ARTIST: Thomas Nast
PUBLISHER: Published in Harper's Weekly. April 6, 1872.
MEDIUM: Wood engraving,
DATE: 1872.
EDITION SIZE: Image size 12 7/8 x 9" (32.7 x 22.8 cm).
DESCRIPTION: This political cartoon depicts Carl Schurz as Don Quixote and Thomas Tipton as his squire, Sancho Panza. Schurz is being tossed off a cliff by his nemesis, the windmill of the Senate, which has struck him in the back. <br><br> Additional text in the title reads, "Don Carlos Quixote and Sancho Tipto Panza on 'The Path of Duty.' The French Arms Investigation." Schurz, a German immigrant and U.S. Senator, was opposed to President Ulysses S. Grant. He was convinced he had broken the nation's stance of neutrality during the Franco-Prussian War by selling weapons to France. An investigation was made, but ultimately did little. It was true that Grant had sold France weaponry, but they had come from the Civil War and many countries had purchased such weapons from them. The sales had been well documented. What's more, Schurz had learned of the sale more than a year before hand and had done nothing to stop the transport ship from leaving America. He had waited for 1872, an election year, to bring it up in the Senate, hoping the news would place Grant and his party in a negative light, and his liberal republican party (which sided with the Democrats) in a brighter one. <br><br> In the cartoon Carl Schurz wields the shield of 'investigation' and the shattered lance of 'investigation speeches,' indicating his failure to defame Grant. All Schurz managed to do was place a minor damage in the fabric of the windmill, nothing that would affect it's overall ability or integrity. Thomas Nast, the artist, obviously hoped the failure would be the end of Schurz because he depicts the politician falling off a cliff.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
CONDITION: Good condition.
REFERENCE:
Login / Register
Basket
