Sold by William Reese Company, New York, NY, U.S.A.
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AbeBooks Seller since 13 July 2006
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
A rare Currier and Ives print from the presidential election of 1864, satirizing the Democratic presidential candidate and former general, George B. McClellan, as an equivocating hypocrite. As Neely and Holzer explain, the presidential campaign of 1864 inspired a flurry of "separate-sheet display cartoons: thought-provoking, witty, but often cruel lampoons that struck hard at the most divisive political and personal issues of 1864. In these cartoons one can see illustrated vividly the raw toughness of the campaign as well as the skill of the artists who covered it." These prints, they note, could be "vicious: personal, mean-spirited, cruel, race-baiting, and divisive," and, in this context, McClellan, "[t]he military man now running on a peace platform made for one obvious target." The image here shows a two-faced McClellan at center, standing atop rickety planks - a literal representation of the Democratic party's Chicago peace platform - and holding a copy of his letter of acceptance. The planks are supported precariously at each corner on the shoulders of four figures: Confederate president Jefferson Davis; New York congressman and prominent Copperhead Fernando Wood; another Copperhead and the author of the Chicago platform, Clement Vallandigham; and "Jeffs friend," the devil. Standing on opposite sides of the image are representatives of each of the constituencies to whom the two-faced McClellan is pandering: a uniformed "Union Soldier" and a "Peace Democrat," caricatured here as a club-wielding simian Irishman. From the face addressing the Peace Democrat, McClellan says, "You see my friend I accept the nomination and of course stand on the platform," to which the Peace Democrat replies, "All right General! if yere in favor of resistin the draft, killing the Nagurs, and pace wid the Southerners, I'll knock any man on the head that'll vote aginye." From his other face, addressing the Union soldier, McClellan contradicts himself, saying, "If you don't like the Platform, I refer you to my letter of acceptance," a copy of which McClellan holds in his and which reads, "War! - preservation Union - could not look my gallant Comrades in the - face; ---" The soldier says, "Its no use General! you can't stand on that platform and come that blarney over me; I smell brimstone!" Below McClellan, the devil, speaking to Jefferson Davis, gives expression to the futility of the lost cause: "Well Jeff it's no use trying to hold up this rickety old platform, I guess I'll leave you to your fate!" Davis says in reply, "I'm in a pretty fix! Weldon road gone!! Atlanta taken!!! Mobile Forts surrendered!!!! Early licked!!!!! and now when my last hope is in keeping up this platform and getting Mac elected, you who led me into the scrape threaten to leave me!!!!!" Meanwhile, an exasperated Vallandingham exclaims, "Confound that letter! I've a good mind to bolt, and let the whole concern go to a smash!" Fernando tries to reassure his fellow Copperhead: "Hold on Val. don't you see it's only his little game to ring in the war men? if he is elected he is bound to carry out our policy and nothing else!" The image mocks the seeming hypocrisy of McClellan, a military man running on his war record, who has just accepted the nomination of a party whose platform calls for an end to the war, even as the candidate himself expresses his support for the war in his acceptance letter. Reilly notes that the cartoon was probably drawn by the prolific artist, Louis Maurer. This print is scarce. The Currier & Ives catalogue raisonné locates only the copies at the Chicago Historical Society and the Library of Congress. OCLC locates another two copies at the time of cataloguing, one at the Ohio History Center and another at the Clements Library. We find additional copies at the American Antiquarian Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A rare and stinging political cartoon from the bitter, war-time election of 1864. REILLY, AME.
Seller Inventory # 63169
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