The morning after the election--November 1856
The victorious James Buchanan sits under a trellis of grape vines, holding reports of election returns on his lap. He reflects, "What a happy morning for my country and myself. Here I find returns for myself & ... More
The issue joined. Book illustration from Library of Congress
An indignant James K. Polk takes issue with Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster's public attacks on his Texas policy. In 1844 Webster had been opposed to the annexation of Texas and in 1846 he criticized atta... More
![General James Watson Webb / SW [monogram]](https://cache.getarchive.net/Prod/thumb/cdn18/L3Bob3RvLzIwMTkvMTAvMDcvZ2VuZXJhbC1qYW1lcy13YXRzb24td2ViYi1zdy1tb25vZ3JhbS04NTEwZDctMTAyNC5qcGc%3D/40/50/webp "General James Watson Webb / SW [monogram]")
General James Watson Webb / SW [monogram]
James Watson Webb, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing right. Photographed by Fredericks. Illus. in: Harper's weekly, v. 2, 1858 Sept. 4, title page.
"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 Y... More
"The irrespressible conflict" Or the Republican barge in danger
The cartoon reflects the considerable bitterness among New York Republicans at the party's surprising failure to nominate New York senator William H. Seward for president at its May 1860 national convention. Th... More
Old Jack, the famous New Orleans mouser, clearing Uncle Sam's barn of ...
A rare pro-Jackson satire on the President's campaign to destroy the political power and influence of the Bank of the United States. It was probably issued late in the presidential campaign of 1832, after Jacks... More
The available party trying to get their villany endorsed by the every ...
Again partisan bitterness, over the perceived Whig betrayal of Henry Clay's hopes for the presidential nomination and over subsequent efforts to obtain Clay's endorsement of Zachary Taylor's candidacy, is vente... More
Worrying the bull - Political cartoon, public domain image
In a ring a large bull, wearing a ribbon marked "The Rough & Ready" between its horns, faces five matadors. The bull represents Zachary Taylor, nicknamed "Old Rough and Ready." The matadors are prominent Whigs,... More
The downfall of Mother Bank - Public domain drawing
A pro-Jackson satire applauding the President's September 1833 order for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. The combined opposition to this move from Bank president Nicholas Bid... More
The new code of chivalry or what we would have done. As approved by "...
The second of two satires by Chambers on events surrounding the killing of Maine Congressman Jonathan Cilley by Kentucky Representative William J. Graves in a February 24, 1838, duel. (See also "Scene in Washin... More
The assassination of the Sage of Ashland
The artist conveys some of the profound disappointment and anger among Henry Clay's many supporters at the nomination of Zachary Taylor at the June 1848 Whig convention in Philadelphia. The convention's act was... More
The "mustang" team - A cartoon of a horse pulling a cart with people o...
The abolitionist Republican presidential ticket and its supporters in the press are the targets of the cartoon. Candidate Fremont, wearing an emigrant's smock and carrying a cross (an allusion to his rumored Ca... More
Great speech of Clay -- bran bread is riz!!!
Henry Clay's November 1847 address to a public meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, condemning the Polk administration's prosecution of the Mexican War and opposing the pondered annexation of all of Mexican territor... More
Scene in Washington. Sunday Feby. 25. 1838
A caricature of James Watson Webb, prominent Whig editor of the "Morning Courier and New York Enquirer." Webb is shown parading, armed to the teeth, along Pennsylvania Avenue. He carries a sword cane, a musket,... More
Grand Presidential sweep-stakes for 1849
The Free Soil sympathies of the cartoonist are evident in his portrayal of the 1848 presidential contest as a race between the three major candidates. The contenders are on the course. Whig candidate Zachary T... More
The issue joined - Public domain drawing
An indignant James K. Polk takes issue with Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster's public attacks on his Texas policy. In 1844 Webster had been opposed to the annexation of Texas and in 1846 he criticized atta... More
The candidate of many parties. A phrenological examination to ascertai...
Whig nominee Zachary Taylor's reluctance to clearly declare his political views was an issue eagerly exploited by the opposition in the 1848 campaign. Here the artist shows phrenologist Orson S. Fowler probing... More
One of the people's saints for the calendar of liberty 1852
The artist registers the widespread American sympathy with certain revolutionary movements in Europe. More specifically, the print extols Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot who led an 1848 revolt against the... More
Scene in Washington. In which the Presidental candidate of all the dec...
Whig senator Henry Clay is attacked here on several fronts. The artist alludes to his reputation for gambling, his widely publicized outburst in the House of Representatives in February 1838, and his alleged un... More
A big blue bottle fly in the web
Another swipe at Whig candidate Winfield Scott's manipulation by antislavery Whigs Seward and Greeley. Here, Scott is a fly caught in a large web, spun by spiders Greeley (left) and Seward (right). Scott excl... More
Old Nick's new patent plan to make Nova Scotia Tories, Federals coodie...
An attack on Nicholas Biddle and the New York newspaper editors friendly to the United States Bank. The print was evidently prompted by Biddle's 1834 attempt to create a financial crisis through an artificial t... More
One of the young bo-hoys in exstacies before the coons of 1844
A satire, puzzling in its precise meaning, on the ascendance of the radical wing of the Whig party in New York's gubernatorial election of 1846. Influential radical journalist Horace Greeley dances a jig to th... More
Great speech of Clay -- bran bread is riz!!!
Henry Clay's November 1847 address to a public meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, condemning the Polk administration's prosecution of the Mexican War and opposing the pondered annexation of all of Mexican territor... More