---
title: Polk & Co. Going Up Salt River (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/polk-co-going-up-salt-river-clay-1844/
description: Cartoon of a dinghy towed by the 'Steamer Ballot Box' up Salt River, carrying Van Buren (drawn with a furry animal body; LOC's summary does not describe…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Polk & Co. Going Up Salt River (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/polk-co-going-up-salt-river-clay-1844.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/polk-co-going-up-salt-river-clay-1844.jpg)

# Polk & Co. Going Up Salt River (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844

Cartoon of a dinghy towed by the 'Steamer Ballot Box' up Salt River, carrying Van Buren (drawn with a furry animal body; LOC's summary does not describe it), Benton, Dallas and Jackson, with Polk as a long-necked bird perched on the stern. Tell: opponents drawn as animals, with Polk's 'don't give up the ship' crew shown as stranded, is name-calling by ridicule; 'Salt River' as a place of political failure is a period joke, not a claim of momentum.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
We've got up so far that the water grows shallow. I think I could get out & wade now.
Polk.
I never sailed so far up this river before. We must be near the head of navigation.
By the eternal! Polk. don't give up the ship.
Benton.
Dallas
Van Buren.
Jackson.
STEAMER BALLOT BOX.

Lithography & print Coloring on reasonable terms by James Baillie No 33 Spruce St New York.
POLK & Co. GOING UP SALT RIVER.
Entered according to an act of Congress in the Year 1844 by James Baillie in the Clerk's [illegible] of the District Court of the South. Dist. of N.Y.
```

The copyright line is faint and partly [illegible]; the handwritten clerk's deposit note below it is not part of the printed text.

[← Loco Foco Triumphal Honors (pro-Whig cartoon), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/loco-foco-triumphal-honors-clay-1844/) [Polk in His Extremity (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/polk-in-his-extremity-clay-1844/)

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