1864 Election Cartoon

Printed in Harper’s Weekly in 1864, this cartoon presents President Abraham Lincoln, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, and Presidential hopeful George McClellan in a battle over the map of the United States. On the left, Lincoln is tugging on the map while stating “No peace without Abolition!” and on the right Jefferson Davis is attempting to pull the map his direction while stating, “No peace without separation!!” Accordingly, the map is beginning to tear down the middle of the United States as Lincoln grasps the North and Davis grasps the South. As the United States was embroiled in the bloody Civil War, violently dividing the U.S., presidential hopeful McClellan is portrayed in the middle of this tug-of-war as the reasonable mediator. McClellan, a former top General to Lincoln hence the General’s garb, was running under the Democratic party on an anti-Emancipation Proclamation platform criticizing the Lincoln administration for its failed policies.¹ Within this cartoon McClellan attempts to bring the two sides together by holding Lincoln and Davis together by their suit jackets while stating, “The Union must be preserved at all hazards!” Additionally, one can see that Davis’ pant legs are badly torn representing the tattered condition of the Confederacy in the waning days of the Civil War, yet his facial expression shows no signs of caving. The tag-line at the bottom of the cartoon reads, “The True Issue or ‘That’s What’s the Matter’.” This cartoon is pro-McClellan, and is referencing his stance that the war needed to come to a negotiated end² or the Union could be lost forever.

       1. “The True Issue or ‘That’s What’s the Matter,’” (1864) in Harper's Weekly,
http://elections.harpweek.com/1864/cartoon-1864-Medium.asp?UniqueID=38&Year=1864 (accessed February 13, 2012).

       2. S. Mintz, “The 1864 Presidential Election,” Digital History http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=121 (accessed February 13, 2012).