All fours-important state of the game-the knave about to be lost

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.