"A NEW POLITICAL CREED FOR THE USE OF WHOM IT MAY CONCERN."Whoever would live peaceably in Philadelphia, above all things it is necessary that he hold the Federal faith—and the Federal faith is this, that there are two governing powers in this country, both equal, and yet one superior: which faith except every one keep undefiledly, without doubt he shall be abused everlastingly."The Briton is superior to the American, and the American is inferior to the Briton: and yet they are equal, and the Briton shall govern the American."The Briton, while here, is commanded to obey the American, and yet the American ought to obey the Briton."And yet they ought not both to be obedient, but only one to be obedient. For there is one dominion nominal of the American, and another dominion real of the Briton."And yet there are not two dominions, but only one dominion."For like as we are compelled by the British constitution book to acknowledge thatsubjectsmust submit themselves to their monarchs, and be obedient to them in all things:"So we are forbid by our Federal executive to say that we are at all influenced by our treaty with France, or to pay regard to what it enforceth:"The American was created for the Briton, and the Briton for the American:"And yet the American shall be a slave to the Briton, and the Briton the tyrant of the American."And Britons are of three denominations, and yet only of one soul, nature, and subsistency:"The Irishman of infinite impudence:"The Scotchman of cunning most inscrutable:"And the Englishman of impertinence altogether insupportable:"The only true and honorable gentlemen of this our blessed country."He, therefore, that would live in quiet, must thus think of the Briton and the American."It is furthermore necessary that everygoodAmerican should believe in the infallibility of the executive, when its proclamations are echoed by Britons:"For the true faith is, that we believe and confess that the Government is fallible and infallible:"Fallible in its republican nature, and infallible in its monarchical tendency, erring in its state of individuality, and unerring in its Federal complexity."So that though it be both fallible and infallible, yet it is not twain, but one government only, as having consolidated all state dominion, in order to rule with sway uncontrolled."This is the true Federal faith, which except a man believe and practice faithfully, beyond all doubt he shall be cursed perpetually."
"A NEW POLITICAL CREED FOR THE USE OF WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.
"Whoever would live peaceably in Philadelphia, above all things it is necessary that he hold the Federal faith—and the Federal faith is this, that there are two governing powers in this country, both equal, and yet one superior: which faith except every one keep undefiledly, without doubt he shall be abused everlastingly.
"The Briton is superior to the American, and the American is inferior to the Briton: and yet they are equal, and the Briton shall govern the American.
"The Briton, while here, is commanded to obey the American, and yet the American ought to obey the Briton.
"And yet they ought not both to be obedient, but only one to be obedient. For there is one dominion nominal of the American, and another dominion real of the Briton.
"And yet there are not two dominions, but only one dominion.
"For like as we are compelled by the British constitution book to acknowledge thatsubjectsmust submit themselves to their monarchs, and be obedient to them in all things:
"So we are forbid by our Federal executive to say that we are at all influenced by our treaty with France, or to pay regard to what it enforceth:
"The American was created for the Briton, and the Briton for the American:
"And yet the American shall be a slave to the Briton, and the Briton the tyrant of the American.
"And Britons are of three denominations, and yet only of one soul, nature, and subsistency:
"The Irishman of infinite impudence:
"The Scotchman of cunning most inscrutable:
"And the Englishman of impertinence altogether insupportable:
"The only true and honorable gentlemen of this our blessed country.
"He, therefore, that would live in quiet, must thus think of the Briton and the American.
"It is furthermore necessary that everygoodAmerican should believe in the infallibility of the executive, when its proclamations are echoed by Britons:
"For the true faith is, that we believe and confess that the Government is fallible and infallible:
"Fallible in its republican nature, and infallible in its monarchical tendency, erring in its state of individuality, and unerring in its Federal complexity.
"So that though it be both fallible and infallible, yet it is not twain, but one government only, as having consolidated all state dominion, in order to rule with sway uncontrolled.
"This is the true Federal faith, which except a man believe and practice faithfully, beyond all doubt he shall be cursed perpetually."
A rude but very curious specimen of the caricature of the early time is given on the next page of the collision on the floor of the House of Representatives between Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold, both representatives from Connecticut. Lyon, a native of Ireland, was an ardent Republican, who played a conspicuous part in politics during the final struggle between the Republicans and the Federalists. Roger Griswold, on the contrary, a member of an old and distinguished Connecticut family, a graduate of its ancient college, and a member of its really illustrious bar, was a pronounced Federalist. He was also a gentleman who had no natural relish for a strong-minded, unlettered emigrant who founded a town in his new country, built mills and foundries, invented processes, established a newspaper, and was elected to Congress. If Hamilton and Griswold and the other extreme Federalists had had their way in this country, there would have been no Matthew Lyons among us to create a new world for mankind, and begin the development of a better political system. Nor, indeed, was Matthew Lyon sufficiently tolerant of the old and tried methods that had become inadequate. He was not likely, either—at the age of fifty-two, standing upon the summit of a very successful career, which was wholly his own work—to regard as equal to himself a man of thirty-six, whoseemed to owe his importance chiefly to his lineage. So here was a broad basis for an antipathy which the strife of politics could easily aggravate into an aversion extreme and fiery—fiery, at least, on the part of the Irishman.
Fight in Congress between Lyon and Griswold, February 15th, 1798."He in a trice struck Griswold thriceUpon his head, enraged, sir;Who seized the tongs to ease his wrongs,And Griswold thus engaged, sir."
Fight in Congress between Lyon and Griswold, February 15th, 1798.
"He in a trice struck Griswold thriceUpon his head, enraged, sir;Who seized the tongs to ease his wrongs,And Griswold thus engaged, sir."
Imagine this process complete, and the House, on the last day of the year 1798, in languid session, balloting. The two members were standing near one another outside the bar, when Griswold made taunting allusion to an old "campaign story" of Matthew Lyon's having been sentenced to wear a wooden sword for cowardice in the field. Lyon, in a fury, spit in Griswold's face. Instantly the House was in an uproar; and although the impetuous Lyon apologized to the House, he only escaped expulsion, after eleven days' debate, through the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote. This affair called forth a caricature in which the Irish member was depicted as a lion standing on his hind-legs wearing a wooden sword, while Griswold, handkerchief in hand, exclaims, "What a beastly action!"
The vote for expulsion—52 to 44—did not satisfy Mr. Griswold. Four days after the vote occurred the outrageous scene rudely delineated in the picture already mentioned. Griswold, armed with what the Republican editor called "a stout hickory club," and the Federalist editor a "hickory stick," assaulted Lyon while he was sitting at his desk, striking him on the head and shoulders several times before he could extricate himself. But at last Lyongot upon his feet, and, seizing the tongs, rushed upon the enemy. This is the moment selected by the artist. They soon after closed and fell to the floor, where they enjoyed a good "rough-and-tumble" fight, until members pulled them apart. A few minutes after they chanced to meet again at the "water table," near one of the doors. Lyon was now provided with a stick, but Griswold had none. "Their eyes no sooner met," says the Federalist reporter, "than Mr. Lyon sprung to attack Mr. Griswold." A member handed Griswold a stick, and there was a fair prospect of another fight, when the Speaker interfered with so much energy that the antagonists were again torn apart. The battle was not renewed on the floor of Congress.
But it was continued elsewhere. Under that amazing sedition law of the Federalists, Lyon was tried a few months after for saying in his newspaper that President Adams had an "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp," had turned men out of office for their opinions, and had written "a bullying message" upon the French imbroglio of 1798. He was found guilty, sentenced to pay a fine of a thousand dollars, besides the heavy costs of the prosecution, to be imprisoned four months, and to continue in confinement until the fine was paid. Of course the people of his district stood by him, and, while he was in prison, re-elected him to Congress by a great majority; and his fine was repaid to his heirs in 1840 by Congress, with forty-two years' interest. These events made a prodigious stir in their time. Matthew Lyon's presence in the House of Representatives, his demeanor there, and his triumphal return from prison to Congress, were the first distinct notification to parties interested that the sceptre was passing from the Few to the Many.
The satire and burlesque of the Jeffersonian period, from 1798 to 1809, were abundant in quantity, if not of shining excellence. To the reader of the present day all savors of burlesque in the political utterances of that time, so preposterously violent were partisans on both sides. It is impossible to take a serious view of the case of an editor who could make it a matter of boasting that he had opposed the Republican measures for eight years "without a single exception." The press, indeed, had then no independent life; it was the minion and slave of party. It is only in our own day that the press begins to exist for its own sake, and descant with reasonable freedom on topics other than the Importance of Early Rising and the Customs of the Chinese. The reader would neither be edified nor amused by seeing Mr. Jefferson kneeling before a stumpy pillar labeled "Altar of Gallic Despotism," upon which are Paine's "Age of Reason" and the works of Rousseau, Voltaire, and Helvetius, with the demon of the French Revolution crouching behind it, and the American eagle soaring aloft, bearing in its talons the Constitution and the independence of the United States. Pictures of that nature, of great size, crowded with objects, emblems, and sentences—an elaborate blending of burlesque, allegory, and enigma—were so much valued by that generation that some of them were engraved upon copper.
On the day of the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States, March 4th, 1801, a parody appeared in theCentinelof Boston, a Federalist paper of great note in its time, which may serve our purpose here:
Monumental Inscription."That life is long which answers Life's great end."Yesterday expired, deeply regretted by millions of grateful Americans,and by all good men,THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES:animated byA WASHINGTON, AN ADAMS, A HAMILTON, KNOX, PICKERING, WOLCOTT,M'HENRY, MARSHALL, STODDERT, AND DEXTER.Æt. 12 years.Its death was occasioned by the secret arts and open violenceof foreign and domestic demagogues:Notwithstanding its whole life was devoted to the performance of every duty to promotethe Union, Credit, Peace, Prosperity, Honor,and Felicity of its Country.At its birth, it found the Union of the States dissolving like a rope of snow;It hath left it stronger than the threefold cord.It found the United States bankrupts in estate and reputation;It hath left them unbounded in credit, and respected throughout the world.It found the Treasuries of the United States and Individual States empty;It hath left them full and overflowing.It found all the evidences of public debts worthless as rags;It hath left them more valuable than gold and silver.It found the United States at war with the Indian nations;It hath concluded peace with them all.It found the aboriginals of the soil inveterate enemies of the whites;It hath exercised toward them justice and generosity, and hath left them fast friends.It found Great Britain in possession of all the frontier posts;It hath demanded their surrender, and it leaves them in the possession of the United States.It found the American sea-coast utterly defenseless;It hath left it fortified.It found our arsenals empty, and magazines decaying;It hath left them full of ammunition and warlike implements.It found our country dependent on foreign nations for engines of defense;It hath left manufactories of cannon and musquets in full work.It found the American Nation at war with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli;It hath made peace with them all.It found American freemen in Turkish slavery, where they had languished in chains for years;It hath ransomed them and set them free.It found the war-worn, invalid soldier starving from want; or, like Belisarius, begging his refuse-meat from door to door;It hath left ample provision for the regular payment of his pension.It found the commerce of our country confined almost to coasting craft;It hath left it whitening every sea with its canvas, and cheering every clime with its stars.It found our mechanics and manufacturers idle in the streets for want of employ;It hath left them full of business, prosperous, contented, and happy.It found the yeomanry of the country oppressed with unequal taxes; their farms, houses, andbarns decaying; their cattle selling at the sign-posts; and they driven todesperation and rebellion;It hath left their coffers in cash, their houses in repair, their barns full, their farms overstocked,and their produce commanding ready money and a high price.In short, it found them poor, indigent malcontents;It hath left them wealthy friends to order and good government.It found the United States deeply in debt to France and Holland;It hath paid all the demands of the former, and the principal part of the latter.It found the country in a ruinous alliance with France;It hath honorably dissolved the connection, and set us free.It found the United States without a swivel on float for their defense;It hath left a Navy—composed of 34 ships of war, mounting 918 guns, and manned by 7350gallant tars.It found the exports of our country a mere song in value;It hath left them worth above seventy millions of dollars per annum.In one word, it found America disunited, poor, insolvent, weak, discontented, and wretched;It hath left her united, wealthy, respectable, strong, happy, and prosperous.Let the faithful historian, in after-times, say these things of its successor, if he can.And yet, notwithstanding all these services and blessings, there are found many, very many, weak,degenerate sons, who, lost to virtue, to gratitude, and patriotism,openly exult that this Administration is no more, andthat the "Sun of Federalism is set forever.""Oh shame, where is thy blush?"AS ONE TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE IN THESE TIMES, THIS MONUMENT OF THE TALENTS ANDSERVICES OF THE DECEASED IS RAISED BYThe Centinel.March 4th, 1801.
Monumental Inscription."That life is long which answers Life's great end."Yesterday expired, deeply regretted by millions of grateful Americans,and by all good men,THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES:animated byA WASHINGTON, AN ADAMS, A HAMILTON, KNOX, PICKERING, WOLCOTT,M'HENRY, MARSHALL, STODDERT, AND DEXTER.Æt. 12 years.Its death was occasioned by the secret arts and open violenceof foreign and domestic demagogues:Notwithstanding its whole life was devoted to the performance of every duty to promotethe Union, Credit, Peace, Prosperity, Honor,and Felicity of its Country.At its birth, it found the Union of the States dissolving like a rope of snow;It hath left it stronger than the threefold cord.It found the United States bankrupts in estate and reputation;It hath left them unbounded in credit, and respected throughout the world.It found the Treasuries of the United States and Individual States empty;It hath left them full and overflowing.It found all the evidences of public debts worthless as rags;It hath left them more valuable than gold and silver.It found the United States at war with the Indian nations;It hath concluded peace with them all.It found the aboriginals of the soil inveterate enemies of the whites;It hath exercised toward them justice and generosity, and hath left them fast friends.It found Great Britain in possession of all the frontier posts;It hath demanded their surrender, and it leaves them in the possession of the United States.It found the American sea-coast utterly defenseless;It hath left it fortified.It found our arsenals empty, and magazines decaying;It hath left them full of ammunition and warlike implements.It found our country dependent on foreign nations for engines of defense;It hath left manufactories of cannon and musquets in full work.It found the American Nation at war with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli;It hath made peace with them all.It found American freemen in Turkish slavery, where they had languished in chains for years;It hath ransomed them and set them free.It found the war-worn, invalid soldier starving from want; or, like Belisarius, begging his refuse-meat from door to door;It hath left ample provision for the regular payment of his pension.It found the commerce of our country confined almost to coasting craft;It hath left it whitening every sea with its canvas, and cheering every clime with its stars.It found our mechanics and manufacturers idle in the streets for want of employ;It hath left them full of business, prosperous, contented, and happy.It found the yeomanry of the country oppressed with unequal taxes; their farms, houses, andbarns decaying; their cattle selling at the sign-posts; and they driven todesperation and rebellion;It hath left their coffers in cash, their houses in repair, their barns full, their farms overstocked,and their produce commanding ready money and a high price.In short, it found them poor, indigent malcontents;It hath left them wealthy friends to order and good government.It found the United States deeply in debt to France and Holland;It hath paid all the demands of the former, and the principal part of the latter.It found the country in a ruinous alliance with France;It hath honorably dissolved the connection, and set us free.It found the United States without a swivel on float for their defense;It hath left a Navy—composed of 34 ships of war, mounting 918 guns, and manned by 7350gallant tars.It found the exports of our country a mere song in value;It hath left them worth above seventy millions of dollars per annum.In one word, it found America disunited, poor, insolvent, weak, discontented, and wretched;It hath left her united, wealthy, respectable, strong, happy, and prosperous.Let the faithful historian, in after-times, say these things of its successor, if he can.And yet, notwithstanding all these services and blessings, there are found many, very many, weak,degenerate sons, who, lost to virtue, to gratitude, and patriotism,openly exult that this Administration is no more, andthat the "Sun of Federalism is set forever.""Oh shame, where is thy blush?"AS ONE TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE IN THESE TIMES, THIS MONUMENT OF THE TALENTS ANDSERVICES OF THE DECEASED IS RAISED BY
Monumental Inscription.
"That life is long which answers Life's great end."
Yesterday expired, deeply regretted by millions of grateful Americans,and by all good men,THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES:animated byA WASHINGTON, AN ADAMS, A HAMILTON, KNOX, PICKERING, WOLCOTT,M'HENRY, MARSHALL, STODDERT, AND DEXTER.Æt. 12 years.
Its death was occasioned by the secret arts and open violenceof foreign and domestic demagogues:Notwithstanding its whole life was devoted to the performance of every duty to promotethe Union, Credit, Peace, Prosperity, Honor,and Felicity of its Country.
At its birth, it found the Union of the States dissolving like a rope of snow;It hath left it stronger than the threefold cord.
It found the United States bankrupts in estate and reputation;It hath left them unbounded in credit, and respected throughout the world.It found the Treasuries of the United States and Individual States empty;It hath left them full and overflowing.It found all the evidences of public debts worthless as rags;It hath left them more valuable than gold and silver.
It found the United States at war with the Indian nations;It hath concluded peace with them all.It found the aboriginals of the soil inveterate enemies of the whites;It hath exercised toward them justice and generosity, and hath left them fast friends.It found Great Britain in possession of all the frontier posts;It hath demanded their surrender, and it leaves them in the possession of the United States.It found the American sea-coast utterly defenseless;It hath left it fortified.It found our arsenals empty, and magazines decaying;It hath left them full of ammunition and warlike implements.It found our country dependent on foreign nations for engines of defense;It hath left manufactories of cannon and musquets in full work.It found the American Nation at war with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli;It hath made peace with them all.It found American freemen in Turkish slavery, where they had languished in chains for years;It hath ransomed them and set them free.
It found the war-worn, invalid soldier starving from want; or, like Belisarius, begging his refuse-meat from door to door;It hath left ample provision for the regular payment of his pension.
It found the commerce of our country confined almost to coasting craft;It hath left it whitening every sea with its canvas, and cheering every clime with its stars.
It found our mechanics and manufacturers idle in the streets for want of employ;It hath left them full of business, prosperous, contented, and happy.It found the yeomanry of the country oppressed with unequal taxes; their farms, houses, andbarns decaying; their cattle selling at the sign-posts; and they driven todesperation and rebellion;It hath left their coffers in cash, their houses in repair, their barns full, their farms overstocked,and their produce commanding ready money and a high price.In short, it found them poor, indigent malcontents;It hath left them wealthy friends to order and good government.
It found the United States deeply in debt to France and Holland;It hath paid all the demands of the former, and the principal part of the latter.It found the country in a ruinous alliance with France;It hath honorably dissolved the connection, and set us free.
It found the United States without a swivel on float for their defense;It hath left a Navy—composed of 34 ships of war, mounting 918 guns, and manned by 7350gallant tars.
It found the exports of our country a mere song in value;It hath left them worth above seventy millions of dollars per annum.In one word, it found America disunited, poor, insolvent, weak, discontented, and wretched;It hath left her united, wealthy, respectable, strong, happy, and prosperous.Let the faithful historian, in after-times, say these things of its successor, if he can.And yet, notwithstanding all these services and blessings, there are found many, very many, weak,degenerate sons, who, lost to virtue, to gratitude, and patriotism,openly exult that this Administration is no more, andthat the "Sun of Federalism is set forever.""Oh shame, where is thy blush?"
AS ONE TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE IN THESE TIMES, THIS MONUMENT OF THE TALENTS ANDSERVICES OF THE DECEASED IS RAISED BY
The Centinel.
March 4th, 1801.
The Gerry-Mander.(Boston, 1811.)
The Gerry-Mander.(Boston, 1811.)
The victorious Republicans, if less skillful than their adversaries in the burlesque arts, had their own methods of parrying and returning such assaults as this. At an earlier period in Mr. Jefferson's ascendency, the politicians, borrowing the idea from Catholic times, employed stuffed figures and burlesque processions in lieu of caricature. While the people were still in warm sympathy with the French Revolution, William Smith, a Representative in Congress from South Carolina, gave deep offense to many of his constituents by opposing certain resolutions offered by "Citizen Madison" expressive of that sympathy.There was no burlesque artist then in South Carolina, but the Democrats of Charleston contrived, notwithstanding, to caricature the offender and "his infernal junto." A platform was erected in an open place in Charleston, upon which was exhibited to a noisy crowd, from early in the morning until three in the afternoon, a rare assemblage of figures: A woman representing the Genius of Britain inviting the recreant Representatives to share the wages of her iniquity; William Smith advancing toward her with eager steps, his right hand stretched out to receive his portion, in his left holding a paper upon which was written "Six per cents," and wearing upon his breast another with "£40,000in the Funds;" Benedict Arnold with his hand full of checks and bills; Fisher Ames labeled "£400,000in the Funds;" the devil and "Young Pitt" goading on the reprobate Americans. In front of the stage was a gallows for the due hanging and burning of these figures when the crowd were tired of gazing upon them. Each of the characters was provided with a label exhibiting an appropriate sentiment. The odious Smith was made to confess that his sentence was just: "The love of gold, a foreign education, and foreign connections damn me." "Young Pitt" owned to having let loose the Algerines upon the Americans, and Fisher Ames confessed that from the time when he began life as a horse-jockey his "Ameshad been villainy."
It is an objection to this kind of caricature that the weather may interfere with its proper presentation. A shower of rain obliterated most of those labels, and left the figures themselves in a reduced and draggled condition. But, according to the local historian, the exhibition was continued, "to the great mirth and entertainment of the boys, who would not quit the field until a total demolition of the figures took place," nor "before they had taken down the breeches of the effigy of the Representative of this State and given him repeated castigations." In the evening the colors of Great Britain were dipped in oil andFrenchbrandy, and burned at the same fire which had consumed the effigies.
Later in the Jeffersonian period, the burlesque procession—caricature vivante—was occasionally employed by the New England Federalists to excitepopular disapproval of the embargo which suspended foreign commerce. Elderly gentlemen in Newburyport remember hearing their fathers describe the battered old hulk of a vessel, with rotten rigging and tattered sails, manned by ragged and cadaverous sailors, that was drawn in such a procession in 1808, the year of the Presidential election. There are even a few old people who remember seeing the procession, for in those healthy old coast towns the generations are linked together, and the whole history of New England is sometimes represented in the group round the post-office of a fine summer morning. The odd-looking picture of the Gerry-mander, on the previous page, belongs to the same period, and preserves a record not creditable to party politicians. Democratic leaders in Massachusetts, in order to secure the election of two Senators of their party, redistricted the State with absurd disregard of geographical facts. TheCentinelexhibited the fraud by means of a colored map, which the artist, Gilbert Stuart, by a few touches, converted into the immortal Gerry-mander. Governor Gerry, though not the author of the scheme, nor an approver of it, justly shares the discredit of a measure which he might have vetoed, but did not.
The war of 1812 yields its quota of caricature to the collector's port-folio. "John Bull making a New Batch of Ships to send to the Lakes" is an obvious imitation of Gillray's masterpiece of Bonaparte baking a new batch of kings. The contribution levied upon Alexandria, and the retreat of a party of English troops from Baltimore, furnish subjects to a draughtsman who had more patriotic feeling than artistic invention. His "John Bull" is a stout man, with a bull's head and a long sword, who utters pompous words. "I must have all your flour, all your tobacco, all your ships, all your merchandise—every thing except yourPorterandPerry. Keep them out of sight; I have had enough ofthemalready." No doubt this was comforting to the patriotic mind while it was lamenting a Capitol burned and a President in flight.
Thomas Nast, 1875.
Thomas Nast, 1875.
WHOLESALE.RETAIL.(Harper's Weekly, September 16th, 1871.)
WHOLESALE.RETAIL.
(Harper's Weekly, September 16th, 1871.)
The era of good feeling which followed the war of 1812, and which exhausted the high, benign spirit infused into public affairs by Mr. Jefferson, could not be expected to call forth satirical pictures of remarkable quality. The irruption of the positive and uncontrollable Jackson into politics made amends. Once more the mind of the country was astir, and again nearly thewhole of the educated class was arrayed against the masses of the people. The two political parties in every country, call them by whatever disguising names we may, are the Rich and the Poor. The rich are naturally inclined to use their power to give their own class an advantage; the poor naturally object; and this is the underlying, ever-operating cause of political strife in all countries that enjoy a degree of freedom; and this is the reason why, in times of political crisis, the instructed class is frequently in the wrong. Interest and pride blind its judgment. In Jackson's day the distinction between the right and the wrong politics was not so clear as in Jefferson's time; but it was, upon the whole, the same struggle disguised and degraded by personal ambitions and antipathies. It certainly called forth as many parodies, burlesques, caricatures, and lampoons as any similar strife since the invention of politics. The coffin handbills repeated the device employed after the Boston massacre of 1774 in order to keep it in memory that General Jackson had ordered six militiamen to be shot for desertion. The hickory poles that pierced the sky at so many cross-roads were a retort to these, admitting but eulogizing the hardness of the man. The sudden breakup of the cabinet in 1831 called forth a caricature which dear Mrs. Trollope described as "the only tolerable one she ever saw in the country." It represented the President seated in his room trying hard to detain one of four escaping rats by putting his foot on its tail. The rat thus held wore the familiar countenance of the Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren, who had been requested to remain till his successor had arrived. It was this picture that gave occasion for one of John Van Buren's noted sayings that were once a circulating medium in the lawyers' offices of New York. "When will your father be in New York?" asked some one. The reply was, "When the President takes off his foot."
The Brains of the Tammany Ring.(Harper's Weekly, October 21st, 1871.)
The Brains of the Tammany Ring.(Harper's Weekly, October 21st, 1871.)
Then we have Van Buren as a baby in the arms of General Jackson, receiving pap from a spoon in the general's hand; Jackson and Clay as jockeys riding a race toward the Presidential house, Clay ahead; Jackson receiving a crown from Van Buren and a sceptre from the devil; Jackson, Benton, Blair, Kendall, and others, in the guise of robbers, directing a great battering-ram atthe front door of the United States Bank; Jackson, as Don Quixote, breaking a very slender lance against one of the marble pillars of the same edifice; Jackson and Louis Philippe as pugilists in a ring, the king having just received a blow that makes his crown topple over his face.
"What are the Wild Waves saying?" (Harper's Weekly, July 9th, 1870.)
"What are the Wild Waves saying?" (Harper's Weekly, July 9th, 1870.)
Burlesque processions were also much in vogue in 1832 during the weeks preceding the Presidential election. To the oratory of Webster, Preston, Hoffman, and Everett, the Democracy replied by massive hickory poles, fifty feet long, drawn by eight, twelve, or sixteen horses, and ridden by as many young Democrats as could get astride of the emblematic log, waving flags and shouting, "Hurra for Jackson!" Live eagles were borne aloft upon poles, banners were carried exhibiting Nicholas Biddle as Old Nick, and endless ranks of Democrats marched past, each Democrat wearing in his hat a sprig of the sacred tree. And again the cultured orators were wrong, and the untutored Democrats were substantially in the right. Ambition and interest prevented those brilliant men from seeing that in putting down the bank, as in other measures of his stormy administration, the worst that could be truly said of General Jackson was that he did right things in a wrong way. The "shin-plaster" caricature given on the following page is itself a record of the bad consequences that followed his violent method in the matter of the bank. The inflation of 1835 produced the wild land speculation of 1836, which ended in the woful collapse of 1837, the year of bankruptcy and "shin-plaster."
To this period belongs the picture, given on a previous page, which caricatures the old militia system by presenting at one view many of the possible mishaps of training-day. The receipt which John Adams gave for making a free commonwealth enumerated four ingredients—town meetings, training-days, town schools, and ministers. But in the time of Jackson the old militia system had been outgrown, and it was laughed out of existence. Most of the faces in this picture were intended to be portraits.
Shin-plaster Caricature of General Jackson's War on the United States Bank, and its Consequences, 1837.
Shin-plaster Caricature of General Jackson's War on the United States Bank, and its Consequences, 1837.
Mr. Hudson, in his valuable "History of Journalism," speaks of a lithographer named Robinson, who used to line the fences and even the curb-stonesof New York with rude caricatures of the persons prominent in public life during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. Several of these have been preserved, with others of the same period; but few of them are tolerable, now that the feeling which suggested them no longer exists; and as to the greater number, we can only agree with the New YorkMirror, then in the height of its celebrity and influence, in pronouncing them "so dull and so pointless that it were a waste of powder to blow them up."
City People in a Country Church.
City People in a Country Church.
The publication of Mrs. Trollope's work upon the "Domestic Manners of the Americans" called forth many inanities, to say nothing of a volume of two hundred and sixteen pages, entitled "Travels in America, by George Fibbleton, Esq., ex-Barber to His Majesty the King of Great Britain." In this work Mrs. Trollope's burlesque was burlesqued sufficiently well, perhaps, to amuse people at the moment, though it reads flatly enough now. The rise and progress of phrenology was caricatured as badly as Spurzheim himself could have desired, and the agitation in behalf of the rights of women evoked all that the pencil can achieve of the crude and the silly. On the other hand, the burning of the Ursuline convent in Boston was effectively rebuked by a pair of sketches, one exhibiting the destruction of the convent by an infuriate mob, and the other a room in which Sisters of Charity are waiting upon the sick. Over the whole was written, "Look on this picture, and on this."
Why don't you take it?
Why don't you take it?
The thirty years' word war that preceded the four years' conflict in armsbetween North and South produced nothing in the way of burlesque art that is likely to be revived or remembered. If the war itself was not prolific of caricature, it was because drawing, as a part of school training, was still neglected among us. That the propensity to caricature existed is shown by the pictures on envelopes used during the first weeks of the war. The practice of illustrating envelopes in this way began on both sides in April, 1861, at the time when all eyes were directed upon Charleston. The flag of the Union, printed in colors, was the first device. This was instantly imitated by the Confederates, who filled their mails with envelope-flags showing seven stars and three broad stripes, the middle (white) one serving as a place for the direction of the letter. Very soon the flags began to exhibit mottoes and patriotic lines, such as, "Liberty and Union," "The Flag of the Free," and "Forever float that Standard Sheet!" The national arms speedily appeared, with various mottoes annexed. General Dix's inspiration, "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot," was the most popular of all for several weeks. Portraits of favorite generals and other public men were soon added—Scott, Fremont, Dix, Lincoln, Seward, and others. Before long the satirical and burlesque spirit began to manifest itself in such devices as a black flag and death's-head, with the words "Jeff Davis—his Mark;" a gallows, with a man hanging; a large pig, with "Whole Hog or None;" a bull-dog with his foot on a great piece of beef, marked Washington, with the words "Why don't you take it?" The portrait of General Butler figured on thousands of letters during the months of April and May, with his patriotic sentence, "Whatever our politics, the Government must be sustained;" and, a little later, his happy application of the words "contraband of war" to the case of the fugitive negroes was repeated upon letters without number. "Come back here, you old black rascal!" cries a master to his escaping slave. "Can't come back nohow," replies the colored brother; "dis chile contraban'." On many envelopes printed as early as May, 1861, we may still read a prophecy under the flag of the Union that has been fulfilled, "I shall wave again over Sumter."
Popular Caricature of the Secession War.(From Envelopes, 1861. Collected by William B. Taylor, Postmaster of New York, and presented by him to the New York Historical Society.)
Popular Caricature of the Secession War.
(From Envelopes, 1861. Collected by William B. Taylor, Postmaster of New York, and presented by him to the New York Historical Society.)
Such things as these usually perish with the feeling that called them forth. Mr. William B. Taylor, then the postmaster of New York, struck with the peculiar appearance of the post-office, all gay and brilliant with heaps of colored pictures, conceived the fancy of saving one or two envelopes of each kind, selected from the letters addressed to himself. These he hastily pasted in a scrap-book, which he afterward gave to swell the invaluable collection of curiosities belonging to the New York Historical Society.
Virginia Pausing.
Virginia Pausing.
We should not naturally have looked for caricature in Richmond in April, 1861, while the convention was sitting that passed the ordinance of secession. But the reader will perceive on this page that the pencil lent its aid to those who were putting the native state of Washington and Jefferson on the wrong side of the great controversy. This specimen appeared on the morning of the decisive day, and was brought away by a lady who then left Richmond for her home in New York. The rats are arranged so as to show the order in which the States seceded: South Carolina first, Mississippi second, Alabama and Florida on the same day, and Virginia still held by the negotiations with Mr. Lincoln. This picture may stand as the contribution of the Confederacy to the satiric art of the world.
Few readers need to be informed that it was the war which developed and brought to light the caricaturist of the United States, Thomas Nast. When the war began he was a boyish-looking youth of eighteen, who had already been employed as a draughtsman upon the illustrated press of New York and London for two years. He had ridden in Garibaldi's train during the campaign of 1860 which freed Sicily and Naples, and sent sketches of the leading events home to New York and to the LondonIllustrated News. But it was the secession war that changed him from a roving lad, with a swift pencil for sale, into a patriot artist, burning with the enthusiasm of the time.Harper's Weekly, circulating in every town, army, camp, fort, and ship, placed the whole country within his reach, and he gave forth from time to time those powerful emblematic pictures that roused the citizen and cheered the soldier. In these early works, produced amidst the harrowing anxieties of the war, the seriouselement was of necessity dominant, and it was this quality that gave them so much influence. They were as much the expression of heart-felt conviction as Mr. Curtis's most impassioned editorials, or Mr. Lincoln's Gettysburg speech. This I know, because I sat by his side many a time while he was drawing them, and was with him often at those electric moments when the idea of a picture was conceived. It was not till the war was over, and President Andrew Johnson began to "swing round the circle," that Mr. Nast's pictures became caricatures. But they were none the less the utterance of conviction. Whether he is wrong or right in the view presented of a subject, his pictures are always as much the product of his mind as they are of his hand.
Concerning the justice of many of his political caricatures there must be, of course, two opinions; but happily his greatest achievement is one which the honest portion of the people all approve. Caricature, since the earliest known period of its existence, far back in the dawn of Egyptian history, has accomplished nothing else equal to the series of about forty-five pictures contributed by Thomas Nast toHarper's Weeklyfor the explosion of the Tammany Ring. These are the utmost that satiric art has done in that kind. The fertility of invention displayed by the artist, week after week, for months at a time, was so extraordinary that people concluded, as a matter of course, the ideas were furnished him by others. On the contrary, he can not draw from the suggestions of other minds. His more celebrated pictures have been drawn in quiet country places, several miles from the city in which they were published.
The presence in New York of seventy or eighty thousand voters, born and reared in Europe, and left by European systems of government and religion totally ignorant of all that the citizens of a free state are most concerned to know, gave a chance here to the political thief such as has seldom existed, except within the circle of a court and aristocracy. The stealing, which was begun forty years before in the old corporation tea-room, had at last become a system, which was worked by a few coarse, cunning men with such effect as to endanger the solvency of the city. They stole more like kings and emperors than like common thieves, and the annual festival given by them at the Academy of Music called to mind the reckless profusion of Louis XIV. when he entertained the French nobles at Versailles at the expense of the laborious and economical people of France. Their chief was almost as ignorant and vulgar, though not as mean and pig-like, as George IV. of England. In many particulars they resembled the gang of low conspirators who seized the supreme power in France in 1851, and in the course of twenty years brought that powerful and illustrious nation so near ruin that it is even now a matter of doubt whether it exists by strength or by sufferance.
TWEEDLEDEE AND SWEEDLEDUM.(A New Christmas Pantomime at Tammany Hall.)Clown (to Pantaloon)."Let's blind them withthis, and then takesome more."Tweed's Gift of Fifty Thousand Dollars to the Poor of his Native Ward.(Harper's Weekly, January 14th, 1871.)
TWEEDLEDEE AND SWEEDLEDUM.
(A New Christmas Pantomime at Tammany Hall.)
Clown (to Pantaloon)."Let's blind them withthis, and then takesome more."
Tweed's Gift of Fifty Thousand Dollars to the Poor of his Native Ward.(Harper's Weekly, January 14th, 1871.)
What an escape we had! But, also, what immeasurable harm was done! From being a city where every one wished to live, or, at least, often to remain, they allowed New York to become a place from which all escaped who could. Nothing saved its business predominance but certain facts of geology and geographywhich Rings can not alter. Two generations of wise and patriotic exertion will not undo the mischief done by that knot of scoundrels in about six years. The press caught them at the full tide of their success, when the Tammany Ring, in fell alliance with a railroad ring, was confident of placing a puppet of its own in the Presidential chair. The history of this melancholy lapse, from the hour when an alderman first pocketed a quire of note-paper, or carried from the tea-room a bundle of cigars, to the moment of Tweed's rescue from a felon's cell through the imperfection of the law, were a subject worthier far of a great American writer in independent circumstances than any he could find in the records of the world beyond the sea. The interests of human nature, not less than the special interests of this country, demand that it shouldbe written; for all the nations are now in substantially the same moral and political condition. Old methods have become everywhere inadequate before new ones are evolved; and meanwhile the Scoundrel has all the new forces and implements at his command. If ever this story should be written for the instruction of mankind, the historian will probably tell us that two young men of the New York press did more than any others to create the feeling that broke the Ring. Both of them naturally loathed a public thief. One of these young men in the columns of an important daily paper, and the other on the broad pages ofHarper's Weekly, waged brilliant and effective warfare against the combination of spoilers. They made mad the guilty and appalled the free. They gave, also, moral support to the able and patriotic gentlemen who, in more quiet, unconspicuous ways, were accumulating evidence that finally consigned some of the conspirators to felons' cells, and made the rest harmless wanderers over the earth.
"Who Stole the People's Money?"—DO TELL. N.Y. TIMES.'TWAS HIM.(Thomas Nast, inHarper's Weekly, August 19th, 1871.)
"Who Stole the People's Money?"—DO TELL. N.Y. TIMES.
'TWAS HIM.
(Thomas Nast, inHarper's Weekly, August 19th, 1871.)
Comic art is now well established among us. In the illustrated papers there are continually appearing pictures which are highly amusing, without having the incisive, aggressive force of Mr. Nast's caricatures. The old favorites of the public, Bellew, Eytinge, Reinhart, Beard, are known and admired, and the catalogue continually lengthens by the addition of other names. Interesting sketches, more or less satirical, bear the names of Brackmere, C. G. Parker, M. Woolf, G. Bull, S. Fox, Paul Frenzeny, Thomas Worth, Hopkins, Frost, Wust, and others. Among such names it is delightful to find those oftwo ladies, Mary M'Donald and Jennie Browscombe. The old towns of New England abound in undeveloped and half-developed female talent, for which there seems at present no career. There will never be a career for talent undeveloped or half developed. Give the schools in those fine old towns one lesson a week in object-drawing from a teacher that knows his business, keep it up for one generation, and New England girls will cheer all homes by genial sketches and amusing glimpses of life, to say nothing of more important and serious artistic work. The talent exists; the taste exists. Nothing is wanting but for us all to cast away from us the ridiculous notion that the only thing in human nature that requires educating is the brain. We must awake to the vast absurdity of bringing up girls upon algebra and Latin, and sending them out into a world which they were born to cheer and decorate unable to walk, dance, sing, or draw; their minds overwrought, but not well nourished, and their bodies devoid of the rudiments of education.
"On to Richmond!"—The Peninsular Campaign.(1862.)M'Clellan."You must coax him along: conciliate him. Force won't do. I don't believe in it; but don't let go. Keep his head to the rear. If he should get away, he might go to Richmond, and then my plans for conquering the Rebellion will never be developed."B-lm-t."Hold fast, B-rl-w, or hewillget to Richmond in spite of us; and then my capital for the European market is all lost."B-rl-w."I've got him fast; there's no danger. He's only changing his base to the Gun-boats."B-lm-t."Look out for that letter to the President which you wrote for him. Don't lose that."B-rl-w."No; I have it safe here in my pocket. When his change of base is effected, I will make him sign the letter, and send it to old Abe."
"On to Richmond!"—The Peninsular Campaign.(1862.)
M'Clellan."You must coax him along: conciliate him. Force won't do. I don't believe in it; but don't let go. Keep his head to the rear. If he should get away, he might go to Richmond, and then my plans for conquering the Rebellion will never be developed."
B-lm-t."Hold fast, B-rl-w, or hewillget to Richmond in spite of us; and then my capital for the European market is all lost."
B-rl-w."I've got him fast; there's no danger. He's only changing his base to the Gun-boats."
B-lm-t."Look out for that letter to the President which you wrote for him. Don't lose that."
B-rl-w."No; I have it safe here in my pocket. When his change of base is effected, I will make him sign the letter, and send it to old Abe."
There is no country on earth where the humorous aspects of human life are more relished than in the United States, and none where there is less power to exhibit them by the pencil. There are to-day a thousand paragraphs afloat in the press which ought to have been pictures. Here is one from a newspaperin the interior of Georgia: "A sorry sight it is to see a spike team, consisting of a skeleton steer and a skinky blind mule, with rope harness, and a squint-eyed driver, hauling a barrel of new whisky over poor roads, on a hermaphrodite wagon, into a farming district where the people are in debt, and the children are forced to practice scant attire by day and hungry sleeping by night." The man who penned those graphic lines needed, perhaps, but an educated hand to reproduce the scene, and make it as vivid to all minds as it was to his own. The country contains many such possible artists.
A novel kind of living caricature has been presented occasionally, of late, by Mr. William E. Baker, of the famous firm of sewing-machine manufacturers, Grover & Baker. At his farm in Natick, Massachusetts, Mr. Baker is fond of burlesquing the national propensity to convert every trifling celebration into a banner-and-brass-band pageant. A great company was once invited to his place to "assist" at the naming of a calf. At another time, the birthday of a favorite heifer was celebrated with pomp and circumstance. In the summer of 1875, several hundreds of people were summoned to witness the laying of the corner-stone of a new pig-pen, and among the guests were a governor, military companies, singing clubs, members of foreign legations, and other persons of note and importance. The enormous card of invitation, besides being adorned with pictures of high-bred pigs in the happiest condition, contained a story showing how pigs had brought on a war between two powerful nations. This was the tale:
Christmas-time—Won at a Turkey Raffle.(Sol Eytinge, Jun.,Harper's Weekly, January 3d, 1874.)"De breed am small, but de flavor am delicious."
Christmas-time—Won at a Turkey Raffle.(Sol Eytinge, Jun.,Harper's Weekly, January 3d, 1874.)
"De breed am small, but de flavor am delicious."
"By the carelessness of a boy in 1811, a garden-gate in Rhode Island wasleft open; two pigs entered and destroyed a few plants. The day was hot, the pigs fat, and when attempts were made to drive them out, the characteristic obstinacy of the animals occasioned such violent exercise as to cause their death. A quarrel ensued between the owner of the pigs and the owner of the garden, which, spreading among their friends, resulted in the election of the opposition candidate—Howell—by one majority to the United States Senate, by whose vote the motion to postpone until the next session further consideration on the question of declaring war was defeated by one majority; and by the vote following it war was declared with Great Britain in 1812, although Howell was opposed to and voted against it."
"He cometh not, she said."(M. Woolf, inHarper's Bazar, July 31st, 1875.)
"He cometh not, she said."(M. Woolf, inHarper's Bazar, July 31st, 1875.)
This story was illustrated by excellent wood-cuts. The account of the festival, given in theBoston Advertiser, is worth preserving as a narrative of the most costly, extensive, and elaborate joke ever performed in the United States. Since kings and emperors ceased to amuse their guests with similar burlesques, I know not if the world has witnessed "fooling" on so large a scale.
"On Saturday" (June 19th, 1875, two days after the Bunker Hill Centennial) "the invited guests repaired to the Albany Railroad Dépôt. The nine-o'clock train took out the Fifth Maryland Regiment, which had been invited, and the Marine Band of Washington, also a delegation of the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, South Carolina.
"The next train took out their escort, the Charlestown Cadets, Company A, Fifth Massachusetts Regiment, Captain J. E. Phipps, the corps missing thetrain; a large number of invited guests, including Governor Gaston, his aid, Colonel Wyman, Colonels Kingsbury and Treadwell, and other representatives of the State House, General I. S. Burrell, First Brigade, and a great many officers of rank of the different military organizations of the State in uniform.
"Upon arriving at the dépôt in Wellesley, the carriage of Governor Eustis, in which Lafayette rode into Boston in 1824, with large iron-gray horses and rich gold-mounted harness, as old-fashioned as the vehicle, was placed at the service of the governor and his party. The line, consisting of some fifty vehicles, each capable of transporting twenty or thirty persons, headed by Edmands's Band, was then formed under the direction of Lieutenant Francis L. Hills, of the United States Artillery, who, by-the-way, was a most useful marshal.
"The procession was welcomed to the Farms by George O. Sanford, Chief Marshal, who was attired in a rich dark-velvet suit of the style of 1775, trimmed with gold-lace, and a bag-wig.
"About two or three thousand persons were upon the ground. Among them were General Banks, General Underwood, Colonel Andrews, of Charleston, South Carolina, and many other citizens of note, in addition to those previously mentioned. The marshals were distinguished by wearing a miniature silver hog upon the lapels of their coats, upon which were the letters 'W. E. B., June 19th, 1875,' and underneath the metal a ribbon badge with 'Marshal' in gold letters, intended to read 'We B Marshal.' They also carried a silver baton with red, white, and blue ribbons. Of those upon the ground perhaps five hundred were ladies.
"Teams from all the surrounding country were in the roads about the place, with their occupants gazing upon the spectacle. The military, who had marched from the dépôt, were drawn up on the lawn. The Marine Band was discoursing its delightful music here, Edmands's Band at another point, and the Natick Cornet at a third.
"Old Father Time was circulating about in gray hair, long gray beard, a dark-purple velvet robe, and carrying the conventional scythe. Cheers upon cheers were going up for the host from the military and the other guests. Many hundreds of chairs were provided at different points for the use of the weary. The young son of Mr. Baker was dressed in full Revolutionary Minute-man costume.
"About twelve o'clock the military stacked their arms, and all repaired to an immense pavilion, where substantial refreshments, including iced tea for a beverage, were provided for the thousands. In the 'Minnehaha Sweet-water Wigwam' were two immense tubs holding about two barrels each, one filled with lemonade and the other with claret-punch.
"In a large pen or 'corral' built of railroad-ties, in a manner partaking of a Virginia fence, a log-cabin, and a block fortress, were a cage of youthful bears and cages of other animals. The place was surrounded with pictures of hogsand men, both indulging in a grand carouse. There was no roof, and the top was surmounted by stuffed birds and animals. In this place two of Satan's respectable representatives, a blue devil and a red devil, were dealing out whisky-punch.
"At about two o'clock a procession marched about a quarter of a mile to the vicinity of the Buffalo yards, where the corner-stone of the new piggery was to be laid. A platform some thirty feet square had been erected, and, after music from Edmands's Band, Mr. Baker made a brief address of welcome.
"Brief and pertinent remarks were made by Governor Gaston, Curtis Guild, Esq., of theCommercial Bulletin, Colonel Andrews, of South Carolina, and C. B. Farnsworth, of Rhode Island.
"Colonel Jenkins, commander of the Fifth, was called upon, and commenced a patriotic speech, when he was interrupted by Mr. Baker, who took from a box a live white pig, some six weeks old, and presented it to the colonel for a 'Child of the Regiment.'
"Amidst shouts of laughter, the gallant colonel, in his rich dress, went on, dealing out patriotism with one arm and holding the pig in the other, where it quietly reposed, looking for all the world like a quiet babe just from the bath. The effect was irrepressibly ludicrous.
"Soon afterward Mr. Baker produced a black pig, some three months old; but the officer, having his arms already full, handed it to one of his men, who threw it upon his back, and only its head and fore paws were visible over the shoulders of the soldier.
"The rueful look of Piggy as he contemplated society from this novel position, and his squeals of wonder and fright, sent off the whole audience again into laughter, and the Maryland boys cheered for their adopted twins.
"The corner-stone was then lowered into position, the rope being held by Governor Gaston, Colonel Andrews, Colonel Jenkins, and Mr. Farnsworth, Mr. Baker first remarking that, as the Jews considered the pig unclean, it might be well to put a scent under the stone, which Mr. Guild thought was a centimental idea. Many cents were thrown, after which there was a slight shower, and many persons entered the big stable where were the wonderful cows which gave milk-punch.
"After the ceremony there was another collation, and then the soldiers had a game of foot-ball. As they were about to be loaded into carriages—for they rode back to the dépôt—several hundred red, white, and blue toy balloons were cut loose, and the air was filled with flocks of them. The troops took the train and arrived in town at six o'clock, and left almost immediately for home."
With this remarkable specimen of Comic Art in America, I take leave of the subject.