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Title: The great American steeple chase for 1844
Description: Cartoon depicting the presidential election of 1844 as a steeple chase race to the White House. Henry Clay, guided by the American eagle as he laments about the death of Harrison, leads the chase atop his half-horse/half-alligator mount. He is followed by: Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, uneager to leave his cooking cauldron of "Chowder"; South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, astride his "nullification Coota Turtle," which is stuck in a "Clay Bank"; former President Van Buren, on a fox, taking a "crooked and dirty" shortcut to avoid Calhoun; an "Old Solider," possibly James K. Polk attempting to "turn" his donkey to the "right way"; Richard M. Johnson, who has fallen off of his "old amalgamation nag," an allusion to his controversial multiracial wife; and a fallen man, possibly abolitionist Supreme Court Justice John McLean, wishing that he had a drop of "Democratic blood to let out." In the background, General Winfield Scott, astride a horse, and Commodore Charles Stewart, who sails a boat, discuss their lack of desire to be president. Inside the White House, Richard Tyler, a scroll inscribed "Irish Repeal" in his pocket, shakes and warns his sleeping father of the approaching "Philistines." Tyler responds smugly that he will be re-elected or "veto the whole concern," an allusion to his excessive use of the veto to stop the establishment of another national bank., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to an act of Congress in the year 1843 by H. R. Robinson in the clerk's office in the District court for the Sc District of N.Y., Artist's initial lower left corner., Publication information supplied by Reilly., LCP copy trimmed., Described in Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist in the Jacksonian era (PhD diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 249-50., Purchase 1958., 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.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, lithographer
Date: 1843
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1843-8 [6264.F]

Title: American sympathy and Irish blackguardism
Description: Cartoon depicting conflicting responses to the condemnation of slavery in the U.S. by Daniel O'Connell, an Irish abolitionist and leader of the movement for Irish independence (i.e. Irish Repeal Movement). Depicts O'Connell confronting President John Tyler as his son, Robert, an Irish repeal advocate introduces him. O'Connell, attired as an Irish thug, holds a club labeled "Agitation" and a bag labeled "Repale Rint." He condemns John Tyler for being an enslaver, "Arrah! give up your slaves I'd rather shake hands with a pick-pocket than wid a slaveholder, and if we get our repale we'll set em all free..." President Tyler, who was passively against slavery, greets O'Connell stating his support of repeal. Robert Tyler, dressed effeminately, and with "Ahasuerus" and the "Epitaph on Robert Emmett" (an earlier Irish patriot), the poems he authored in his pocket, confirms his father's support of repeal and proposes that the sale of his work could benefit the Irish cause. William Lloyd Garrison, who is to the right of O'Connell, states his support for O'Connell but not Irish repeal. An African American man, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular, overlooks the scene and says, "By jolly I wish Massa Harry Clay was here -- Dis dam low Irishman not dare talk to him dat way!", Title from item., Entered according to an act of Congress in the year 1843 by H.R.R. Robinson in the Clerk's Office in the District court for the Sc District of N.Y., Purchase 1958., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, lithographer, and engraver.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1843
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1843-2 [6258.F]

Title: Not a drum was heard nor a funeral note as his corpse to the ramparts we hurried -- : Not a loco discharged his farewell shot o'er the ditch where our hero we buried
Description: Cartoon of a funeral procession portraying the erosion of Democratic support for presidential hopeful Martin Van Buren, the "Kinderhook Fox," during the election of 1844. Depicts President Tyler, instrumental in Van Buren's defeat, stating, "Thus do all our hopes end in Clay," as he steers a funeral cart carrying Van Buren, depicted as a dead fox; his son, poet Robert Tyler; and a bale of cabbages. The cart is pulled by Andrew Jackson, depicted as an old nag boasting about his part in Van Buren's death. Following the cart are the devil sobbing and bemoaning that he is Van Buren's only friend and a rotund man in a wide brimmed hat who rings a bell and calls, "Bring out your dead." In the right, two barefooted African American men gravediggers, portrayed in racism caricature and attired in torn and worn clothes, hold shovels as they stand over and comment about the open grave they have dug for Van Buren. "Here comes Pompey, we'll have this Fox earthed at last." A small cabin, with an emaciated white man in the doorway, and labeled "Loco Foco Hall" (Loco Focos were a radical branch of the Democrats who supported Van Buren) stands in the background., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1844 by James Baille in the Clerk's office of the Dist Court of the Southern District of N. York., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., 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., Bucholzer was a New York cartoonist whose work was published by James Baillie from 1843 until 1847.
Creator: Bucholzer, H., lithographer
Date: 1844
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-17 [8366.F.21]

Title: Pay day at the custom house, N.Y
Description: Cartoon depicting a crowd surrounding the New York City custom house where many upper class men scuffle or flee from tradespeople and shopkeepers demanding payment for bills owed. In the left, a white woman grabs a white man by the coat tails and exclaims, "Stop, you wagabone, & pay your washing-bill, you sarpint!" A rotund white man holds a bill and replies, "Hold on, good woman--Hold on til I get there. He owes me for his Grog score." In the center, a white man local official, attired in fine clothing and a top hat, is surrounded by creditors forming a long line holding bills and demanding payment, including for "five oyster suppers" and his "tailors-bill." A barefoot African American shoeshiner, portrayed in racist caricature and attired in torn and worn clothes asks in the vernacular, "Massa will you pay for brack de boots?" The official responds, "You black rascal, have you the impudence to present a bill to a man who has been chosen to office by the sober second thought of the people?" In the background, creditors chase the custom officials with their bills., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1847 by J. Baillie in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of N. York., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., 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., Magee was a New York cartoonist and lithographer who eventually established his own lithographic firm in Philadelphia in 1850.
Creator: Magee, John L., artist
Date: 1847
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1847 - Pay [8366.F.26]

Title: Where's my thunder?
Description: Cartoon comparing the Senate chamber with a courtroom to satirize the Senate's response to Henry Clay's controversial and long-debated Compromise of 1850. Depicts Webster stealing the "Fugitive Slave Act" out of the pocket of Clay, who snoozes at his desk in the Senate (an allusion to the Senate's predominately positive reception of abolitionist Senator Webster's controversial support of the Act). In the background, Senators scowl, nap, and look on in anguish, including Lewis Cass of Michigan and Henry S. Foote of Mississippi. Cass, proponent of popular sovereignty and the extension of slavery, exclaims "Ain't tha man done yet." Foote, who proposed a special committee to revise Clay's omnibus bill, brandishes a club (probably an allusion to his violent confrontation with rival Thomas Hart Benton over his proposal). Contains several lines of text describing the larceny trial of "Defendent" Webster and "Complainant" Clay, including "loud applause" during Webster's departure of the "Court-room" compared to Clay's scarcely noticed exit. Also contains note: "(See Police Report in the Daily Screamer).", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., 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., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [1850?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1850-3W [6691.F.]

Title: Handicap race presidential stakes 1844
Description: Satire of the presidential election of 1844 depicting the potential candidates; Whig Henry Clay, and Democrats Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, John Calhoun, Richard M. Johnson, and John Tyler on various mounts racing for the White House. Clay riding a racoon leads the pack claiming that no one can overtake him. Van Buren follows riding a fox and holding a weather vane labeled "N" (North) and "S" (South) with the slogans "Free Trade Texas" and "Abolition Oregon" attached. He acknowledges that Lewis Cass is closing in. Cass on his hound gloats that he has finally overtaken the "old fox." Calhoun, positioned fourth, rides a lion with an enslaved African American man and child, portrayed in racist caricature, on his shoulders and bemoans his extra weight. Johnson, on foot and holding a hook, follows Calhoun stating he will "hook on" to whomever gets in. Last is Tyler, who switched political parties, trying to ride the two mounts of the "Loco Foco" (radical Democrats) donkey and the "Whig" horse., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in year 1844 by J. Childs in the Clerk's Office in the District Court of the Southern District of N.Y., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1977, p. 51-52., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African Americans of the late 1820s and early 1830s.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1844
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-55W [8366.F.36]

Title: The slavery question. Great prize-fight of the American eagle against the wolf and the alligator
Description: Cartoon portraying the extension of slavery as dependent upon the United States' successful annexation of California and Texas. Depicts the American eagle on a mound protecting her nest of hatchlings labeled "Texas" and "California" from a wolf and an alligator. The wolf dressed as a sheep is being restrained by John Bull who represents England and states, "I bet Canada" (a proposed U.S. annexation). The alligator is being restrained by Don Quixote who represents Spain and states, "I bet Cuba!" (another proposed U.S. annexation). In front of the nest sits a barefooted enslaved African American man, portrayed in racist caricature and attired in torn and worn clothes. He holds his head in hands with the unbroken pot of slavery on his left and the broken pot of liberty, under the foot of John Bull, on his right. Behind the nest stands a bowery B'hoy figure holding a banner inscribed, "The Union Forever" and George Washington stating, "Go it, my boy you will beat them all.", Title from item., Publication date supplied by Weitenkampf., Inscribed: Pl. 4., Purchase 1975., 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: [1844]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-75W [8138.F]

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: Bank-ometer Truths for the producers of wealth the banking system unmasked or the true causes of pressure panic and distress
Description: Cartoon designed by radical labor activist Seth Luther to promote the dissolution of the United States banking system. Depicts the U.S Bank as operated by the industrial turbine "Currency Reservoir." The "Bank of England Tube," "State Bank Tube," and "Expansion and Contraction Tube" extend from the reservoir and power meters labeled "Paperometer," "Stockometer," Flourometer," and "Wageometer," which flank the bank and measure the system. Meters measure the benefits to industry and the disadvantages to the artisan of the banking system from 1816 to 1840, including: the expansion and contraction of paper money; the prices and amounts of import and export commodities; the economic effects from the monetary fluctuations on manufacturers and mechanics; the price of stocks and flour; and the wages (lower in 1840 than 1816) and cost of living of New York carpenters. Also contains seventeen boxed quotations from prominent political figures criticizing paper money and banks, including statements by Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Samuel Young, John Tyler, and Bank of the United States supporter Henry Clay; a chart containing figures indicating an increase in the number of banks from 1774 to 1840, the amount of hard and paper currency in circulation, and the "aggregate receipts" from public land sales; as well as references to Jackson's 1832 veto of the Bank of the United States and Van Buren's 1840 Independent Treasury Bill. Dedicated to Andrew Jackson for his "righteous" veto of the Bank of the United States on July 4, 1840., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress July 22, 1840 Seth Luther Author and Proprietor in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the So. District of N.Y., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Library Company Annual Report, 2001, p. 30., Advertised in Public Ledger, October 8, 1840. Price listed as 25 cents.
Creator: Lawton, Stephen, lithographer
Date: designed Nov. 1833, drawn 1840, cJuly 22, 1840
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *political cartoons - 1840-Ban [5760.F.84]

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