Grant Inauguration
Thus Always to Tyrants--March 1869
In the process of recreating the currents of the politics of the day in 1869, I run across some great cartoons.1 Thomas Nast found himself coming back to Harper’s Weekly after hiatus for a year on a failed project.
The excitement of Grant’s inauguration was palpable (you’ll have to read the book for the account). Harper’s was no less excited that the days after Johnson were behind us. The Caste and Oligarchy party—the party of slavery—was relegated to subservience, and why not be happy about that? Harper’s laid it out. They were the party of:
Fugitive Slave Law
Bleeding Kansas
repeal of Missouri Compromise
Dred Scott decision
Democrats had also engaged in murder of loyalists after the war
In other words, they were the party of perpetual slavery. Johnson sought only Union with the hope of restoring slavery in some form. He joined forces with the Democrats when he assumed office. He supported the states and never criticized the many murders of loyalists.
Johnson, who came into office stating all traitors should be killed, ended up siding with the South (the Democrats) and sought to pardon nearly every southern participant in the war. Then, he went to war with his own party.
Nast clearly drew the cartoon before the end of Johnson’s term. In fact, it was likely drawn before impeachment or while it was ongoing. Harper’s, on the occassion of the inauguration, chose to run the piece in honor of the transition of power, and the incoming Grant administration. The result was “The Political Death of the Bogus Cæsar.”👇
In it, we see Johnson murdered surrounded by vetoed bills, and his statement on a plaque—”Treason is a Crime.” Clearly, he was the treasonous figure after Lincoln, abandoning all he allegedly supported as Lincoln’s VP. Grant was the loyal man of the republic and its savior.
The celebrating figures who did the deed are from left to right: Boutwell, John Logan, John Bingham, Benjamin Butler, Thomas Williams, and slinking off, Thad Stevens (he had already died when this was published, giving us the indication the piece above was drawn before his death).
All of these figures, except Johnson, are Republicans.
Though Nast figured that Johnson would be impeached and thrown from office (he was. but not convicted) the message of Harper’s in March 1869 was clear:
Grant has saved the republic, liberty, and freedom would now reign. The enfranchisement of all men (not just blacks) would be secured.
Hopes were high for Grant, but his own party was already plotting against him and that political era of arrogance, jealousy and selfishness would play out over the next 4 years.
Addendum: In my last piece on the NY frauds, the same issue of Harper’s also had an editorial of what we now know about NY in regard to the election—the Democrat Party committed great fraud and crimes on the public. The justice system in those states (and in particular cities) was not a guarantee of equal treatment under the law. The Democrats had in fact created a two-tier system.
Same as it ever was.
13 March 1869