Content note: The platform label contains a racial slur ('nigger catching'); the antislavery print also shows a devil, a slaveholder with a whip and shackles. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Position of the Democratic Party in 1852" (anti-Pierce, anti-Fugitive-Slave-Law print)
Print in which Pierce lies face-down on the 'Baltimore Platform' before a whip-bearing 'Slave holder & Peace maker' while a devil cheers and Haynau, Cass and Douglas look on; the Spirit of Jefferson cries 'Ye degenerate Sons!' The tell is the stacking of stigma symbols (devil, skull and crossbones, whip) onto the Democratic platform, and the label 'slaveocratic' in place of 'Democratic'.
- Date
- 1852
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- William K. Leach (copyright entrant), sold by Bela Marsh, 25 Cornhill, Boston
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- Fillmore Administration
- Leader
- Millard Fillmore
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- 1852 US Election
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- 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
[Cloud above, Spirit of Jefferson:] Spirit of Jefferson. Ye degenerate Sons ! [Speech box, Slave holder:] "Save the Union. And with the meanest Yankee grease Smear the hinges of your knees And in Silence pray for peace." [Label under the slaveholder:] Slave holder & Peace maker. [Speech box, Devil:] " Well done my faithful servants ! [Speech box, Pierce:] " I accept this Cheerfully. [Speech box, Haynau:] " I feel quite at home in this company give me your hand my good fellow. [Speech box, Cass:] " We are down Douglass. Pierce has bid lower than either of us. [Speech box, Douglas:] " There is nothing impossible for a New Hampshire Hunker Democrat to do in that line. [Text on the platform:] Fugitive Slave Law and nigger catching, and resist agitation on the Slavery question. & Southern pine. Baltimore Platform 1852. [Diagonal on the ground:] Mason & Dixon's line. [Other labels:] [illegible: small text at left beginning "On Pierce's ..." and ending "attempt to revival"] Gen Spurs Pierce. one of the Southern dirt eaters saving the Union. Haynau. Cass. Douglas. the slaveocratic miscalled the Democratic party. how they obey the crack of the Slaveholder's Whip! [Imprint:] Sold by Bela Marsh No 25 Cornhill Boston Mass. [Title:] Position of the Democratic Party in 1852. "Freemen of America, how long will you be ledd by such leaders !" [Copyright line, very small:] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by William K. Leach, in the Clerk's office of the District of Massachusetts. [partly legible]
Read from a 640 px derivative of a hand-lettered print; some small lines are only partly legible. 'ledd' and 'Douglass' (in Cass's speech) are the print's spellings. The skull-and-crossbones, manacles and serpent are pictorial, with no text. The two-line label at far left is too small to read beyond the fragments shown.
