Online Exhibition: Drawn into Politics
Selected Political Cartoons from the Print and Picture Collection.
Library of Congress summary: 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 State Robert Toombs raising a staff with a "Letter of Marque" (a governmental authorization to seize subjects or property of foreign state, here a reference to Georgia's January seizure of federal Fort Pulaski and the Augusta arsenal); CSA President Jefferson Davis, wearing saber and spurs. Vice President Alexander Stephens holds forward a list of "The Fundamental Principles of our Government," including treason, rebellion, murder, robbery, incendiarism, and theft. Behind the group, on horseback, is Confederate general Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, commander of forces at the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The delegation is received by Satan and two demonic attendants, who sit in a large cave at right. One attendant has over his shoulder a gallows from which hangs a corpse; the other holds a pitchfork. Satan holds a crown and scepter for Davis in his right hand, while in his left hand he hides a noose behind his back. He greets the Confederates, "Truly! Fit representatives of our Realm." Over his head flies a banner with the palmetto of South Carolina and six stars. A large snake curls round its staff.
This cartoon shows presidential candidate George McClellan, in a general’s uniform, making the comment, “I am happy to say that—the record of my public life was kept in view.” (This is a quote from his letter of acceptance of the nomination.) He is seated on the Democratic donkey, who is reciting from the Democratic Party platform, “An immediate cessation of hostilities.”
Library of Congress Summary : Columbia repudiates Democratic presidential candidate George Brinton McClellan's endorsement of the platform devised at the August 1864 Democratic convention in Chicago. McClellan and his running mate George Hunt Pendleton are shown here standing on a platform surrounded by various Democrats--many of them New Yorkers. Pendleton stands at right, his thumbs in his lapels.
A political cartoon depicting Presidential candidates attempting to support a failing wooden platform, on the broken planks of wood the captions read: "Peace Plank", "Anything or Nothing", "Armistice." , "Secession", "Union", "Disunion". The literal use of political language; platforms and planks.
A plank, as it is used in politics, is one of the policies in a political party's platform.
An excerpt from "Copperheads" by Delores Archaimbault and Terry A. Barnhart
Copperhead was a pejorative epithet applied to Northern members of the Democratic party, also known as Peace Democrats, who criticized the presidential administration of Abraham Lincoln for its war policies and who sought an armistice with the Confederacy. A loosely-affiliated group, the Copperheads expressed their views on the war in the press, at political conventions, and in state legislatures. Their views struck a responsive chord among like-minded Democrats in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio in the period 1862 to 1864, while their Republican opponents considered their ideas and alleged actions as nothing less than treason. Not all those known as Copperheads supported the doctrine of secession, but as a group they found common cause in their objections to the actions of the Lincoln administration.
Source: "Copperheads" by Delores Archaimbault and Terry A. Barnhart, Northern Illinois University
Link to the full article: http://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht319615.html
From School Library Journal:
-A valuable collection of Northern and Southern political cartoons that effectively conveys some of the political, economic, and moral issues surrounding the war. The cartoons illustrate perfectly what is most fascinating about our Victorian predecessors: they seem so familiar to us, and yet are so foreign at the same time. A helpful foreword addresses the racist nature of many of the drawings. The cartoons are presented by the year in which they were printed, along with usually helpful explanations that shed light on allusions that may escape late 20th-century sensibilities, e.g., why Lincoln is often portrayed in Scotch-plaid capes in Southern cartoons. Northern works predominate because of the paucity of Southern publishers and resources. This sometimes amusing but more often disturbing book will add to readers' understanding of the Civil War.
-Rebecca L. Wells, UMI, Alexandria, VA