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The Hercules of the Union, slaying the great dragon of secession
Summary
A tribute to commander of Union forces Gen. Winfield Scott, shown as the mythical Hercules slaying the many-headed dragon or hydra, here symbolizing the secession of the Confederate states. At left stands Scott, wielding a great club "Liberty and Union," about to strike the beast. The hydra has seven heads, each representing a prominent Southern leader. The neck of each Southerner depicted is labeled with a vice or crime associated with him. They are (from top to bottom): Hatred and Blasphemy (Confederate secretary of state Robert Toombs), Lying (vice president Alexander Stephens), Piracy (president Jefferson Davis), Perjury (army commander P. G. T. Beauregard), Treason (United States general David E. Twiggs who in February 1861 turned over nineteen federal army posts under his command in Texas to the South), Extortion (South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens), and Robbery (James Buchanan's secretary of war John B. Floyd, accused of supplying federal arms and supplies to the South).
Currier & Ives : a catalogue raisonné / compiled by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 3028
Weitenkampf, p. 131
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-35.
New York City from 1835 to 1907 headed first by Nathaniel Currier, and later jointly with his partner James Merritt Ives. The prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand-colored. The firm called itself "the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints" and advertised its lithographs as "colored engravings for the people". The firm adopted the name "Currier and Ives" in 1857.
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