The last card. Tip overthrown - Public domain book illustration

A satire on the controversy surrounding charges of election fraud against New York State tobacco inspector James B. Glentworth and other Whigs during the election of 1838. The allegations were made two years later, in October 1840, by New York Federal District Attorney Benjamin F. Butler, a Democrat. The cartoon echoes pervasive Whig countercharges that Glentworth was used by Democrats in a last-ditch effort to win the presidential election of that year. The print's title facetiously refers to incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren's description of the Butler inquiry as "a card yet to be played" in his reelection strategy. Glentworth stands before city recorder Robert H. Morris, saying "Let me alone for that I'll blow em sky High Harrison Hard Cider and Log Cabins. I'll tell a tough yarn and the Whigs cant defend themselves before the election." Morris was charged by Governor Seward to hear testimony in the case. One of several observers remarks "It is a lie that will last us Locos [i.e., Loco Focos or radical Democrats] till after the Election." Another, a Bowery tough in striped trousers, remarks, "I think we have the British Whigs now." Morris says, "I say Whiting [i.e., New York City District Attorney James R. Whiting] I am afraid we are barking up the wrong tree. This is Butler's great card but I fear we have turned up the Knave of Clubs." Whiting (seated at table to Morris's right) confides, "My fears are that the Whigs will turn the tables upon us." A man standing on Whiting's right, says "It goes against my religion and my conscience to charge honorable men on the testimony of such rascals but my friend Van Buren must be taken care of." This may be John W. Edmonds, an influential friend of Van Buren involved in the case. A second witness, an obviously disaffected Whig, says, "Now Glentworth give it to Seward for not re-appointing "us." Dont stand on trifles "we" will provide for you." Although the signature "Spoodlyks" is certainly pseudonymous, "The Last Card. Tip Overthrown" is evidently one in a series of satires on the Glentworth scandal, executed by the same artist. Others in this series are "Loco Foco Consternation" and "Evenhanded Justice" (nos. 1840-61 and -62).
Printed and published by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St. New York.
Signed: Spoodlyks 1840
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 1840-60.