"The government." No. 1, [Eye] take the responsibility
A satire on Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," the pejorative name given his informal circle of close advisors. The print appeared during the heated controversy incited by Jackson's discontinuation of federal ... More
Executive mercy/Marcy and the Bambers
An attack on New York governor William L. Marcy's controversial decision to surrender Irish fugitives John Bamber, Sr., and his son James to the British consul after their detention in New York. The Bambers, wa... More
Loco Foco persecution, or custom house, versus caricatures
A satire on the publisher's own troubles with the Democratic establishment in New York. In his print shop Henry R. Robinson is confronted by an unidentified man (center, arms crossed) who says, "I am determined... More
Abolition frowned down. Book illustration from Library of Congress
A satire on enforcement of the "gag-rule" in the House of Representatives, prohibiting discussion of the question of slavery. Growing antislavery sentiment in the North coincided with increased resentment by so... More
Loco Foco consternation or the orful kat-ass-trophe
Another satire on the Glentworth scandal controversy, by the same artist as "The Last Card," "Evenhanded Justice," and "O. K." (nos. 1840-60, -62, and -63). Here the artist lampoons Democratic efforts to sensat... More
O'Connell's call and Pat's reply, Political Cartoon
A condemnation of Daniel O'Connell's agitation of Irish immigrants in the United States against slavery. The artist, certainly E.W. Clay, presents a loaded contrast between turbulent conditions in Ireland and t... More
Ornithology - Engraving, Public domain image, Political Cartoon
A mild election-year cartoon portraying Whig presidential candidate Winfield Scott (left) as a turkey and Democrat Franklin Pierce (right) as a gamecock. The two face each other from opposite sides of "Mason &... More
Our land a national song - A black and white image of a woman holding ...
An illustrated sheet music cover for a song by George W. Babcock (Thomas Comer, composer) and dedicated to Samuel R. Spinney, Esq. The design shows Columbia or American Liberty (center) wearing a gorgon's head... More
Prize banner polka - Lithograph, public domain, Library of Congress
Patently militaristic propaganda for the Union cause in the form of a sheet music cover illustration. Columbia or Liberty stands on the ramparts of a fortress near a cannon pointed across a harbor toward a moun... More
Union march - Public domain music sheet scan
An illustrated sheet music cover for a Unionist song by Hans Krummacher, dedicated to Maryland Democratic senator James Alfred Pearce. The cover is adorned with a drawing of the goddess Hebe, the mythological G... More
The folly of secession, Confederate States of America.
South Carolina struggles against the outgoing Buchanan administration in an attempt to "smash the Union up!" The artist uses the age-old pictorial conceit of two parties pulling on the different ends of a cow, ... More
View of transparency in front of headquarters of Supervisory Committee...
A representation of an enormous illuminated transparency displayed on thefacade of the federal recruiting office for Negro troops on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia on November 1, 1864. The display celebrated t... More
The Chicago platform / Th. Nast., Confederate States of America.
A deceptive broadside, ostensibly a pro-McClellan campaign piece but actually a piercing attack on the Democratic platform. In the center is a portrait of Democratic presidential candidate George B. McClellan... More
Total destruction of the Democratic platform / terrible shipwreck and ...
Title appears as it is written on the item. Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
Major Jack Downing! / from the Painting by J[oseph] T. Harris ; Lith o...
A portrait of a popular fictional political commentator of the 1830s, created by Seba Smith who wrote humorous essays and letters under his name. Smith's book "The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing of Dow... More
This certifies that [blank] is a member of the Native American Republi...
A large ornamented membership certificate for a Philadelphia nativist organization. The motto "Beware of Foreign Influence" appears on a streamer above a bust portrait of George Washington. The Washington portr... More
Breaking that "backbone", Confederate States of America.
A figurative commentary on Northern efforts to end the rebellion during the early years of the Civil War. Confederate President Jefferson Davis (far left) displays "the Great Southern Gyascutis," a dog-like mon... More
National picture. Behold oh! America, your sons. The greatest among me...
A smaller version of no. 1865-7, issued later the same year and printed from one rather than two lithographic stones. In this version the figure of Lincoln is more convincingly drawn, but the continent is cropp... More
The meeting at Saratoga. "Like boxers thus before the fight, their ha...
The second of two prints by "HD" portraying scenes from President Van Buren's visit to the resort at Saratoga Springs, New York, during the summer of 1839. (See also "The Cut Direct," no. 1839-3.) The satire co... More
The Radical Party on a heavy grade / J.M. Ives, del. ; on stone by Cam...
An election-year cartoon, predicting the victory of former New York governor Horatio Seymour in the presidential race. Here, Seymour's head hovers, glowing, above the White House, complacently watching a group ... More
Grand National Whig prize banner badge / lith. by Edward Weber & Co., ...
A representation of a banner commissioned by the Whigs of Baltimore for the Whig National Convention in May 1844. The banner was made by John Gade and painted by William Curlett. As noted on the lithograph, the... More
Grand National Whig prize banner badge / lith. by Edward Weber & Co., ...
A representation of a banner commissioned by the Whigs of Baltimore for the Whig National Convention in May 1844. The banner was made by John Gade and painted by William Curlett. As noted on the lithograph, the... More
Martial law / engraved by John Sartain.
The Missouri painter George Caleb Bingham's eloquent but belated reprisal for, as the title continues, "the desolation of the border counties of Missouri, during the enforcement of military orders, issued by Br... More
Am I not a man and a brother? - Public domain illuminated manuscript
The large, bold woodcut image of a supplicant male slave in chains appears on the 1837 broadside publication of John Greenleaf Whittier's antislavery poem, "Our Countrymen in Chains." The design was originally... More
Rebel barbarities in Texas--from sketches by Fred. Sumner / Harley, de...
The print was published with the following text (trimmed from the Library's impression): Our series of views, illustrating the barbarities of the Confederates in Texas, are from sketches by Mr. Frederick Sumner... More
The balls are rolling - clear the track
A Republican boast, showing Fillmore (left) and Buchanan crushed by an electoral flood of giant balls inscribed with the names of northern and western states. Strewn on the ground around Fillmore and Buchanan a... More
The Tory mill. The original genuine experiment is published this day
A crude and unusually large woodcut, employing the metaphor of a mill to portray the spoils system under the Democrats (or "Tories" as they were labeled by the Whig press). The print may attack Andrew Jackson'... More
The ghost of a dollar or the bankers surprize / W. Charles, Del et Scu...
A caricature of Philadelphia merchant and financier Stephen Girard, here called "Stephen Graspall, Banker & Shaver." He stands behind a counter with a small slot in it, staring at an apparition of an 1806 Span... More
Temple of liberty. Book illustration from Library of Congress
A crude allegorical woodcut, bold in design, and probably produced for a banner or similar type of display. In the center is a peristyle Temple with an altar on which the figure of Liberty rises from a flame. T... More
National picture. Behold oh! American, your sons the greatest among me...
One of the numerous patriotic apotheosis scenes produced in the months following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. (The Library's impression of "National Picture" was deposited for copyright on July 18, 186... More
A galvanized corpse - Public domain drawing
Jacksonian editor Francis Preston Blair rises from his coffin, revived by a primitive galvanic battery, as two demons look on. A man on the right throws up his hands as he is drawn toward Blair, saying: Had I n... More
Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. Born 1781 / painted and drawn on ...
Full-length portrait of Kentucky Representative Richard M. Johnson, standing in a rhetorical pose and holding documents inscribed "Sunday Mail Reports" in his right hand. He points with his left hand to other d... More
Grand democratic free soil banner, engraving, Library of Congress
Print shows a campaign banner for Free Soil Party candidates Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams in the presidential race of 1848. The two candidates, nominated at the third party's convention on August ... More
President Lincoln, writing the Proclamation of Freedom. January 1st, 1...
A print based on David Gilmour Blythe's fanciful painting of Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation. Contrary to the title, the proclamation was issued in 1862 and went into effect in January 1863. In a ... More
The American flag, a new national lyric by Revd. J.B. Dickson of Scotl...
Woman dressed in red, white, and blue, with stars on skirt, holding sword and U.S. flag.
Anthony Burns / drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [sic] by Whipple & ...
Print shows a portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 18... More
Grand, national, democratic banner. Press onward / lith. & pub. by N. ...
Print shows a campaign banner for Democratic candidates in the presidential election of 1848, Lewis Cass and running mate vice presidential nominee William O. Butler. The banner is very similar to Currier's 184... More
"I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest . . . where be your gi...
McClellan, in the character of Hamlet stands near an open grave holding the head of Abraham Lincoln. He soliloquizes, "I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest . . . Where be your gibes now?" The cartoon... More
The rats leaving a falling house
A simpler and less animated composition on the same general idea as Edward W. Clay's ".00001" (no. 1831-1). Again Jackson is seated in a collapsing chair, with the "Altar of Reform" toppling next to him, and ra... More
The bloody massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 177...
A sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish, later to become known as the "Boston Massacre," between British soldiers and citizens of Boston on March 5, 1770. On the right a group of seven uniformed soldiers, o... More
The bloody massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 177...
A sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish, later to become known as the "Boston Massacre," between British soldiers and citizens of Boston on March 5, 1770. On the right a group of seven uniformed soldiers, o... More
Columbia teaching John Bull his new lesson / S[amuel] Kennedy, del. ; ...
A War of 1812 satire on Anglo-American and Franco-American relations. England's "lesson" is about the seriousness of American determination to maintain freedom on the high seas, while France is warned of Yanke... More
Loco Foco expresses, arriving at Washington
A satiric commentary on the effects of the landslide Whig victory in New York state elections in the autumn of 1838. President Van Buren (left) greets two of his defeated allies: incumbent governor William L. M... More
For President Horace Greeley of New York and for Vice President Benjn....
Print shows an unusually elaborate and imaginative campaign banner for Liberal Republican-Democratic presidential candidate Horace Greeley. The print contrasts scenes of war and mayhem from Ulysses S. Grant's p... More
The Union must and shall be preserved. For President Abraham Lincoln o...
Print shows a campaign banner for the Republican ticket. Oval bust portraits of the two candidates are enclosed in rustic bent-twig frames, intended perhaps to recall Lincoln's much-publicized backwoods origins... More
Grand National Democratic banner. Press onward
One of several campaign banners Nathaniel Currier is known to have produced for the Democrats in 1844. It features two laurel-wreathed, oval portraits of Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates... More
Jeff. Davis in prison, Confederate States of America.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. Inscribed in ink below title: Filed June ... More
Political caricature. No. 2, Miscegenation or the millennium of abolit...
The second in a series of anti-Lincoln satires by Bromley & Co. This number was deposited for copyright on July 1, 1864. The artist conjures up a ludicrous vision of the supposed consequences of racial equalit... More
America / E.W.C. - Print, Library of Congress collection
Print shows an idealized portrayal of American slavery and the conditions of blacks under this system in 1841. The Library's impression of the print is a fragment--the left panel only--of a larger print entitle... More
Grand National Democratic banner, US Democratic party
Print shows a campaign banner for Democratic candidates Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, almost identical to Currier & Ives's "Grand National Republican Banner" (no. 1876-1.) The Tilden-Hendricks banne... More
Liberty our aim! Washington our example!
Emblematic design, probably for a kerchief, expressing American support for liberal nationalist movements in Europe. Includes bust-length portraits of Louis Kossuth, Giuseppe Mazzini, and George Washington. The... More
The downfall of Mother Bank - Public domain drawing
A pro-Jackson satire applauding the President's September 1833 order for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. The combined opposition to this move from Bank president Nicholas Bid... More
Set to between Old Hickory and Bully Nick
Satire on the public conflict between Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle over the future of the Bank of the United States, and the former's campaign to destroy it. The print is sympathetic to Jackson, portrayi... More
New method of assorting the mail, as practised by Southern slave-holde...
A portrayal of the nocturnal raid on the Charleston post office by a mob of citizens and the burning of abolitionist mails found there in July 1835. Mail sacks are handed through a forced window of the ransack... More
A Democratic voter. Book illustration from Library of Congress
The artist satirizes the split in party loyalties between the Locofoco and Tammany factions of New York City Democrats. In particular he belittles the Irish immigrants widely recruited by the party at the time... More
Whig bazaar - Political cartoon, public domain image
Publd. by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St. N-York. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837 by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern Distr... More
Loco Foco scramble for collectors licenses
Democratic patronage in New York is parodied in a scene of Loco Foco drivers or carmen rushing for cab licenses distributed by recently appointed collector of the port, Democratic stalwart Jesse Hoyt. Hoyt repl... More
The globe man listening to Webster's speech, on the specie circular
A small, bust-length caricature of Washington "Globe" editor and Van Buren adviser Francis Preston Blair. The print was probably issued in the spring of 1838. In May of that year the Specie Circular, an extreme... More
Progress of reform!!! No. 1 - Political cartoon, public domain image
A scene in New York, outside the gates of City Hall Park. Two well-dressed men with top hats overturn the table of two apple-women. One of the men (from all appearances a Loco Foco radical Democrat) shouts at t... More
The Democratic funeral of 1848 - Political cartoon, public domain imag...
Foreseeing political death for the Democrats in the election, the artist imagines a funeral of the party's standard-bearers with a procession of the faithful. Democratic senators (left to right) Sam Houston of ... More
Scene in a New Hampshire court.--General Pierce examining a witness. S...
Two humorous incidents supposedly from the life of Franklin Pierce. On the left, a repartee wherein Pierce, the distinguished trial lawyer, is embarrassed by an ignorant witness. Armed with pages of notes, Pie... More
Loco Foco hunters treeing a candidate
A satire on the Democrats' or "Loco Focos'" 1852 pursuit of Franklin Pierce for the presidential nomination. At the foot of the White Mountains in the "Dismal Swamp," an immense, swampy region of North Carolina... More
Jeff Davis on the right platform, or the last "act of secession"
A caricature of Jefferson Davis, probably issued not long after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, but certainly postdating his February 1861 election as president of the Confederacy. Davis is shown standing on a ... More
The Southern Confederacy a fact!!! Acknowledged by a might prince and ...
A biting vilification of the Confederacy, representing it as a government in league with Satan. From left to right are: "Mr. Mob Law Chief Justice," a well-armed ruffian carrying a pot of tar; Secretary of Stat... More
The old general ready for a "movement"
Confident Union propaganda from the summer of 1861, claiming dominance over Confederate troops led by generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Gideon Pillow. Union commander Winfield Scott sits on a mound in the cente... More
Rising of the people. "The drum-tap rattles through the land"
A patriotic scene on the cover of a music sheet for a song written by N. P. Beers and composed by M. Colburn. In a middle-class domestic interior a young soldier (center) prepares to go off to war for the Union... More
Joseph E. Baker - How free ballot is protected!
The artist charges the Republicans with electoral corruption and extremism in their efforts to defeat Democratic presidential nominee George B. McClellan. Oblique reference is also made to Lincoln's supposed a... More
No more elbow room in Missouri! : Kein Ellbogen Raum mehr in Missouri
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1866, by Peter M. Pain in the Clerk's office of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Title appears as it is written on the item. Forms p... More
To the friends of Greeley and Brown
An illustrated cover for a collection of Democratic campaign songs. Liberal Republican presidential candidate Horace Greeley and running mate Benjamin Gratz Brown appear in oval bust portraits framed by ivy. Ab... More
Roll along, roll along, shout the campaign battle song
An illustrated sheet music cover for a song composed in honor of Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes. Uncle Sam sits atop a hay wain labeled "Hayes." A large American flag with a liberty cap a... More
The Presidential fishing party of 1848
The cartoonist takes a dim view of all but Zachary Taylor's chances for the presidency in his commentary on the election campaign of 1848. The candidates fish from opposing banks of a river filled with fish bea... More
Tree of temperance - Print, Library of Congress collection
One of a pair of prints (see "Tree of Intemperance," no. 1855-3) issued by A.D. Fillmore in 1855 extolling the social and moral benefits of temperance and condemning the evils of alcohol. In the center of the c... More
A serviceable garment--or reverie of a bachelor
Democratic presidential candidate James Buchanan is depicted as a poor bachelor in his squalid quarters. Though indeed a confirmed bachelor, Buchanan in reality was hardly needy. After serving as American minis... More
John Brown. Meeting the slave-mother and her child on the steps of Cha...
Issued in the North during the Civil War, the melodramatic portrayal of an apocryphal incident from the life of John Brown must have had unmistakable propagandistic overtones. In actuality a violent antislavery... More
Jeff's last skedaddle off to the last ditch
Signed in stone: F. Welcker. Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress) Exhibited: "The Civil War in America" at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2012-2013.
Log cabin anecdotes. Illustrated incidents in the life of Gen. William...
A Whig campaign broadside, with text describing a series of 12 incidents in the life of William Henry Harrison, illustrated with wood-engravings. The incidents are (counterclockwise from upper left): "Harrison'... More
For president John Bell. For vice president Edward Everett
Print shows a large campaign banner for Constitutional Union party presidential candidate John Bell and running mate Edward Everett. The banner consists of a printed, thirty-three star American flag pattern wit... More
Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects. Illustrated / By J...
An impassioned attack on cruelty in Pennsylvania's Eastern Penitentiary. Akin presents a life-size, detailed rendering of an iron gag, "Locked upon Mathias Maccumsey, a Convict from Lancaster County, sentenced... More
A bad egg. Fuss and feathers - Political cartoon, public domain image
Whig presidential candidate Winfield Scott is pictured as a fighting cock with human attributes. The cock wears fringed military epaulets, a sword, spurs, and a plumed hat. He is just emerged from an egg marked... More
In defence of the Union and the Constitution / C[hristian] Schussele, ...
A large certificate for a volunteer serving in the Union army to suppress the rebellion of 1861. In the center stands a woman, probably Columbia, holding two laurel wreaths and the Constitution. She extends her... More
Pilgrims' progress. Book illustration from Library of Congress
Democratic party war-horse Andrew Jackson appears frequently in the satires of the 1844 election campaign. Here, wearing a long frock coat and tall hat, he leads a donkey carrying Democratic candidates Polk and... More
Arms of ye Confederacie, Confederate States of America.
A small card bearing a vitriolic indictment of the Confederacy. The artist particularly attacks the the institution of slavery, the foundation of Southern economy. A large shield is flanked by two figures: a pl... More
"The impending crisis"--Or caught in the act
The print's title derives from the name of Hinton Rowan Helper's 1857 pamphlet "The Impending Crisis," an influential document in antislavery literature. Here the crisis is that of New York senator William H. S... More
America triumphant and Britannia in distress
A crude allegory of American prosperity and victory over England. Below the image an "Explanation" reads: "I America sitting on that quarter of the globe with the Flag of the United States displayed over her he... More
The great footrace for the presidential purse (100,000 and picking) ov...
Satire on the presidential election of 1852, showing Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster, and Franklin Pierce competing in a footrace before a crowd of onlookers for a $100,000 prize (the four-year salary for a pres... More
Col. John C. Fremont, Republican candidate for the President of the Un...
Proof for a large woodcut banner or poster for Republican presidential candidate John C. Fremont. Fremont, a distinguished soldier and explorer, is mounted on a rearing horse in a mountain setting. Dressed in b... More
National Union Republican candidates / lith. of Kellogg & Bulkeley, Ha...
Print shows a campaign banner for the 1868 Republican presidential and vice presidential ticket. Presidential nominee Ulysses S. Grant and his running mate, former speaker of the house Schuyler Colfax, are show... More
For president, Henry Clay. For vice president, Theodore Frelinghuysen
A Whig campaign badge for the election of 1844, very similar to number 1844-4, but also including a portrait of the vice-presidential nominee. Title appears as written on the print. Published in: American polit... More
The emblem of the free / B. Day, del.
Number three in a series of illustrated song-sheets published in New York by Samuel Canty. This example includes the words of a song by Canty entitled "The Emblem of the Free" and alternately "The Traitor's Dre... More
Symptoms of a locked jaw. Plain sewing done here
The caricature reflects the bitter antagonism between Kentucky senator Henry Clay and President Andrew Jackson, during the protracted battle over the future of the Bank of the United States from 1832 through 18... More
Rebel barbarities in Texas--from sketches by Fred. Sumner / Harley, de...
The print was published with the following text (trimmed from the Library's impression): Our series of views, illustrating the barbarities of the Confederates in Texas, are from sketches by Mr. Frederick Sumner... More
Congressional pugilists - Engraving, Public domain image
A crude portrayal of a fight on the floor of Congress between Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold of Connecticut. The row was originally prompted by an insulting reference to Lyon on Griswold... More
Satan tempting Booth to the murder of the President
Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, is goaded by a hideous Mephistophelian figure to shoot the unsuspecting President, who is visible in a theater box beyond. Booth stands erect, his left arm behind hi... More
Passmore Williamson, in Moyamensing Prison for alledged contempt of co...
An unusual informal portrait of the secretary of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, seated in a prison cell. Williamson was sentenced on July 22, 1855, to imprisonment for his "false return" (i.e., evasive tes... More
Abraham's dream!--"Coming events cast their shadows before"
The artist portrays a President tormented by nightmares of defeat in the election of 1864. The print probably appeared late in the campaign. (The Library's copy was deposited for copyright on September 22.) Lin... More
Henry Clay / Ino. Neagle, pinxit, 1843 ; engraved by John Sartain from...
A formal campaign portrait of Whig presidential candidate Henry Clay, after the painting by John Neagle done at Ashland, Clay's estate in Kentucky. As this print's legend states, the original was painted "by th... More
Wanted a substitute - Public domain print
An illustrated sheet music cover, which protests the inequities of the draft or proscription system enacted under the Enrollment Act of 1863. The act allowed drafted men to purchase an exemption or to furnish a... More
The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of th...
One of several large commemorative prints marking the enactment on March 30, 1870, of the Fifteenth Amendment, and showing the parade celebrating it which was held in Baltimore on May 19 the same year. The amen... More
A new display of the United States
A bust portrait of President John Adams, with garland and curtain, framed by the arms of sixteen states. Below each state's seal are inscribed its population and number of senators and representatives. At the t... More
The people's line--Take care of the locomotive
Incumbent President Martin Van Buren drives "Uncle Sam's Cab," a carriage pulled by a blindered horse, which wrecks on a pile of "Clay." The carriage founders in the path of a locomotive, really an assemblage o... More