"Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows"

A satire on the unlikely alliance of rival editors Horace Greeley and James Watson Webb in support of Zachary Taylor for the presidency in 1848. Unlike Webb, one of Taylor's earliest and most enthusiastic New York supporters, Greeley refused to endorse Taylor until late in September 1848. Here, he and the bewhiskered Webb lie side-by-side in a large, canopied "Bed of Availability." Greeley: "Webb dont you think we can get the Government Printing [contracts] after the 4th of next March?" March 4 was the constitutionally established inauguration day until modified by the Twentieth Amendment. Webb: "We might have got it if you had followed your Partner's advice sooner; as it is now, I'm afraid Taylor will be defeated; & there is that dam'd Letter of Willis Hall's." During his campaign, Taylor was a prolific letter writer. In the foreground stands a night table holding copies of Greeley's New York "Tribune" and Webb's "Courier and Enquirer." A spittoon is on the floor near the foot of the bed, and the two men's clothes rest on chairs nearby. On the far wall of the bedchamber hangs a framed portrait of Taylor.
Lith: & pub: by H.R. Robinson 31 Park Row N.Y. (Adjoining Lovejoy's Hotel.)
Probably drawn by W.J.C.
Title appears as it is written on the item.
Weitenkampf, p. 96.
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 1848-55.