The cartoon above mocks the attempt by Tammany Hall Democrats to nominate the pro-civil rights Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase as the Democratic candidate for president in 1868. The cartoon depicts an Irish woman (you can tell because of her simian appearance) and a black man being married by Justice Chase. Various Tammany politicians stand around them looking on proudly. Thomas Nast, Harper’s Weekly, July 11, 1868, p. 444
With the 1868 Democratic Convention just two weeks away, the Mobile Register reprinted an editorial attacking Salmon P. Chase’s candidacy because of his advocacy of Black civil rights. The Register calls him (in the smudged first paragraph) the “High Priest of Black Suffrage.”
Chase was a Democrat who joined the Lincoln Administration to serve as the Treasury Secretary. Lincoln appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1864. By 1868, Chief Justice just was not enough for Chase and he pursued his ambition to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency. Chase advocated for the Democrats to abandon opposition to black civil rights.
Mobile Register
Saturday, Jun 20, 1868
Mobile, AL
Vol: 1
Issue: 123
Page: 2
