he Republicans' purported support of Negro rights is taken to an extreme
here. Editor Horace Greeley (left) and candidate Abraham Lincoln (resting his
elbow on a rail at right) stand on either side of a short black man holding a
spear. The latter is the deformed African man recently featured at P.T. Barnum's
Museum on Broadway as the "What-is-it." (A poster for this attraction
appears on the wall behind.)
Greeley says, "Gentlemen allow me to introduce to you, this illustrious
individual in whom you will find combined, all the graces, and virtues of Black
Republicanism, and whom we propose to run as our next Candidate for the
Presidency."
Lincoln muses, "How fortunate! that this intellectual and noble creature
should have been discovered just at this time, to prove to the world the
superiority of the Colored over the Anglo Saxon race, he will be a worthy
successor to carry out the policy which I shall inaugurate." The black man
wonders, "What, can dey be?"