A satire on dissension and political intrigue within Andrew Jackson's administration, surrounding the Spring 1831 resignations of several members of his Cabinet. In the center Jackson sits in a collapsing chair, labeled "The Hickory Chair is coming to pieces at last." Seated on the arm of his chair is a rat with the head of Postmaster General William T. Barry. On the floor before him is a pile of resignations with a broken clay pipe, and a brazier. He sweeps with a broom at a number of rats scurrying at his feet, and in the act knocks over the "Altar of Reform" toppling a winged ass also holding a broom. The rats have heads of (from left to right) Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, Secretary of War John H.Eaton, "D. I. O."(?), Navy Secretary John Branch, and Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham. John Calhoun is a terrier which menaces the Van Buren rat. Van Buren, threatened by an eagle while attempting to climb the "Ladder of Political Preferment" whose rungs are labeled with the names of the states, says, "If I could only humbug that Eagle and climb up this ladder." Calhoun: "You don't get up if I can help it." Eaton: "I'm off to the Indians." Branch: "This from the greatest and best of men." Ingham: "Is this the reward of my Patriotic disinterestedness." In a doorway marked "Skool of Reform" appears a man in a visored cap and fur-trimmed coat saying, "There's Clay, and this is all Clays doings." Daniel Webster and Henry Clay (with raised arms) look in through a window. Webster: "That Terrier has nullified the whole Concern." Clay: "Famine! War! Pestilence!"|Cock of the Walk fecit. (Edward Williams Clay).|Entered . . . 1831 by E.W. Clay.|Publd by E.W. Clay, S.E. corner of Walnut and 4th St. Philada.|The print appears to have been derived from William James Hubbard's portrait of Jackson, or from Albert Newsam's 1830 lithograph reproducing the painting. A pencil sketch believed by Davison to be Clay's sketch for the print is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. The Library's impression of ".0001" was deposited for copyright on May 5, 1831. Davison also lists a second edition of the print. Two anonymous versions of the print, possibly derived from ".00001," were published under the title "The Rats leaving a falling house." (See 1831-2).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Davison, no. 32 (sketch), 56 and 57.|Murrell, p. 109-110.|Weitenkampf, p. 24.|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 1831-1.

In this lesson, students use a guided reading to look at a report on the status of education in North Carolina in 1869, and discuss the reasons given then for why the Governor and Legislature should support educating North Carolina's children. They are provided an opportunity to compare and contrast the 1869 document against their own ideas about the civic duty to attend school through age sixteen, and its relative value to the state and the country.

This site recounts the struggle for control of Hawaii between native Hawaiians and American business interests in the late 1800s. This 1897 petition and a lobbying effort by native Hawaiians convinced the U.S. Congress not to annex the islands. But months later the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana and the Spanish-American War began. The U.S. needed a mid-Pacific fueling station and naval base.

Primary source images, standards correlation, and teaching activities are included in this resource.

Another show of Northern optimism in the early months of the Lincoln administration. Uncle Sam approaches from the left holding a bayonet, causing five Southern soldiers to flee in panic to the right. In their haste to retreat the Confederates drop their flag, muskets, a hat, and a boot. A black child and two black men, one fiddling, watch with obvious glee from the background. Prominent in the center foreground are a mound marked "76" bearing an American flag and a crowing cock. In the background are the Capitol at Washington (left) and the palmetto trees of South Carolina (right).|Entered . . . by W. Wiswell . . . Ohio, June 8th 1861.|The Library's copy of the print is the copyright deposit impression.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 132.|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 1861-28.

Another mock bank note parodying the "shinplasters" of the 1837 panic. Such small-denomination notes were based on the division of the Spanish dollar, the dominant specie of the time. Hence they were issued in sums of 6 (more accurately 6 1/4), 25, 50, and 75 cents. These fractional notes proliferated during the Panic of 1837 with the emergency suspension of specie (i.e., money in coin) payments by New York banks on May 10 of that year. "Treasury Note" and "Fifty Cents Shin Plaster" (nos. 1837-9 and -11) also use the bank note format to comment on the dismal state of American finances. Unlike these, however, "Humbug Glory Bank" is actually the same size as a real note. The note is payable to "Tumble Bug Benton," Missouri senator and hard-money advocate Thomas Hart Benton, and is signed by "Cunning Reuben [Whitney, anti-Bank adviser to Jackson and Van Buren] Cash'r" and "Honest Amos [Kendall, Postmaster General and influential advisor to Van Buren] Pres't." It shows several coins with the head of Andrew Jackson at left, a jackass with the title "Roman Firmness," a hickory leaf (alluding to Jackson's nickname "Old Hickory"), and a vignette showing Jackson's hat, clay pipe, spectacles, hickory stick, and veto (of the 1832 bill to recharter the Bank of the United States) in a blaze of light. Above is a quote from Jackson's March 1837 farewell address to the American people, "I leave this great people prosperous and happy."|Copyrighted by Anthony Fleetwood, 1837.|Published at 89 Nassau Str. New York.|Signed facetiously: Martin Van Buren Sc.|The print was deposited for copyright on August 21, 1837, by Anthony Fleetwood, and published at the same address (89 Nassau Street) as "Capitol Fashions" (no. 1837-1), also an etching. The Library's impression (the copyright deposit proof) is printed on extremely thin tissue.|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 1837-10.

Our age-appropriate classroom lessons and activities for grades K-12 aim to deepen your students' understanding of September 11 and develop their critical thinking skills. The guide, written by Morningside Center executive director Tom Roderick, also includes recommended books and other teaching ideas.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1864 by M.E. Goodwin in the Clerk's Off. in the Dist. Court of the United States for the Southern Dist. of N.Y. Designed by R.D. Goodwin.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

A satire on enforcement of the "gag-rule" in the House of Representatives, prohibiting discussion of the question of slavery. Growing antislavery sentiment in the North coincided with increased resentment by southern congressmen of such discussion as meddlesome and insulting to their constituencies. The print may relate to John Quincy Adams's opposition to passage of the resolution in 1838, or (more likely) to his continued frustration in attempting to force the slavery issue through presentation of northern constituents' petitions in 1839. In December 1839 a new "gag rule" was passed by the House forbidding debate, reading, printing of, or even reference to any petition on the subject of abolition. Here Adams cowers prostrate on a pile composed of petitions, a copy of the abolitionist newspaper the "Emancipator," and a resolution to recognize Haiti. He says "I cannot stand Thomson's [sic] frown." South Carolina representative Waddy Thompson, Jr., a Whig defender of slavery, glowers at him from behind a sack and two casks, saying "Sir the South loses caste whenever she suffers this subject to be discussed here; it must be indignantly frowned down." Two blacks crouch behind Thompson, one saying "de dem Bobolishn is down flat!" Weitenkampf cites an impression with an imprint naming Robinson as printer and publisher, this line being apparently trimmed from the Library's impression. The drawing style and handling of the figures strongly suggest that "Abolition Frowned Down" is by the same Robinson artist as the anonymous "Called to Account" and "Symptoms of a Duel" (nos. 1839-10 and -11).|Drawn by HD?|Entd . . . 1839 by H.R. Robinson . . . Southn. Dist. of N.Y.|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 1839-12.

A boy and his family endure a difficult nine-week journey across the ocean and survive the first winter at Plymouth. Based on true events, "Across the Wide Dark Sea" poetically narrates a young boy's account of risking the ocean to find religious freedom in a new land.

A folding comic puzzle in which the heads of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and a donkey switch bodies. An example of mass of anti-Beauregard material published in the north after the outbreak of hostilities leading to Civil War.|Published by Samuel Upham, 310 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by Samuel C. Upham, 310 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

A racist attack on Democratic vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Johnson. The Kentucky Congressman's nomination, in May 1835, as Van Buren's running-mate for the 1836 election raised eyebrows even among party faithful, because of Johnson's common-law marriage to a mulatto woman, Julia Chinn, by whom he fathered two daughters. The artist ridicules Johnson's domestic situation, and the Democrats' constituency as well. Seated in a chair with his hand over his face, a visibly distraught Johnson lets a copy of James Watson Webb's "New York Courier and Enquirer" fall to the floor and moans, "When I read the scurrilous attacks in the Newspapers on the Mother of my Children, pardon me, my friends if I give way to feelings!!! My dear Girls, bring me your Mother's picture, that I may show it to my friends here." On the right are his two daughters, Adaline and Imogene, wearing elegant evening dresses. One presents a painting of a black woman wearing a turban, and says, "Here it is Pa, but don't take on so." The second daughter says, "Poor dear Pa, how much he is affected." A man behind them exclaims, "Pickle! Pop!! and Ginger!!! Can the slayer of Tecumseh be thus overcome like a summer cloud! fire and furies. oh!" Johnson is reported to have slain the Indian chief Tecumseh. Flanking Johnson are a gaunt abolitionist (right) and a black man. The abolitionist holds a copy of the "Emancipator," a Hartford, Connecticut newspaper, and says, "Be comforted Richard; all of us abolitionists will support thee." The black man pledges, ". . . de honor of a Gentlemen dat all de Gentlemen of Colour will support you." On the far left is a stout postmaster who says, "Your Excellency, I am sure all of us Postmasters and deputies will stick to you; if you promise to keep us in office." The print seems to date from early in the campaign of 1836. Johnson's wife Julia Chinn died in 1833. Adaline, one of the two daughters pictured, died in February 1836. Although Weitenkampf dates the print at 1840, when Johnson was again Van Buren's running-mate, the presence of both daughters and the drawing style are persuasive evidence for an 1836 date.|Probably published by Henry R. Robinson, New York.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 63.|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 1836-15.

The purpose of this course is to examine the African American experience in the United States from 1863 to the present. Prominent themes include the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction; African Americans' urbanization experiences; the development of the modern civil rights movement and its aftermath; and the thought and leadership of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. WARNING: Some of the lectures in this course contain graphic content and/or adult language that some users may find disturbing.

A look at the Slavery and Freedom exhibit at the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall.

American History TV presented live coverage from the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall. They showed exhibits chronicling the African American story from slavery through the inauguration of the first African American president. This clip features elements surrounding the African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage

A pro-Republican campaign print casting Lincoln as peacemaker, and as the hope for reconciliation between the North and South. The top half of the composition represents the North and the bottom the South. In the center, Lincoln rides forth on a prancing horse, as a group of farmers at the left wave their hats and cheer, "All is right now! hurrah!" Below him is a streamer "Union Henceforth Now and For Ever." On the right the upper scene, in the North, shows a "Northern Fanatic" in a jail "Imprisonment for Life." Above the jail is a gallows, "Higher Law." The prisoner is jeered by a crowd, saying, "That serves them [him?] right." The bottom right scene in the South shows a "Southern Fanatic" jailed while several onlookers say, "They won't do any more mischief." In the center, to the left, a weary Jefferson Davis begins to dismount from his horse. Below him are two clasped hands, with the title "After a Little While."|Lith. by Chas. Magnus, 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 1864-29.

The presidential campaign of 1836 viewed as a card game by a satirist in sympathy with the Whigs. Opposing candidates Martin Van Buren (Democrat) and William Henry Harrison (Whig) face each other across a card table. Behind Van Buren stands his vice-presidential running mate Richard M. Johnson. Behind Harrison is incumbent President Andrew Jackson, who smokes a clay pipe and stands on tip-toes to spy on Harrison's hand. With his left hand he signals to Van Buren. Jackson: "What a h---ll of a hand old Harrison's got. I'm afraid Martin and Dick Johnson will go off with a flea in their ear." Johnson: "The old general is making signs that Harrison has the two highest trump cards and low. Martin he'll catch your Jack and then the jig's up! You'd better beg." Van Buren: "I ask one." Harrison: "Take it! now look out for your Jack!" On the wall above the table is a painting of the Battle of the Thames, one of Harrison's celebrated military victories a well as the occasion on which Johnson is reported to have slain the Indian chief Tecumseh. The print is probably by Robinson draughtsman Edward W. Clay, judging from its similarity to his "Grand Match Between the Kinderhook Poney ..." (no. 1836-14) and other signed work of the period.|Entered . . . 1836 by H.R. Robinson.|Published May 1836 by the proprietor H.R. Robinson, 48 Cortlandt St. N. York.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 44.|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 1836-11.

The major figures in American national politics in 1838 are gently satirized, each characterized as riding a favorite issue or "hobbyhorse." At the lead (far left) is President Martin Van Buren, riding a horse "Sub-Treasury," which he calls his "Old Hickory nag." The artist refers to Van Buren's independent treasury program, a system whereby federal funds were to be administered by revenue-collecting agencies or local "sub-treasuries" rather than by a national bank. The Independent Treasury Bill was perceived as an outgrowth of predecessor Jackson's anti-Bank program. Another hobbyhorse, "United States Bank" (center), is shared by Whig senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, leaders of congressional opposition to Jackson and Van Buren's respective fiscal agendas. Clay says, "Either you or I must get off Dan, for this horse wont carry double!" Webster responds, "Dash my Whig if I get off Hal!" Directly behind Van Buren Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton rides a horse "Specie Currency," an allusion to Benton's championing of hard money economics. Benton was identified with administration efforts to curb the use of currency in favor of "specie" or coin, and to increase the ratio of gold to silver in circulation. He says, "My Golden Poney carries more weight than any of them!" Behind Clay and Webster is South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun, advocate of state's rights and the driver of Southern nullification of the "Tariff of Abominations." On the right are William Henry Harrison, in military uniform and riding an "Anti-Masonic" hobby, and Massachusetts Congressman John Quincy Adams on his "Abolition" mount. Harrison's horse is named after the party which supported his 1836 bid for the Presidency. When he says, ". . . unless there is another Morgan abduction, I'm afraid he'll [the horse] lose his wind!" he alludes to the suspicious 1826 death of William Morgan (purportedly at the hands of Masons) which fueled considerable anti-Masonic sentiment in the United States. Adams laments, "This horse, instead of being my Topaz, is my Ebony." |Entd . . . 1838 by H.R. Robinson.|Printed & publd. by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St. N.Y.|Signed with monogram: C (Edward Williams Clay).|The print was registered for copyright on March 16, 1838.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Blaisdell and Selz, no. 16.|Davison, no. 104.|Weitenkampf, p. 53.|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 1838-1.

A Whig cartoon spoofing Democratic claims of Western support for Van Buren during the election of 1840. Pursued by animals from the "Alleghany Mountains" and the Mississippi River, including among others a buffalo, alligator, beaver, turtle, and fox, Van Buren flees to the right saying, "This is going for me with a vengeance! I wish I was safe at Kinderhook! [his birthplace and family home was Kinderhook, New York] for I am a used up man!" A parchment "Sub-Treasury Bill" has fallen at his feet, referring to the independent treasury plan, the centerpiece of Van Buren's fiscal program.|Entered . . . 1840 by J. Childs.|Published by John Childs, 90 Nassau St. N.Y.|Signed with monogram: EWC (Edward Williams Clay).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 61.|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 1840-53.

E. W. Clay's apocalyptic allegory has public opinion as a giant lever, tilting decisively in favor of the Whigs late in the presidential campaign of 1840. In a symbolic landscape masses of people climb onto the lever, which then nudges the great ball of "Loco Focoism" over a precipice. In the sky appears an eagle with a shield, arrows, and olive branches, holding a banner with the commentary: "With a log cabin and barrel of hard Cider for a fulcrum, public opinion for a "lever," with old Tip on the tip end the ball of Locofocoism will be rolled into oblivion and a gallant soldier raised to the white house. March 4th 1841." In the distance is a recently cleared field, the White House, and the Capitol. Van Buren and several others topple from the giant ball, on which also appears a strong box inscribed "Sub Treasury." A crowd of erstwhile supporters flee from the edge of the chasm, leaving behind "Treasury Notes." The print probably appeared in September 1840, since the Library's impression was deposited for copyright on September 24. Nancy Davison and Frank Weitenkampf both attribute the print to Edward W. Clay. This is supported by stylistic comparison with his other 1840 cartoons. The "W.C." signature appears to be a truncated form of his "EWC" monogram.|Entered . . . 1840 by J. Childs.|Published by John Childs, 90 Nassau Street New York.|Signed: W.C. inv. (Edward Williams Clay).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Davison, no. 133.|Lorant, p. 158-159.|Weitenkampf, p. 66.|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 1840-58.

The large, bold woodcut image of a supplicant male slave in chains appears on the 1837 broadside publication of John Greenleaf Whittier's antislavery poem, "Our Countrymen in Chains." The design was originally adopted as the seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in England in the 1780s, and appeared on several medallions for the society made by Josiah Wedgwood as early as 1787. Here, in addition to Whittier's poem, the appeal to conscience against slavery continues with two further quotes. The first is the scriptural warning, "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. "Exod[us] XXI, 16." Next the claim, "England has 800,000 Slaves, and she has made them free. America has 2,250,000! and she holds them fast!!!!" The broadside is advertised at "Price Two Cents Single; or $1.00 per hundred.|N.Y. sold at the Anti-Slavery Office, 144 Nassau St. 1837.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Wedgwood Portraits and the American Revolution, p. 116-117.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1837-16.