“taking the stump” “i think i’ll give him a trifle in new york currency.” “he looks like...
TRANSCRIPT
“Taking the Stump”• “I think I’ll give him a trifle in New York currency.”• “He looks like a smart little man and if I were not wise,
I’d go my pile on him.”• “Gentlemen, I’m going to see my mother and solicit a
little help for in running after a nomination. I fell over a big lump of Breckenridge and have been very lame ever since.”
• “Here Breck, as Dug has taken the stump, you must stump it too”
• “Well old Buck, if you say so, I suppose I must, but I know it will be of nu use, for I feel that I haven’t got a leg to stand on.”
• “Go it ye cripples, wooden legs are cheap, but stumping won’t save you.
• Another satire on Douglas's July 1860 campaign tour of upstate New York and New England. (See also "Stephen Finding His Mother," no. 1860-35.)
• Here a double-entendre in the use of the word "stump," playing on its use as a colloquialism for both campaigning and a wooden leg. In the center Douglas, wearing a wooden leg, speaks with John Bell of Tennessee, Constitutional Union presidential candidate (far left), and influential Democrat Virginia governor Henry A. Wise. Douglas claims, "Gentlemen {grave}I'm going to see my mother,' and solicit a little help, for in running after a nomination, I fell over a big lump of Breckenridge [i.e., rival Democratic candidate John C. Breckinridge], and have been very lame ever since."
• Bell remarks to Wise, "I think I'll give him a trifle in New York currency." Wise responds, "He looks like a smart little man, and if I were not Wise I'd go my pile on him."
• At right incumbent James Buchanan offers another stump to Breckinridge, his own favorite, saying, "Here Breck, as Dug has taken the stump you must stump it too." Breckinridge replies, "Well old Buck, if you say so, I suppose I must, but I know it will be of no use, for I feel that I have'nt got a leg to stand on." His right foot is bandaged, possibly a souvenir of his defeat by Douglas at the May Democratic Convention in Baltimore.
• Abraham Lincoln, leaning against a rail fence at the far right, declares confidently, "Go it ye cripples! wooden legs are cheap, but stumping wont save you."
Storming the Castle
• “Ah ha Gentlemen: You needn’t think to catch me napping, for I am a regular Wide Awake.”
• “Hurry up Douglas, and get the door open so that I can get in for the watchman is coming.”
• “Confound it! None of these keys will unlock this door so I better be off for old Abe is after me with a sharp stick.”
• “I’ll do all I can to help you Breck but my strength is failing and I’m afraid you’ll put me out before I can pull you in.”
• Ah Mr. Buck, I’m too weak to get up and we shall be compelled to ‘dissolve the Union.’”
• During the 1860 election campaign the "," a marching club composed of young Republican men, appeared in cities throughout the North. (See no. 1860-14.) They often wore uniforms consisting of visored caps and short capes, and carried lanterns. Here Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln (left) is dressed as a "Wide-Awake," and carries a lantern and a spear-like wooden rail. He rounds the corner of the White House foiling the attempts of three other candidates to enter surreptitiously. At far right incumbent James Buchanan tries to haul John C. Breckinridge in through the window. Buchanan complains, "I'll do what I can to help you Breck, but my strength is failing and I'm afraid you'll pull me out before I can pull you in." Breckinridge despairs, ". . . I'm too weak to get up--and we shall be compelled to dissolve the Union.'" His words reflect his and Buchanan's supposed alliance with secessionist interests of the South. In the center Democrat tries to unlock the White House door, as Constitutional Union party candidate John Bell frets, "Hurry up Douglas! and get the door open, so that I can get in, for the watchman [i.e., Lincoln] is coming." Douglas complains that none of the three keys he holds (labeled "Regular Nomination," "Non Intervention," and "Nebraska Bill") will open the door, ". . . so I'd better be off, for old Abe is after me with a sharp stick."
Progressive Democracy
• Now this little Dug! Put in and pull while I cry Tammany to the rescue for I hear a rushing sound that bodes us no good.
• Come Jack and Joe, pull up and don’t let the other team stir the wagon. I’d rather the Machine would be smashed than have them run away with it.
• Clear the track! Look out for the engine, when the bell rings.
• Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and running mate Hannibal Hamlin are shown about to destroy a Democratic party paralyzed by internal dissension. The Republicans ride a locomotive named "Equal Rights" toward a crossing where the wagon "Democratic Platform," hitched to two opposing teams, is stalled on the track. The two teams try to pull the wagon in opposite directions. Horses with the heads of Stephen A. Douglas and bearded vice presidential nominee Hershel V. Johnson pull toward the left. A team with the heads of southern Democrats John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane strain toward the right.
• One of the wagon's two drivers is an Indian identified as "a Squatter Sovereing." As a Native American the figure may be a facetious reference to Douglas's endorsement of the principle of popular sovereignty on the question of slavery in the territories. He also represents the Indian chief Tammany, patron of the New York City Democratic machine. He cries, "Now then little Dug! put in and pull, while I cry {grave}Tammany to the rescue,' for I hear a rushing sound that bodes us no good."
• The driver on the right is incumbent President James Buchanan, an important Breckinridge supporter. He cracks a whip and exhorts his team, "Come Jack, and Joe, pull up! and don't let the other team stir the wagon I'd rather the Machine would be smashed than have them run away with it."
• Lincoln and Hamlin warn, "Clear the track!" and "Look out for the Engine, when the bell rings!"
The National Game
• It appears to me very singular that we three should strike “foul” and be “put out” while old Abe made such a “good lick.”
• “That’s because he had that confounded rail, to strike with, I thought our fusion would be a ‘short stop’ to his career.
• “I guess I’d better leave for Kentucky, for I smell something strong around here and begin to think that we are completely “skunked.”
• Gentleman, if any of you should ever take a hand in another match at this game, remember that you must have “a good bat” and strike a “fair ball” to make a “clean score” & a “home run.”
• Probable artist - Louis Maurer • The German artist, Louis Maurer, drew upon an American sport—baseball—for this
pro-Lincoln political cartoon, which Currier & Ives published in September 1860, only two months before the presidential election of 1860. Maurer created a parody of the four main presidential candidates (from left to right): Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell, Northern Democratic Party candidate Stephen A. Douglas, Southern Democratic Party candidate John C. Breckinridge, and Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, who stands on the home plate, reminds his opponents that they need a “good bat” to hit a home run. Each baseball player’s bat represents the platform they are running on. The artist suggests that Lincoln’s bat of “equal rights and free territory” is more powerful than Breckinridge’s Southern “slavery extension” bat, Douglas’ pro-states’ rights bat of “non intervention” or Bell’s bat “fusion,” which the cartoon of Douglas refers to as a strategy to defeat Lincoln. All of the candidates also wear belts that either reflect a personal or party characteristic. For example, Douglas’ belt reads “Little Giant,” a nickname that became popular during the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates for Illinois senator. On the other hand, Lincoln’s “Wide Awake Club” belt eludes to the group of young, Republican men of the same name who marched in Northern cities to gain support for Lincoln. In the end, Breckinridge admits defeat, holding his nose as he moves away from the skunk in the foreground. At the time, “skunk’d” was used as a baseball term to describe a shutout or a large margin of victory. (By Rebecca Solnit)
• A POLITICAL RACE Published by Rickey, Mallory & Company, Cincinnati, 1860.
Text from left to right:
John Bell: Bless my soul I give up.
John C. Breckinridge: That long legged Abolitionist is getting ahead of us after all.
Stephen Douglas: I never run so in my life.
• Complete HarpWeek Explanation:A crude nonpartisan satire, parodying all four candidates in the 1860 presidential election. A map of the United States hung on a wall is being torn apart by three of the candidates. Lincoln (far left) and Douglas tear at the western part of the country, as Breckinridge (center) attacks the South. The fourth, John Bell (right), stands on a stool trying to repair the northeastern section with a jar of "Spaldings," a widely marketed glue of the period. Several boxes of this adhesive appear, prominently labeled, at right.
• Complete HarpWeek Explanation:A general parody on the 1860 presidential contest, highlighting the impact of the Dred Scott decision on the race. That controversial decision, handed down in 1857 by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, ruled that neither the federal government nor territorial governments could prohibit slavery in the territories. The burning question of the future of slavery in the United States was addressed by several of the contenders during the 1860 race. Here the four presidential candidates dance with members of their supposed respective constituencies. The music is fiddled by Dred Scott, the former slave whose suit precipitated the court's decision. Scott sits on a chair at center. In the upper left is Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. He is paired with Democratic incumbent and ally James Buchanan, depicted as a goat or (as he was nicknamed) "Buck." At the upper right Republican Abraham Lincoln prances arm-in-arm with a black woman, a pejorative reference to his party's alignment with the abolitionists.
• At lower right Constitutional Union party candidate John Bell dances with an Indian brave. This pairing is puzzling but may allude to Bell's brief flirtation with Native American interests. (For one instance of the use of the Indian as a nativist symbol see "Know Nothing Soap," no. 1854-3.)
• At lower left Stephen A. Douglas dances with a ragged Irishman. Associated with Douglas in several cartoons (see "The Undecided Political Prize Fight," no. 1860-22) the Irishman, here wearing a cross, may be intended as a reference to Douglas's backing among Irish immigrants and allegations of the candidate's Catholicism.
• This cover cartoon for Strong’s Campaign Pictorial uses a common horserace analogy for the presidential election. Constitutional Unionist John Bell is far back of the pack. Southern Democrat John Breckinridge is dead weight on a drag pulled by Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, whose jockey may be Dean Richmond, political boss of the Albany, New York, political machine. Out in front is the probable winner, Republican Abraham Lincoln, ridden by jockey Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune. The rail which Greeley carries is a pun on Lincoln’s image as a rail-splitter and alludes to the Lincoln horse being closest to the inside rail. The “post” is actually the starting gate in horseracing, but is used here to signify the finish line because it is a synonym for “rail.”
• In order to appeal to average voters, Republicans emphasized the poor, hardworking origin of their candidate through the myth of Abraham Lincoln as a rail-splitter. This cartoon in the Wide-Awake Pictorial plays on that image by joking that the last rail he split is the Democratic Party in 1860, which divided into Northern and Southern factions.
• This Vanity Fair cartoon ridicules Stephen Douglas's diminutive stature (5' 4") by presenting him as a young boy trying to reach his (presidential) high chair. To attain that goal, he teeters on a footstool marked “Kanzaz,” which stands atop the back of a black boy. That image refers to Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise ban on slavery in the Western territories north of the 36º 30' line of latitude. The cartoon's message is that while the Northern Democratic nominee hopes his stance on the slavery issue will help elevate him into the White House, it will prove to be more of an obstacle. The depiction of Douglas as a child may also refer to his campaign tour through New England, which he excused by claiming that he was on the way to visit his mother.
• This cartoon and poem in The Chicago Rail Splitter (Chicago) poke fun at Northern Democratic presidential nominee Stephen Douglas for using a visit to his mother as a pretext for a campaign tour of the Northeast. There was a longstanding tradition against presidential candidates stumping for office. Douglas’s 1860 electioneering in the Northeast and later in the South were the first issues-oriented speaking tours by a presidential nominee.
• Douglas was known as a hard drinker, and the “great principle” in his pocket is a bottle of alcohol
• Complete HarpWeek Explanation:A general parody on the field of presidential candidates and their supporters in the 1860 campaign. At the far left stands Constitutional Union party vice presidential candidate Edward Everett, as a muscle man holding aloft a barbell on which rests running mate John Bell. Everett boasts, "There is nothing like having the Constitution, to give us strength to put up this Bell successfully." Bell states, "I have perfect confidence in Mr. Everett's ability to uphold me." Though holding second place on the ticket, the former senator from Massachusetts Everett was much more popular in the Northeast than Tennessean Bell.
• To the right of Bell and Everett is "Tribune" editor Horace Greeley. His political ambitions are mocked by the artist who shows him vainly attempting to climb up on a horizontal bar labeled "Nomination for Governor." Greeley complains, "I've been practising at it a long time, but can never get up muscle enough to get astride of this bar." Abraham Lincoln (center), who has successfully mounted a balance beam constructed of wooden rails, advises Greeley, "You must do as I did Greely, get somebody to give you a boost, I'm sure I never could have got up here by my own efforts." His cross bar, labeled "For President," represents the Republican nomination, which Lincoln won largely through Greeley's powerful support. Occupying the foreground is James Watson Webb of the New York "Courier," who tries a backward somersault. His wager here, "I'll bet a quarter I can beat any man in the party at turning political Summersets," is a swipe at Webb's mid-1850s conversion from Whig to Republican.
• At far right stands Lincoln's former competitor for the Republican nomination, William H. Seward, on crutches and with bandaged feet. He warns Lincoln, "You'd better be careful friend, that you don't tumble off; as I did before I was fairly on, for if you do you'll be as badly crippled as I am." (For a similar reference to political cripples in this campaign, see ""Taking the Stump" or Stephen in Search of His Mother," no. 1860-36.)
• Near Seward the two sectional Democratic candidates compete in a boxing match. Stephen A. Douglas, the regular Democratic nominee, faces southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. Douglas taunts his opponent, "Come at me Breck, and after you cry enough, I'll take a round with the rest of them." In response Breckinridge asserts, "If I can do nothing else I can at least prevent you from pulling Lincoln down."
• The Campaign Plain Dealer was published by the Cleveland Plain Dealer to support the presidential candidacy of Stephen Douglas. This cartoon applies the common visual analogy of boxing to the 1860 presidential campaign, showing Democrat Douglas bringing Republican Abraham Lincoln to his knees with a chokehold (boxing rules against wrestling were not introduced to America until after the Civil War). In Douglas’s corner flies the flag of “Popular Sovereignty,” denoting the proposal that voters in the West should decide the fate of slavery in their territory without federal interference. In Lincoln’s corner flies the flag of “Irrepressible Conflict,” referring to a term coined by Senator William Henry Seward of New York to characterize the clash between slavery and free labor.
• Oddly, the cartoonist placed three prominent Republican journalists on the popular sovereignty side (left-right): Thurlow Weed, former editor of the New York Evening Journal, who backed the unsuccessful Seward for the Republican presidential nomination; Henry Raymond, editor of The New York Times; and editor Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, a key figure in Lincoln’s nomination. Seward himself stands in front of the “Irrepressible Conflict” flag, and states concerning Lincoln’s role in the fight, “I could have done better myself.” Cheering Douglas from the center is the senior editor of the Campaign Plain Dealer, Joseph William Gray, who founded the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1842 with his brother, Nelson. (Douglas’s last name was originally spelled as printed in the middle dialogue bubble.) The newspaper’s explanation of the cartoon ends with a line spoken by the title character of Shakespeare’s Macbeth before he attacks (and is killed by) Macduff.
• Published by Rickey, Mallory & Company, Cincinnati, July 1860.
Figures from left to right:
In upper left hand corner a figure looks out a window titled: Before
Stephen Douglas with one foot through the Cincinnati Platform and the other on the Mason Dixon Line waves two flags: SOUTH. Dred Scott Decision" and NORTH. Unfriendly Legislation.
Lincoln stands on a No Extension of Slavery platform holds tight with his right hand the rope around Douglas' neck which reads: Squatter sovereignty, and brandishes a rail with his left.
John Bell stands on the ground without a platform and has a bell over his head; John C. Breckinridge seated behind him writing New York Ledger; his head is also under the bell.
In the upper right hand corner a figure looks out a window titled: After the Chicago Convention.
• John Bell at left looks through a telescope at a black image of Abraham Lincoln. He says to Stephen A. Douglas, standing in the South portion of a map of the United States as a dark shadow spreads across the north: “Stephen the entir[e] northern limb seems to be eclipsed.” Douglas responds: “If that is the case John we better fuse”Commentator Albert Shaw noted: “The effort to defeat Lincoln did result in a fusion of electoral tickets in New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, in spite of which Lincoln carried all the Northern States.”
• Louis Maurer mocked presidential candidate Stephen Douglas in the cartoon “Stephen Finding His Mother.” Through the months leading up to the election in late 1860, Douglas engaged in an unprecedented national campaign tour. In response to critics of his new vote-gathering methods, he falsely claimed to visit his mother when he lead his tour through New York and New England. Using this story as the basis for the cartoon, Maurer shows Columbia as Douglas’ “mother” who, at the urging of Uncle Sam, punishes him for dividing Democrats and bringing scorn from Republicans. She uses a branch labeled the “Maine Law,” a possible reference to Maine’s 1851 temperance law, to “give him the Stripes till he sees Stars.”
A Political Race
• Abraham Lincoln is shown pulling away from the other runners in a race just like he was gaining the lead in the political race for president.
Little Stephen Douglaso
• Step stool reads Kanzaz
• Highchair reads Presidential Chair 1860
The Political Gymnasium• There is nothing like having the Constitution, to give us strength to
put up this Bell successfully.• I have perfect confidence in Mr. Everett’s ability to uphold me.• I have been practicing at it a long time, but can never get up muscle
enough to get astride of this bar.• You must do this as I did Greely, get somebody to give you a boost,
I’m sure I never could have got up here by my own efforts.• I’ll bet a quarter I can beat any man in the party at turning political
summersets.• You’d better be careful friend, that you don’t tumble off, as I did
before I was fairly on, for if you do you’ll be as badly crippled as I am.
• Come at me Breck, and after you cry enough, I’ll take a round with the rest of them.
• If I can do nothing else I can at least prevent you from pulling Lincoln down.
The Political Eclipse of 1860
• Stephen, the entire middle limb seems to be eclipsed.
• If that is the case John we better fuse.