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 “Our Portrait Gallery—No. 1” and “The Power of the Rail, or the Fall of J.B.”
  Cartoonist:  Unknown
  Source:  The Rail Splitter (Chicago)
  Date:   June 23, 1860, p. 2

Click to see a large version of this cartoon...

Click to see a large version of this cartoon

Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
In this cartoon from The Rail Splitter, a Republican campaign newspaper published in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln uses his rail and the Constitution as leverage to hoist James Buchanan out of the presidential “chair of state” and into political oblivion. In the accompanying poem, “Covode dogs” (third stanza) alludes to a congressional inquiry that found substantial evidence of influence peddling and other wrongdoing in the Buchanan administration.

 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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