The prairie dog sickened at the sting of the hornet or a diplomatic puppet exhibiting his deceptions / J[ames] Akin, fect.
Summary
James Akin's earliest-known signed cartoon, "The Prairie Dog" is an anti-Jefferson satire, relating to Jefferson's covert negotiations for the purchase of West Florida from Spain in 1804. Jefferson, as a scrawny dog, is stung by a hornet with Napoleon's head into coughing up "Two Millions" in gold coins, (the secret appropriation Jefferson sought from Congress for the purchase). On the right dances a man (possibly a French diplomat) with orders from French minister Talleyrand in his pocket and maps of East Florida and West Florida in his hand. He says, "A gull for the People."
Title appears as written on print.
The print was probably published in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where Akin was working in 1804-6.
Trimmed to within plate.
Quimby, no. 41
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1804-1.
Exhibited: "Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis Clark and the Revealing of America,"Library of Congress, 2003.
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