Content note: Speech boxes render Irish and German immigrant speech in caricatured dialect for comic effect. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Great footrace for the presidential purse ($100,000 and pickings) over the Union Course 1852" (Currier lithograph)
Lithograph in which Daniel Webster, Winfield Scott (in plumed general's uniform) and Franklin Pierce run a footrace for the presidency while a crowd comments in speech boxes, some in exaggerated Irish and German dialect. The print takes no side: each runner is mocked in turn, and the tell for name-calling is the nickname 'old Fuss and Feathers' and the jibe 'Ex pounder' standing in for argument.
- Date
- 1852
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Nathaniel Currier, New York (publisher; "For sale at No 2 Spruce St N.Y.")
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Fillmore Administration
- Leader
- Millard Fillmore
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- 1852 US Election
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain: published 1852, US; LOC rights: "No known restrictions on publication."
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Text on the object
[Speech box, upper left, in Irish dialect:] Arrah be Jabers ! an is it ould Dannil thats to the fore ! troth I heern o' him, whin I was a boy in the bog in ould Ireland. he'll come out fore nint the whole o' them. [Speech box:] Go it Dan ! put in the big licks. - [Speech box, from the plumed runner in uniform:] Confound Webster ! what does he want to get right in my way for ? if he dont give out, or Pierce dont faint I shall be beaten. [Speech box, from the central runner:] I can beat you both, and walk in at that ; although you had a hundred yards the start of me !! [Speech box, from the third runner:] No ! No ! old Fuss and Feathers, you dont catch this child fainting now. I'm going in to make good time ! whether I win or not, Legs ! do your duty. [Speech box, right, in German dialect:] I schal pack te man mitout te hat! pecause he make te grand letter to Hulseman which make him feel not so goot, till he run ray. - [Speech box:] I'm fraid the Ex pounder is too old for such a severe race . - [Speech box:] Old ! my dear fellow dont you know that it is the Blood that tells ; age dont matter, I'd back old Dan against Lady Suffolk herself. [Speech box:] Scott ought to pass, he's got a long Stride [Speech box:] Yes but Dan picks up quick and gathers well. [Title:] GREAT FOOTRACE FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL PURSE ($100,000 AND PICKINGS) OVER THE UNION COURSE 1852. [Imprint:] For sale at N° 2 Spruce St. N.Y.
Speech boxes listed roughly top-left to right. Punctuation spacing follows the print's style. The handwritten 'LC-USZ62-7489' at lower right is a library note, not printed text. Dialect spellings are the printer's.
