---
title: '''Can you rest one hand on the sacred altar of Liberty...'' (Free Soil cartoon, Currier), 1848'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-buren-washburn-altar-of-liberty-1848/
description: Cartoon with a Free Soil speech excerpt below it. Van Buren and the Goddess of Liberty stand at right by a monument listing Washington, Jefferson…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** A speech balloon contains a racial slur, and the cartoon depicts slavery-related satire, reproduced as printed. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!['Can you rest one hand on the sacred altar of Liberty...' (Free Soil cartoon, Currier), 1848](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/van-buren-washburn-altar-of-liberty-1848.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/van-buren-washburn-altar-of-liberty-1848.jpg)

# 'Can you rest one hand on the sacred altar of Liberty...' (Free Soil cartoon, Currier), 1848

Cartoon with a Free Soil speech excerpt below it. Van Buren and the Goddess of Liberty stand at right by a monument listing Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and 'Van Buren 1837 & 1848'; at left, opposing figures speak in balloons that call Free Soil supporters 'doughfaces' and Van Buren a 'traitor'. Tells: loaded labels on the opponents, and Van Buren set beside the founders' monument (transfer).

## Text on the object

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

```
[balloon 1] Confound them nigger drivers- Prince John was right; They've got my soul and sent my body home by the lakes; now even Creswell cant save me.
[balloon 2] Van Buren is the greatest Statesman of the age; but I'll keep still and may be elected yet.
[balloon 3] More money! Canal Bank's broke! Damn it Corning, the people have found us out. They're all Barnburners- Matty's their next President, and we're used up! Oh death!
[balloon 4] Talk about glory. Gull the doughfaces. If they resist the extension of Slavery, threaten the Union. We don't care, we must have a market for our property.
[balloon 5] Oh no, Creswell, here's the cash. Abuse Van Buren, call him a traitor.
[balloon 6] "O carry me back to old Virginny."
[balloon 7] I'll take the stump in Oneida against Old Wright, and the rest of you stick him secretly.
[balloon 8] The blow that was aimed at a living statesman fell upon his new grave, the creature who sought to be an assassin was, by an inscrutable dispensation, converted into a jackall.
[balloon 9] Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft is ever won.
[monument] WASHINGTON, [illegible]. JEFFERSON, [illegible]. JACKSON, [illegible]. VAN BUREN, 1837 & 1848.
[newspaper] CONSTITUTION
[figure labels] [illegible]  Taylor.  Creswell.  Propaganda.  Corning.  Dickinson.  Foster.  John Van Buren.  Martin Van Buren.  Goddess of Liberty.
Can you rest one hand on the sacred altar of Liberty, and with the other extend the domain of the darkest curse that a righteous heaven permits on earth? Every impulse of humanity revolts at the idea. The trials and struggles of our patriot fathers, the blood and agony of their battlefields, a thousand witnesses of the blight and desolation of Bondage on a virgin soil, and thronging Millions from distant shores seeking a Free Land for their Free Labor, utter an awful and undying protest!
Extract from the speech of DANIEL WASHBURN Esq. in the Utica Convention.
PUB. BY P. SMITH, 2 SPRUCE ST. N.Y.
```

Bracketed labels are not printed. Balloon text is small and partly hard to read; monument dates other than Van Buren's, the first figure label, the monument top inscription, a 'Federal ...' label and the copyright line are not transcribed. Handwritten notes ('398.', deposit line Aug 12 1848) are not printed. The third figure's label is read as 'Propaganda' (uncertain).

[← Lewis Cass, Democratic Candidate for President (Currier), 1848](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cass-butler-democratic-candidates-1848/) [Grand Democratic Free Soil Banner (Currier, Van Buren and Adams), 1848 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-buren-adams-free-soil-banner-1848/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)