The Old Print Shop

Exhumed.

  • ARTIST: Thomas Nast

  • PUBLISHER: Published by Harper's Weekly December 1, 1877.

  • MEDIUM: Engraving,

    DATE: 1877.

  • EDITION SIZE: Image size 10 3/4 x 9 1/8" (27.3 x 23 cm).

  • DESCRIPTION: The skull has "U.S.A. & N." branded on its forehead. Above it are the words, "In memoriam our Army & Navy who bled and died for - something - but it is of no consequence now." A quote from Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet' is in the lower right corner and a forgotten bayonet is spiked into the ground beside the skull. <br><br> This political cartoon references the political strife of 1877 and how it laid to waste all that had been fought for and won by President Lincoln and the Union soldiers during the Civil War. The troubles began in 1876. The presidential election between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden was riddled with controversy and violence, especially in the South. White supremacists resorted to violent and often deadly tactics to keep blacks from the polls. To make matters worse, there were claims of electoral fraud. Congress stepped in to settle the voting issue, ultimately giving Hayes victory and ushering in the Compromise of 1877. The compromise eased what remained of the election dispute. Under the agreement Hayes ordered Federal troops out of the South, allowing the conservative Democratic party to reclaim their local and state governments, and the South promised to uphold the freedom and rights of the black community. The latter was never kept. The southern governments gradually brought about demoralizing restrictions which would later become known as the Jim Crow laws.

  • ADDITIONAL INFO:

  • CONDITION: Good condition.

  • REFERENCE: