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
'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).
- Date
- August 12, 1848
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- P. Smith [i.e. N. Currier], New York (publisher), for the Free Soil ticket of Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Polk Administration
- Leader
- James K. Polk
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- 1848 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 1848, US; LOC rights statement: "No known restrictions on publication."
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Text on the object
[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).
