Descripción
Lithographed print, 13 1/2 x 17 inches (34 x 43 1/2 cm). Light foxing and soiling. Closed tear in right edge, into platemark but not touching illustration. Faint dampstain near center. Very good overall. A rare Currier and Ives political print from the 1864 presidential election, likening the unusual marriage of McClellan and his running mate, Copperhead leader George Pendleton, to the famous "Siamese twins," Chang and Eng Bunker. Chang and Eng first came to the United States in 1829, where their great popularity as a touring act gave birth to the phrase "Siamese twins" as a term for conjoined twins. After years of touring in Europe and America, the pair settled down in North Carolina for over a decade before returning to the stage in the 1860s. Their renewed popularity and enduring cultural relevance are both evidenced by this election- year cartoon. "In the center McClellan (left) is attached to the side of his running mate by 'The Party Tie.' McClellan says apologetically to the two Union soldiers at his left, 'It was not I that did it fellow Soldiers!! but with this unfortunate attachment I was politically born at Chicago!' The Democratic national convention took place in Chicago on August 29, 1864. The soldier with his arm in a sling responds angrily, 'Good bye little Mac' if thats your company! Uncle Abe gets my vote.' The soldier at far left says, 'I would vote for you General, if you were not tied to a "peace" Copperhead, who says that Treason and Rebellion ought to triumph!!' Pendleton addresses the two â Copperheads' at his right: Clement Laird Vallandigham, author of the Democrats' peace plank, and Horatio Seymour, governor of New York and chairman of the Democratic national convention. Pendleton says, 'I dont care how many letters Mac writes, if it brings him votes; for every vote for him, count one for me!!' Vallandigham concurs, 'Yes Pen, that's the only reason that I support the ticket; if you are elected both Jeff.and I will be triumphant!" Seymour (far right) replies, 'With Pendleton as Vice; Val.secretary of State; Wood [i.e., Fernando Wood, an organizer of the Peace Democrats] in the treasury, and I Govr. of New-York, we will have peace at any price the rebels ["our friends" in this copy] choose to ask for it'" - Reilly. Interestingly, the copy described by Reilly differs slightly from the other recorded copies. In the Library of Congress copy, Seymour refers to "the rebels" directly; in our copy and most others, he instead refers to them as "our friends" in quotation marks, alluding to his famous (or infamous) "My Friends" speech delivered during the New York draft riots. OCLC records copies only at the University of Michigan and Peabody Essex Museum, though we locate additional copies at the Library of Congress, Library Company of Philadelphia, Princeton, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A rare and visually striking political cartoon, evocative of the fraught 1864 election and contemporary popular culture. REILLY 1864-19. PETERS, CURRIER & IVES 1671. CURRIER & IVES: CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ 5232. OCLC 191120100. N° de ref. del artículo WRCAM63056
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