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Copyright statement printed on recto: Entered in according to act of congress in the Clerk’s Office of the district Court for the Eastern District of Penna. By I. [sic.] Childs., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-10W [5760.F.95]

Title: Practical illustration of the fugitive slave law
Description: Antislavery print depicting a fight between Northern abolitionists and supporters of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In the left, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and an African American man both raise guns to protect an enslaved African American woman who is attired in a head kerchief, earrings, a short-sleeved dress, and shoes. She raises both arms in the air and clutches a handkerchief in her right hand and exclaims “Oh Massa Garrison protect me!!!” Garrison wraps his right arm around her and says, “Don’t be alarmed, Susanna, you’re safe enough.” In the right, the white man mercenary, attired in a top hat with a star on it, who may represent the federal marshals or commissioners authorized by the act (and paid) to apprehend freedom seekers, carries a noose and shackles. He sits astride Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who is on his hands and knees clutching the Constitution and bemoaning, "This, though constitutional, is extremely disagreeable." Behind them a white man, possibly John C. Calhoun, declares "We will give these fellows a touch of Old South Carolina" and carries two volumes labeled "Law and Gospel." Another white man carries a quill and ledger and says "I goes in for Law & Order." In the background, a number of men on both sides fight. A white man lies on the ground on his back. An African American man grabs a white man enslaver by the head and holds a whip while saying “It’s my turn now Old Slave Driver.” A "Temple of Liberty" stands in the background with two flags flying which read, "A day, an hour, of virtuous Liberty is worth an age of Servitude," and "All men are created free and equal.", Title from item., Probable place and date of publication supplied by Reilly., Weitenkampf attributed this cartoon to the New York artist Edward Williams Clay, but Reilly refutes this attribution on the grounds that the draftsmanship, signature, and political opinions are atypical of Clay., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1850 or 1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851-6 [5760.F.104]

Title: Immediate emancipation illustrated
Description: Critical satire of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded on the principle of immediate abolition by Arthur Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison, who are depicted discussing the society's principles with an unnamed abolitionist, possibly Lewis Tappan. Above their heads is the banner "Anti Slavery Society Founded Anno Domini MDCCCXXXIII." The seated Garrison comments on the origin of the bundle of Italian linen at his feet, which is to be used for his newspaper "the Emancipator." In the right, the figure of a leopard rests upon a pedestal marked "Fanaticism. Brought the Inquisition upon Spain. Beggary upon Italy. And may drench America in blood!!" (an allusion to the idiom a leopard cannot change its spots and to the Spain and the Iberian War, 1807-1814). In the left, a Black man, labeled "Emancipated Slave," is portrayed in racist caricature and is naked except for a leaves wrapped around his waist. He chases an insect calling, "Food," while carrying a knife. In the background, a scene labeled "Insurection (sic) in St. Domingo! Cruelty, Lust, and blood!" depicts Black people using swords and axes to kill white people, including a white woman on the ground. A building burns behind them., Title from item., Date supplied by Weitenkampf., Probably the "A Caricature" cited in the Emancipator (New York, N.Y.), October 19, 1833 and Liberator (Boston, Mass.), November 2, 1833., The "Emancipated Slave" figure is similar to the figure depicted in the lithograph by Alfred Ducôte, "An Emancipated Negro" ([London]: Thomas McLean, 1833). Copies in the collections of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London., Purchase 1986., 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.
Date: [1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1833 - 27W [P.9140]

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