The artist lionizes Kentucky senator Henry Clay, author of the Compromise of 1850, and slams his political foes and critics of the compromise, particularly those in the Taylor administration. A text in the lower margin reads: "A Fable--In the Reign of Zackery 1st the Goddess of Liberty Designed a Statue. a Model of a Man which she exhibited before the King, his Ministers, & the People. the Beauty of the Statue Elicited such shouts of Approbation from the People that the King's Ministers fired with Jealousy determined to Destroy it, but after many Ineffectual attempts were obliged to Desist amidst the Laughter of the Court & the People." The King is clearly President Taylor, who sits on a throne at the far left, in uniform and holding a sword instead of a scepter. A spittoon is on the floor before him, and a black court jester crouches beside the throne holding a copy of the newspaper the "Republic." A larger-than-life statue of Henry Clay, in armor and holding a shield inscribed "Compromise" and a sword, stands in the center of the scene. Clay's sword bears the words, "I fight for my Country! Traitors Beware." The statue towers over the figures that surround it, which include Taylor cabinet members Reverdy Johnson, George W. Crawford, and Thomas Ewing (on the right) and Secretary of State John M. Clayton (on the left). Crawford and Ewing regard the broken ax and saw which they hold in their hands. Crawford (to Johnson): "Look here Just see what a great Big Piece Ive Broke of my Gulpin Ax. I'll send in a Gulpin Claim for this. Valuable Ax this." The allusion is to Crawford's lucrative and questionable role as counsel for the Galphin family's successful suit against the federal government, an arrangement which provoked heated criticism in the press. The controversy over this Taylor administration scandal reached its peak in April, May and June of 1850. Johnson: "The Ax, was Broke before you used it, however, you Lie & I'll Swear to it, & we'll Pockett the Plunder between us." Ewing: "Why Ive Broke nearly all the teeth of my Chickensaw against this Infernall Statue. I'le send in a Big Claim for this." Clayton gestures entreatingly to Taylor: "Why the Devil dont your Imperial Majesty assist us, I can assure your Majesty, it's much Easier discharging a Bullitt, from a Republic, than it is injuring this Statue." Journalist Alexander C. Bullitt was a Taylor advisor and, beginning in 1849, editor of the administration organ the Washington "Republic." Bullitt appears here as the black court fool. Taylor hugs to his chest the tiny figure of New York senator William H. Seward, who sits on his lap. Seward was an insider in the short-lived Taylor administration, and a vigorous opponent of the Compromise of 1850. Taylor says, "Consider the weight of my Crown, Dear Clayton. besides my sick Baby, little Billey, requires, all my Care. moreove as the People like the Statue, I'de rather not Compromise myself, in the matter. assume the Responsibility Yourself, you'r used to it." Just to the right of the throne stand (left to right) senators Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Webster, and Henry S. Foote. Benton: "Why its a Miserable Statue. a wretched abortion, the inscriptions on the Sword & Shield are in very Bad Taste, very Bad Taste indeed." Benton was an adamant critic of the Compromise. Foote (to Webster): "I think its a Splendid Statue. Which Party do you go for." Webster: "The Party thats likely to win. Of Course, I shall Keep one eye on the Statue, & the other on the Chair, & act according to circumstances." Senator Lewis Cass stands to the right of Foote, in the background, saying, "I rather like the Inscription on the Shield." Clay does, however, have some friends here. On the far right is a crowd of people led by the figure of Liberty, a young maiden in a classical gown holding a staff and liberty cap. She addresses Johnson and the others, "Gentlemen! I made this Statue as a Model of a Man. now though it is only of Clay & I wafted it here in a Breath, still with all your efforts, you can neither move it from its Base, or inflict the slightest Injury upon it. its innate strenght [sic] will defy all your Puny attempts." Liberty's followers enjoin, "Why I think it's a Beautifull Statue," and "So do I! Hurrah! for the Clay Statue." "The Clay Statue," though tentatively dated 1849 by Weitenkampf, must have appeared in 1850, certainly after Henry Clay's presentation of the compromise in January and probably as late as the spring, at the height of the Galphin controversy.|Drawn by John L. Magee.|Pubd. by John L. Magee 34 Mott St. N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 98.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1850-9.

A pro-Whig satire, envisioning the cleansing of the "Augean Stable" of government corruption by presidential candidate Henry Clay and other Whigs. The title derives from one of the twelve mythical labors of Hercules. The hero was to clean King Augeas's stables, which had been inhabited for thirty years by three thousand oxen. The artist draws a parallel with the White House, held almost continuously since 1829 by the Democrats. The artist applauds Whig opposition to the annexation of Texas, illustrated by Virginia congressman Henry A. Wise's expulsion of "Madam Texas" at left. Wise says, "You will go about your business & lurk around these premises no longer. Your former master has forbidden all persons to harbor or trust you, & we shall not pay your debts for you." The "former master" was Mexico, who, though granting Texas its independence in 1836, still considered the Lone Star Republic a wayward province. With a pitchfork, Henry Clay tosses his Democratic counterpart James Polk out the window while incumbent President John Tyler throws George Dallas out the same window. Clay says, "It's all very well, Mr. Polk, but you can't come here." Andrew Jackson, poking his head in a nearby window exclaims, "By the eternal! We shan't know the old place, these fellows have gutted it so completely." To their left, Daniel Webster shovels out Thomas Hart Benton's gold coins, or "mint drops." Senator John C. Calhoun carries "fox" Van Buren toward the door, holding him unceremoniously upside-down by the tail. "Cleansing the Augean Stable" evidently appeared in the summer of 1844. (The Library's impression was deposited for copyright on July 10.) The appearance of Calhoun and Tyler, ostensibly on the side of the Whigs here, is puzzling. Calhoun and Tyler, both strong annexationists, had by this time lined up fairly decisively behind the Democratic candidates.|Drawn by H. Bucholzer.|Entered . . . 1844 by James Baillie.|Lithography & print coloring on reasonable terms by James Baillie No. 33 Spruce St. New York.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 79.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1844-35.

This Lesson was created to use in conjunction with materials in Clusive [https://clusive.cast.org], a free, online learning environment that makes materials flexible and accessible.  The Lesson is designed for students in grades 6-8, and targets ELA standards as well as SEL skills of self-awareness and learner agency. As you use this lesson, students will be guided to recognize, understand, and apply key elements of a mystery story, tools that they can use to build learner agency, self-awareness, and comprehension

This Lesson was created to use in conjunction with materials in Clusive [https://clusive.cast.org], a free, online learning environment that makes materials flexible and accessible.  The Lesson is designed to engage and support middle school teachers and their students to evaluate Tom Sawyer as one of a long-line of trickster characters in world literature. 

The title refers to Whig candidate Zachary Taylor as the probable victor in the 1848 presidential contest. Taylor is portrayed as a victorious fighting cock, standing over his dead opponent, another cock with the head of Democratic candidate Lewis Cass. Taylor crows, "Cru-e-ruk-ruk-ru have you any more of the kind on hand?" Feathers are strewn about in the foreground; a lake or river and large mountains appear in the distance. Nearby lies a second defeated cock, Free Soil party candidate Martin Van Buren. At the far right a fourth rooster, Liberty party candidate John Hale, flees, exclaiming, "I'm off in time!" Hale's flight may symbolize the candidate's exit from the campaign, which was prompted by Van Buren's nomination by a coalition of Liberty party abolitionists, Barnburner Democrats, and antislavery Whigs in August 1848.|Probably drawn by E.F. Durang.|Published by Able [i.e., Peter E. Abel] & Durang Philadelphia.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 94.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1848-45.

Caricature of John or Jonathan Pluck, an illiterate hostler elected Colonel of the 84th Pennsylvania militia in a controversial 1824 election. He is shown here marching toward the left, raising a sword inscribed "Ducit amor patria." According to Nancy Halli of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, several articles appeared in the "Democratic Press" and "United States Gazette" following his outrageous militia parade in May 1825, and could have inspired the print. In the background is a crowd of militia troops armed with tree branches and brooms. One man holds aloft a flag emblazoned with a man milking a cow; another flag shows two men sawing a log. A black youth rides by on a pig, saying "Hurra for de Pennsylwamy light infamy." He is followed by a barefoot militiaman riding a cow. Below the title are the verses: "I could not stir, / But like a comet, I was wonder'd at; / Others would tell their children "This is he" /Others would say - Where? which is the "Colonel?" / And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, / And dress'd myself in such humility, /That I did PLUCK allegience from mens hearts. Shakspr. The lines come from Shakespeare's "Henry IV," part one.|Signed: D.C. Johnston del. (David Claypool Johnston).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Johnson, "D. C. Johnston, the American Cruikshank," Antiques, (July 1972), p. 102.|Murrell, p. 106.|Purchase; Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Fund.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1825-2.

An impassioned attack on Abraham Lincoln and the human toll of the Union war effort. Columbia, wearing a liberty cap and a skirt made of an American flag, demands, "Mr. Lincoln, give me back my 500,000 sons!!!" At the right, Lincoln, unfazed, sits at a writing desk, his leg thrown over the chair back. A proclamation calling for "500 Thous. More Troops," signed by him, lies at his feet. He replies, "Well the fact is--by the way that reminds me of a Story!!!" The artist refers to the false report published by the "New York World" that Lincoln joked on the battlefield of Antietam. (See "The Commander-in-Chief Conciliating the Soldier's Votes," no. 1864-30.)|Signed: J.E. Baker del. (Joseph E. Baker).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 140.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1864-34.

An emblem of an eagle supported by two American flags, illustrates the sheet music cover for a song by Josiah D. Canning. The eagle's wings are spread and its mouth holds a streamer with the composer's sobriquet "The Peasant Bard of Mass." The Library's copy was deposited for copyright on August 9, 1858.|Entered . . . 1858 by Firth, Pond & Co. |New York. Published by Firth, Pond & Co 547 Broadway.|Signed: Wakelam & Bros.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1858-2.

A fond yet sardonic tribute to the aging Massachusetts statesman Daniel Webster, whose final bid for the Whig presidential nomination was defeated by Winfield Scott in 1852. The artist is wryly critical of the apparent Whig predilection for military candidates. The print seems to have appeared in the fall of 1852 (the Library's copyright deposit impression was registered on September 18), at around the time Webster, running as an independent candidate, withdrew, mortally ill, to his estate at Marshfield. He died on October 24, 1852. Webster is shown as a schoolboy, standing before the U. S. Capitol building, holding the hand of Columbia, a young girl with an American flag as a sash. In her free hand, she holds a pole topped with a Phrygian cap. Nodding coyly, Columbia says, "Though my Guardians at Baltimore won't let me have you--believe me, Daniel, I love and honor you for all your past devotion and services, and can never forget you. If you had neglected your "Books" and "Slate," and attended more to "Fencing" and "Gymnastics," you might have succeeded better." Webster stoically responds, "Notwithstanding the past, I am still your friend, and when you are in difficulty you may command my services." In the foreground lie his books, slate, and cap. In the background, two unidentified men are engaged in a fencing match.|Carter & Conant, Publishers, 4 Cornhill Court, Boston.|Entered . . . 1852 by Carter & Conant. |Signed with monogram: WC or "HC".|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1852-37.

A gently satirical commentary on Zachary Taylor's bid for the presidency. In a small office Taylor, hat in hand, is interviewed by a young Brother Jonathan, who sits in a rocking chair with his legs propped up on a "Treasury" strong-box. Jonathan smokes a cigar and stirs a mint julep which, together with a bottle of gin, rests on the table next to him. The various parts of his chair are inscribed symbolically: "Our Rights" (chair back), "Citizenship" (armrest), "Constitution" (seat), and "Freedom" (runner). Posted on a wall behind him is a map of the United States and a notice "White House to Let 4 Years lease from March 4th 1848. Terms moderate." At the far left a writing desk is visible. Taylor stands near the door at right, touching his forelock with his hand. In the dialogue, printed in the lower margin, Jonathan instructs Taylor on anti-subtreasury, soft money Whig fiscal doctrine. Jonathan: "Ah! Youre the Party that wants to Rent my Farm Eh!" Taylor: "If you Please Mr. Jonathan sir, I'm an old Soldier sir. Served in the Mexican Campaign sir." Jonathan: "Very well Mr. Taylor you can have it on one condition, that you offer no obstruction to the removal of the Subtreasury nuisance, so Detrimental to the River Currency, which as you know, sets all my Factories and Workshops a going."|Lith. & pub. by H.R. Robinson 31 Park Row N. York. (Adjoining Lovejoy's Hotel.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 97-98.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1848-40.

A bitterly anti-Lincoln cartoon, based on slanderous newspaper reports of the President's callous disregard of the misery of Union troops at the front. The story that Lincoln had joked on the field at Antietam appeared in the "New York World." Holding a plaid Scotch cap (see "Abraham's Dream--"Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before,"" no. 1864-42), Lincoln stands on the battlefield at Antietam, which is littered with Union dead and wounded. He instructs his friend Marshal Lamon, who stands with his back toward the viewer and his hand over his face, to "sing us PĚ_Ąicayune Butler,' or something else that's funny."|Signed with monogram: CAL?|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Century, p. 110-111.|Lorant, p. 263.|Weitenkampf, p. 141.|Wilson, p. 292-293.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1864-30.

In July 1790 Congress decided to move the seat of the federal government from its original site in New York to Washington, with Philadelphia as an interim capital. The unidentified satirist gives a cynical view of the profit opportunity which this presented for Philadelphians. A three-masted ship with a smaller boat in tow sails toward a fork in a river. It is being lured by a devil toward the lower fork (eventually leading to Philadelphia), which falls precipitously in a rocky cataract, and away from the fork which leads to the "Potowmack" river. A devil beckons them on, saying, "This way Bobby" (referring to Robert Morris, the alleged instigator of the move). A man in the bow of the ship remarks of the figurehead, "This looks more like a goose than an eagle's head." Behind him another says through a bullhorn, "Starboard your helm Coffer-- don't you hear your friend on the Rock." Another passenger waves a hat and shouts "Huzza for Philadelphia." A man (possibly Morris) holding the helm says, "I will venture all for Philadelphia." In the boat in tow the following conversation is in progress: "Cut the Painter [tow line] as soon as you see the Ship in danger." "I wonder what could have induced the Controller to sign our Clearance." "Self gratification I suppose for it cannot be any advantage to the owner." "If they had come round in the S. Union the constitution would not have been lost." "They might have known that the Ship would have been in danger by comeing this way." "Ay, Ay, I had best do it [cut the rope] now for I believe she is going to the devil." Below the falls, three men in a dinghy say, "If we can catch the cargo never mind the Ship," "Keep a sharp look out for a majority and the treasury," and "Ay, Ay that's what we are after."|The print was probably produced in New York. Weitenkampf erroneously dates it 1798.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Munsing, no. 14.|Murrell, p. 47.|Weitenkampf, p. 12. |Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1790-1.

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's part. The interior of Congress Hall is shown, with the Speaker Jonathan Dayton and Clerk Jonathan W. Condy (both seated), Chaplain Ashbel Green (in profile on the left), and several others looking on, as Griswold, armed with a cane, kicks Lyon, who grasps the former's arm and raises a pair of fireplace tongs to strike him. Below are the verses: "He in a trice struck Lyon thrice / Upon his head, enrag'd sir, / Who seiz'd the tongs to ease his wrongs, / And Griswold thus engag'd, sir."|The Library has three states of the print. Dayton, Condy, and Green are identified by keyed references in the (plate) margins of the second and third states. In all three "Congress Hall, in Philada. Feb.15.1798" is inscribed in the lower right corner. In the second and third this is followed by "S.E.Cor.6th & Chesnut St." In the third only, the number 17 appears in the upper right. Weitenkampf lists four states, some of which (including two of the Library's impressions) appear to be later restrikes. The call numbers are: PC/US - 1798.A000, no. 1 (A size) (first state); PC/US - 1798.A000, no. 2 (A size) (second state); PC/US - 1798.A000, no. 3 (A size) (third state).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Fowble, no. 329.|Murrell, p. 43, 45.|Weitenkampf, p. 12.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1798-1.|Exhibited in: Creating the United States, Library of Congress, 2008.

A rare anti-North satire, probably dealing with either the Crittenden Compromise or the Douglas Compromise. Proposed in December 1860 in the form of several constitutional amendments, the former called for restoration of the Missouri Compromise line and prohibition of slavery north of it. Stephen Douglas's compromise, an alternative proposed immediately thereafter, offered two similar amendments but also advocated settlement of the slavery issue by popular sovereignty. "Congressional Surgery" reflects the viewpoint of the lower South, which rejected both compromises. "Doctor North" (Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens) sits with hands folded in a chair at left, a young black crouching beside him. On the doctor's desk rests a wooden leg labeled "Constitutional Amendment." The Doctor says, "Help you! Of Course! We will first, with your assistance, take you off your legs, & then fix you up nicely on these Constitutional Amendments." His patient "South," a tall bearded man with his left arm in a sling, replies, "Can't see it." Behind the desk are several crutches and bookshelves holding a bottle of "Black Draught" and a skull.|Signed: A. Del.|Title appears as t is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1860-44.

A sheet music cover for a postwar song lamenting the fall of the Confederacy. A ragged Confederate flag stands draped over an abandoned cannon, which sits in a landscape overgrown with grass and weeds. Almost hidden in the grass is the stock of a rifle.|Entered . . . 1866 by A. E. Blackmar . . . Louisiana.|Lith. Feusier, Hoyle & Co. No. 9, Commercial Place. N.O.|New Orleans. Published by A.E. Blackmar. 167 Canal St.|The Library also has a redrawn version, identical except that the lithographer's imprint is missing.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-2.

One of a number of highly racist posters issued as part of a smear campaign against Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee John White Geary by supporters of Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer. (See also nos. 1866-6, 1866-7, and 1866-8.) Indicative of Clymer's white-supremacy platform, the posters attack postwar Republican efforts to pass a constitutional amendment enfranchising blacks. In "The Constitutional Amendment" a group of black men are shown crowding ahead of two white veterans and other whites toward a door marked "Polls." One veterans complains, "Surely, we did not fight for this." Another remarks, "I thought we fought for the Union." A straggly bearded man encourages the blacks, "Come on, my brave boys, you saved the Nation." The black response is, "Dat's so Brudder Yank, and you need our votes now. De poor White Trash must stand back." At right two more white men complain, "Negroes rule us now," and "We have no chance here." On the left is a column of text: "Geary Is for Negro Suffrage. Stevens [Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens] Advocates it. Forney [Pennsylvania senator John W. Forney] Howls for it, McClure [Alexander K. McClure, Pennsylvania Republican chairman] Speaks for it. Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss Simon Cameron] Wants it. The League Sustains it. They are rich, and want to make The Negro the Equal of the Poor White Man, and then rule them both." At right are the names of candidates for Congress that supported black voting rights. Below is the commentary: "The Radical Platform--ˆ_ăˆ_Óegro Suffrage the only Issue!' Every man who votes for Geary or for a Radical Candidate for Congress, votes as surely for Negro Suffrage and Negro Equality, as if they were printed on his ballot."|Block signed: Reynolds N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-5.

A cartoon on the defeat of Whig Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election, ascribing his loss of the state of New York to his cousin Cassius M. Clay's campaign tour on his behalf. Oddly, though given prominence in the title, Cassius M. Clay does not appear in the picture itself. As Clay and his running mate Theodore Frelinghuysen--each having raccoon bodies--cross a bridge, it collapses in pieces, spilling Clay and his entourage of raccoons and starving dogs into the river. Clay grasps Frelinghuysen's tail and says, "Hold on Vice Frelinghuysen I have not only lost my election, I fear my principles are leaking out and will be exposed to the gaze of the Common people." From his open abdomen fall pistols, playing cards, and dice, evidence of his penchant for dueling and gambling. Freylinghusen responds: "Oh! Great Henry this is the effect of keeping bad Company. I think YOU are about the right material for a Vice President. I advise you to study Divinity it is your only hope left." (Frelinghuysen was a prominent churchman.) Assorted exclamations come from the hapless animals, one of whom cries, "help me Casius or I sink." On the section of the bridge at right several roosters holding brooms (symbolizing reform) jeer at the two candidates, the largest one saying, "Humbug has had its days." Below the roosters, in the distance, a crowd dances around a flagpole with a banner inscribed "Oregon" and "Texas." Further on, a fortress with a flag "Our Thunder" fires one of its guns. Standing on the left side of the bridge are two Pennsylvanians. One says, "Did you hear the news from New York-York York all honest & true" and the other, "Oh! give us Polk & Dallas how happy we will be . . . ." In the water below, a boat marked "Make way for Gov. Shunk" rows by with three men aboard. One man in the boat, possibly newly elected Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Francis R. Shunk, observes of Clay, "that large Coon has very black Legs I reckon." "Blackleg" was common slang for scoundrel. |Entered . . . 1845 by Wm. Dohnert . . . E. District of Penn.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 85.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1845-1.

"Salt River," the fictitious river of political doom, is charted here as a meandering stream of Democratic misfortunes. The chart was purportedly "prepared by Father Ritchie," i.e., Democratic editor and Polk administration spokesman Thomas Ritchie. Swipes are taken at the Tariff of 1846, Polk's Vice President George M. Dallas, Martin Van Buren, and 1848 Democratic presidential nominee Lewis Cass. The river winds upward from the Ohio River (Ohio was a Democratic stronghold in 1848) to the Lake of Oblivion with an island on which sits the "Mansion of Despair." The "Fast Sailing Steamer Free Trade," captained by Lewis Cass and piloted by Ritchie, sets out on the "Slough of Despond" below (one of the landmarks in John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress&1). The ship approaches a fork, from which the "Old Fox Branch" on the right leads to "Cabbage Point" and the home of Martin Van Buren. Van Buren can be seen sitting in a rowboat on the river complaining, "Hard work this all; your fault 'John,' with your D--d Free Trade." His son John, a Free Soil party leader and campaigner, encouraged Van Buren's bid for the party's presidential nomination in 1848. On the left Salt River continues past the "Sub Treasury Bluffs," "Noise and Confusion Shoals," "Two Face Points," and "Irish Relief Shoal" (a reference to Democratic support for anti-British insurgents in Ireland), to another fork, "Prince John's Creek." Here John Van Buren walks along the shore and calls, "Good bye Dad! We could not Gull the People." The main branch of the river continues to "Pillow's Cemetery" (named after Gen. Gideon Pillow, conspirator against popular Mexican War commander Winfield Scott and a friend of James K. Polk), "One Seal Island" (?), "Casting Vote Point," and "St Anna Pass." The last is named after Mexican president and commander Santa Anna, whom the Polk administration returned from exile only to see him lead the war against the Americans. On Lake Oblivion is a small ferry boat heads toward the shore at upper right where it will connect with a train named "Tariff [of 18]42," bound for Washington. On the left is a funerary monument "In Memory of Dallas," a memorial to Vice President and former Pennsylvania senator George M. Dallas. Many of Dallas's fellow Pennsylvanians viewed him as a traitor to the state's interests in his support of the Tariff of 1846, which supplanted the popular 1842 tariff.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 97.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1848-26.

The artist portrays congressional efforts to pass the Crittenden Compromise as an antidote to Republican intransigence on the slavery issue. (For an earlier anti-North satire relating to the compromise, see "Congressional Surgery. Legislative Quackery," no. 1860-44.). Three well-dressed men (probably members of Congress) attend a sick man, who wears a dressing gown and holds a document inscribed "Republican Platform No Compromise." Together they pull the invalid from his chair and struggle to force an oversized pill "Crittenden Compromise" down his throat, pushing it with a "Petition of 63,000." A box of "Constitutional Remedies" (containing more giant pills) is on the floor nearby. The door to the room stands open at right.|Ent'd According to act of Congress 1861.|Published by Benj. Day 48 Beekman St. N.Y.|Signed: BDay del (Benjamin H. Day, Jr.).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 130.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-1.

One of two prints by "HD" (identified by Weitenkampf and others tentatively as Henry Dacre) based on incidents during President Van Buren's visit to the resort at Saratoga Springs, New York, during the summer of 1839. (See also "The Meeting at Saratoga" no. 1839-4.) Although Van Buren is known to have stayed at Saratoga on his tour of New York State, it is not clear to what degree Dacre's scenes are imaginary or contrived for satirical effect. Here Martin Van Buren is snubbed by the widow of former political rival DeWitt Clinton. In a room filled with elegantly dressed men and women, Van Buren says to Mrs. Clinton, "Stay Madam, I would beg some words with you." Mrs. Clinton, turning away, is asked by her companion, "Mrs. C...... why did you not speak to him, when he look'd so very Pleasant?" To which she responds, "I! I! speak to the ........ who persecuted my husband to the day of his Death!" Mrs. Clinton's refusal to speak to Van Buren at Saratoga, on the grounds that he had allegedly dissuaded former President Jackson from visiting her, was widely reported in the New York press. |Lith. of H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St.|Signed with monogram: HD (Henry Dacre?).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 59.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1839-3.