An Au-Gust Convention [graphic].
Title
An Au-Gust Convention
Description
Cartoon satirizing the National Union Convention, which met in Philadelphia in August of 1866, in an attempt to support President Andrew Johnson and his Reconstruction policies and elect a new Congress. Muzzled dogs, each representing a state, walk down a path towards a dog house labeled, “Wigwam,” which was the name of the structure in Philadelphia that was quickly erected for the convention. Outside the house, two guard dogs, representing Johnson supporters Edgar Cowen and James Rood Doolittle, each hold cats in their mouths, representing the two notorious Peace Democrats, or Copperheads, Clement Vallandigham and Fernando Wood, who were barred from the convention. At the head of the parade, the Massachusetts and South Carolina dogs march together, representing General Darius Nash Couch and Governor James Lawrence Oliver, the representatives from those states, respectively. These two men entered the Convention arm-in-arm to demonstrate the possibility for national reconciliation. The South Carolina dog, however, also has its genitals muzzled, as it was the first state to secede from the Union at the beginning of the war. In the left is a small, muzzled dog with a brush and bucket, labeled “N.Y. Times,” tied to its tail that represents Henry Raymond, co-founder of the New York Times and pro-Johnson Republican Congressman. Raymond organized the convention and was removed from his position as Chairman of the Republican National Committee because of it. In the left background, shows the White House with a Confederate flag, with “My Policy,” flying and a dead dog lying on the ground representing Johnson. Radical and moderate Republicans in Congress believed that his treatment of the Southern states under his Reconstruction plan was too lenient., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited.
Date
[1866]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT political cartoons - 1866-11 [5760.F.113]
Whig equestrian exercises - ground and lofty tumbling. [graphic].
Title
Whig equestrian exercises - ground and lofty tumbling
Description
Cartoon mocking 1852 Whig Presidential candidate General Winfield Scott, his abolitionist supporters, and the antithetical party platform. Shows the candidate and his supporters as performers at a horse circus. In the right, Scott, in uniform, struggles to straddle the horse "Slavery Compromise" (i.e., the Fugitive Slave Act) and "Tariff Free Soil" (i.e., prohibition of the extension of slavery) as his exclaims, “If the Southern horse don’t moderate his pace, I shall be down presently and break all my bones! Whoa! Whoa!" Nearby, abolitionist and New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, fearing he will not "strike on his feet this time" flips head-long into a "Tribune Dung Heap of Abuse and 'isms" next to the "Tribune Building" adorned with signs that promote Scott for president and "No journeyman cut throats." In the background, the "Higher Law Vaulters," advocates of New York Senator William Seward's 1850 quote that a higher law than the Constitution should exist in regard to slavery, jump over the horse "Constitution." Vaulters include Whig political boss Thurlow Weed, Seward, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips. Also shows in the left foreground, New York Times editor and Scott supporter Henry J. Raymond depicted as a harlequin brandishing a billboard announcing the acts., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Purchase 2006., 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
[ca. 1852]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - [1852] Whi [P.2006.6.2]