---
title: Polk in His Extremity (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/polk-in-his-extremity-clay-1844/
description: 'Cartoon of a pole topped by a "Civic Crown": Clay has nearly reached it saying "With ease I reach the goal", while Polk below is prodded with a cane and…'
section: Collection
---

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

[![Polk in His Extremity (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/polk-in-his-extremity-clay-1844.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/polk-in-his-extremity-clay-1844.jpg)

# Polk in His Extremity (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844

Cartoon of a pole topped by a "Civic Crown": Clay has nearly reached it saying "With ease I reach the goal", while Polk below is prodded with a cane and held up by others, one punning "His situation Looks rather pokerish". Tells: the Whig win is drawn as easy and settled, the Democrat's as failing (bandwagon); Polk is shown as a failing climber and his name is turned into the pun 'pokerish' (name-calling).

## Text on the object

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

```
CIVIC CROWN.
With ease I reach the goal, when the hearts of my countrymen are with me.
Almighty hero! desist, I beseech you: for this courtesy is more honored in the breech than in the observance.
Ye gods! what a climber this is! The more he is poked, the more he don't go up !
His situation Looks rather pokerish.

Lith. & Pub. by J. Baillie [illegible] N.Y.
POLK IN HIS EXTREMITY.
Entered according to an act of Congress in the Year [illegible] by [illegible] in the Clerk's Office in the District Court of the [illegible] Dist. of N.Y.
```

Imprint lines are very faint and partly [illegible].

[← Polk & Co. Going Up Salt River (pro-Clay cartoon), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/polk-co-going-up-salt-river-clay-1844/) [Texas Coming In (pro-Polk cartoon), 1844 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/texas-coming-in-polk-1844/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)