The whale that swallowed Jonah - Public domain book illustration, Library of Congress

An election-year cartoon satirizing disharmony within the Whig ranks on the bank issue. The artist suggests a division of opinion between New England's Daniel Webster and presidential nominee Henry Clay on the idea of a National Bank, embodied here by a giant whale. Clay strongly championed the bank idea throughout his senatorial career. On a stormy sea, the "coon barge" (named for Clay's campaign nickname "the Old Coon"), flying an inverted, tattered American flag from a broken mast, is steered by Daniel Webster. Webster's crew is in the act of heaving Henry Clay and his running-mate Theodore Frelinghuysen overboard. Frelinghuysen, "the Christian statesman" and president of the American Tract Society, wears a clerical robe. Webster enjoins them, "Throw 'em over, my Boys. It is better they should go than that the whole Whig party should perish!" Clay, looking down the throat of a whale labeled "Monster Bank," cries, "Oh! crackee! this is the worst suck in that even I knew of, Instead of being able to suck in the people. I am going to be sucked in myself!" Frelinghuysen exclaims, "Oh dear! I am going to be swallowed! I wish I had not given up psalm singing for Politics!"
Entered . . . 1844 by J. Baillie.
Litho. & pubd. by J Baillie 118 Nassau St. N.Y.
Probably drawn by Edward Williams Clay.
The print probably appeared late in the campaign, since the Library's impression was deposited for copyright on October 11, 1844.
Title appears as it is written on the item.
Weitenkampf, p. 77.
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 1844-46.