In May, 1868, German immigrant illustrator Thomas Nast designed the backdrop at the Republican National Convention. According to biographer Fiona Deans, “On an enormous piece of fabric, Nast painted two pillars, each representing a presidential candidate. The Democratic pillar remained empty, since the Democrats would not meet until July. On the other pillar, Grant represented Republican hopes. Between them stood Columbia. Speaking for the nation, the party, and Nast, she points to Grant, challenging the Democrats: “Match Him!””*
Two months later when the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour of New York to run against Grant, Nast produced the above cartoon entitled “Matched (?)”
In the cartoon, Grant is shown as the victor at Vicksburg, where he captured a Confederate army. He is cool and resolute in the face of victory. His men celebrate their leader behind him, but he is already planning his next move.
At Grant’s feet lie a Confederate flag, bayonets, and a Confederate sword.
Across from Grant is the Democratic nominee, Horatio Seymour. Grant’s image has his famous campaign slogan “Let Us Have Peace” above it. Seymour has a caption endorsing rioting.
But it was not the words that people remembered about this cartoon. Seymour’s hair is arranged so that he appears to have horns, most explicitly demonic is his shadow.
To the right of Seymour are the dangerous men behind him. Financiers, thugs tied to Tammany, and other men dangerous to the Republic lurk in the shadows.
Nast and the Republicans would repeatedly bring up the New York Draft riots in the campaign to destroy Seymour. The former New York governor’s speech to the rioters in July 1863 was used to portray him as an enabler of the rioting. To Seymour’s left we see the rioting. Depicted are the lynching of a black man hung from a lamppost and the burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum. You can see the word “Colored” on the burning building.
The lamp has the words “City Hall” on it. As far as I know, no one was lynched at city hall, but that is where Seymour gave his much derided “My friends” speech to the rioters in which he began his plea for an end to the violence with those two words.
At Seymour’s feet lies a murdered black baby. A subhuman-looking Irish rioter looks lustily at her with a cannibal’s gaze. Blood is on the steps to Seymour’s right.
Nast had already mocked another potential Grant opponent, Salmon Chase. In this cartoon Nast shows Chase literally chasing a wild goose-the Democratic nomination. Chase was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but he invited derision for engaging in a campaign for the nomination from his bench at the Supreme Court.
On July 11, 1868, Harpers Weekly published another Chase cartoon “The Sickly Democrat”. This one showed a sick Democratic Party being doctored by Salmon Chase, a supporter of male universal suffrage. Chase is handing his patient an elixir. Chase’s belief in extending the vote to African Americans doomed his chances of winning the Democratic nomination.
A closer look shows that the elixir is the Black voter.
Finona Halloran, Nast’s biographer wrote: For the “Sickly Democrat,” he prescribed a glass containing a black voter. “Oh!” the patient cries, “Must I swallow him whole, Dr. Chase?” The irony of Chase’s potential nomination for president by the Democratic Party proved too enticing for Nast to resist.
From: Halloran, Fiona Deans. Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons (p. 104). The University of North Carolina Press. Kindle Edition.
Nast also produced allegorical images of Grant during the campaign, showing him as a mythical rescuer of the nation. This appeared on the front page of Harpers:
His depiction of Seymour follows that of his “Matched (?)” cartoon.
Nathan Beford Forrest would be a favorite villain for Nast. Forrest was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, a slave dealer, and a Confederate general whose men had massacred black troops at Fort Pillow. Here he is Forrest of Fort Pillow.
The country was deeply involved in the Alabama Claims in 1868. Semmes had captained the Confederate raider “Alabama” which had attacked American trading ships on the high seas.
Wade Hampton was a major figure in Democratic newspaper coverage of the convention and Nast wanted to tie him to the worst abuses of the Confederacy:
During the Democratic Convention, Nast produced one of his most vicious cartoons. One of the most effective weapons Democrats used was claiming to be the defenders of white womanhood against the lust of black men. Democrats had long claimed that Republicans wanted black men to marry white men’s daughters. With the liberal Chase being pushed by New York’s Tammany Democrats for the Democratic nomination, Nast turned their slogan back on them. He showed a marriage between the Black voter and the Democratic Party (in the person of an ape-like Irish woman) being presided over by Rev. Salmon Chase. The wedding is held in Tammany Hall with Horatio Seymour to the right of Chase. Forrest and Pendleton are also looking on.
One Vote Less
http://elections.harpweek.com/1868/cartoon-1868-medium.asp?UniqueID=27&Year=1868
Cartoonist: Thomas Nast
Source: Harper’s Weekly
Date: October 3, 1868, p. 632
To the right of the two central figures is a statue of “Moses.” Andrew Johnson had told African Americans that he would be the Moses of their people. His tablets say “Veto,” representing his vetoes of civil rights legislation. He rests on a pedestal of Confederates and Blair and Seymour.
Above Sampson is a poster for a Democratic Barbecue. The Democrats had adopted an explicitly racist platform, but they tried to win over black voters by feeding them cheap meats. “The sensible colored men” the poster claims, are beginning to see that the Democrats are their real friends.
It also call for African Americans to renounce the Loyal League, a political organization in the South defending civil rights.
Instead of food being cooked at the barbecue, we see Knowledge and learning in the flames, along with the Holy Bible.
At the center of the men attacking the black man is Horatio Seymour, carrying a Confederate Flag and wearing a CSA belt buckle and KKK breastplate.
The flag has “New Orleans Memphis” on the upper left. These were the scenes of two bloody race riots. “NY Riots Fort Pillow” are next. At the bottom are the words “MOB LAW KU kLUX KLAN.”
To the left of Seymour is Robert E. Lee. Lee may not have been the Marble Man at the time for many Northerners.
Next is Nathan Bedford Forrest wearing a Fort Pillow medallion:
Confederate General Wade Hampton, who like Forrest was at the 1868 Democratic Convention, is shown on the far left.
On the right, you can see vice presidential nominee Frank Blair. Blair had been a Union general, but after the war he was a militant opponent of civil rights.
And, lurking in the background is the Irishman.
Horatio Seymour as Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth from Harpers September 5, 1868
The caption:
The blood on his hands is the N.Y. Draft Riot.
“Lead Us Not Into Temptation” September 19, 1868
Here Seymour is Satan himself trying to seduce Columbia who rejects him showing him Republican prosperity.
Republicans bring agricultural prosperity:
The Republican side of the cartoon includes the portico of the capitol with the word “Union”. There is also a statue of Lincoln and a Union war monument. All are reminders of what was fought for.
On the other hand, Seymour is dark and satanic, with his hair arranged to look like horns. He also appears to have a tail.
He even has a cloven hoof! How did the Democrats miss that?
Above the central characters are the words “peace” and “war and ruin” association Grant with peace and Seymour with renewed civil war.
Between Columbia and Seymour is Nathan Bedford Forrest with a parole signed by Grant in his pocket. The implications are both that Grant was generous and Forrest was not a man of his word.
In the dark region of hell on the right is Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Frank Blair, sharpening his sword. Because Blair was an apostate, he was particularly hated by Nast.
John Wilkes Booth, dead for three years, is also in the background with the letters “CSA” standing for Confederate States of America and KKK behind him.
Lynching is also portrayed:
The next cartoon is The Democratic Hell-Broth. This appeared in the October 31, 1868 issue of Harpers. Once again, Shakespeare’s MacBeth is the source.
Cartoonist: Thomas Nast
Source: Harper’s Weekly
Date: October 24, 1868, p. 673
Cartoonist: Thomas Nast
Source: Harper’s Weekly
Date: October 24, 1868, p. 681
The upper left hand corner of the cartoon shows an image critiquing Frank Blair’s claim that Grant would bring “Military Despotism.” On the left we see what appear to be Confederate or Ku Klux paramilitaries. On the right are refugees being protected by the army. City of Refuge appears on the arch symbolizing the Freedmen’s Bureau. If this section appeals to the altruism of white voters, the next calls for them to protect their pocketbooks by voting for Grant.
Nast warns that the Democrats will repudiate US war bonds, plunging the country into a financial panic.
In the upper right we see Nast quoting Wade Hampton and warning of a Political Andersonville. Andersonville was the Confederate prison for captured Union soldiers where thousands died of abuse and neglect.
By the way, Nast drew himself into this cartoon. He is the diminutive man sitting at the bottom left. He often “signed” his cartoons by drawing himself.
Union General Phil Sheridan can be seen here waving his hat and General John Logan with a big mustache is behind him.
This shows some of the limits of Nast as an artist. Both are poor likenesses. When Nast cartoons those he opposes, he finds character faults that he visually displays. Apart from Grant and Lincoln, he has a tough time showing character on the visages of his allies.
To the right in the main panel are “The Boys in Gray.” Leading the “Confederates” is Horatio Seymour of New York. This is a clear attempt to link the Democrats to the rebellion.
Frank Blair thrusts out his sword in a misplaced gesture of manliness.
Captain Semmes with his knife, Lee, and Jeff Davis on the ground are all behind Seymour. Semmes was a big post-war figure because the “Alabama Claims” were still a source of international friction.
Hiding in their hole are Andrew Johnson and George McClellan. Johnson was Lincoln’s accidental successor as president and a defender of white supremacy. McClellan was the conservative Democratic presidential nominee in 1864. Both are depicted as cowards here.
This October 17, 1868, cartoon illustrates Seymour trying to sweep back the tidal wave of states going for Grant. It relies on the story of Mrs. Partington, and English woman who reportedly tried to sweep out of her house the rising waters of a storm surge.
Throughout the Fall, Nast was convinced that Grant would win as depicted in “Keep the Ball Rolling” by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, New York, September 19, 1868.
In our next post, I will look at Nast’s final cartoon in the series.
Note:
* [From Halloran, Fiona Deans. Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons (p. 104). The University of North Carolina Press. Kindle Edition.]
