Loco Foco expresses. Book illustration from Library of Congress

A commentary on the Whigs' disappointment of "Loco Foco" Democratic expectations in the New York municipal elections of spring 1838. Successful Whig mayoral candidate Aaron Clark holds two horses by their tails saying, "Stop my good fellows, you are going on a fools errand, you are counting your chickens before they are hatched." On the horse on the right sits a man in the smock and hat of a carman or driver (one of the publicly licensed tradesmen who provided much of the radical Democrats' support in New York). The man may be Loco Foco mayoral candidate Isaac Varian or New York's Democratic congressman Churchill C. Cambreleng. He tries to ride toward Albany, expressing gubernatorial ambitions, "Marcy [i.e., Governor William L. Marcy] must resign in my favor, and I'll be next Governor myself for this job!" A man in Jacksonian uniform sits on a horse at left, headed in the direction of Washington. He is probably Tammany leader Jesse Hoyt. He says, "I shall insist on Matty's making me next Collector!" (Hoyt was in fact appointed collector of the port of New York the same year.) Both men wear ribbons inscribed "Loco Foco Victory" in their hats. The print seems to have been published almost immediately after the spring mayoralty election, in which the Loco Foco candidates were soundly defeated. It was registered for copyright on April 17, 1838.
Entd . . . 1838 by H.R. Robinson.
Printed & publd. H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt Street, New York.
Signed: Shanks fecit (Edward Williams Clay?).
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 1838-11.