|
|
|
|
|
|
Bloody Shirt and Bloody Chasm |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“Let Us Clasp Hands Over the Bloody Chasm” |
|
|
Cartoonist: Thomas Nast |
|
Source: Harper's Weekly |
|
Date:
September 21, 1872, p. 732
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click to see a large version of this cartoon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
Throughout the summer and fall, Nast made
continuing use of a key slogan in Greeley's letter of May 20 accepting the
Liberal Republican nomination. Underscoring the platform plank calling for
amnesty of all former Confederates, Greeley concluded with a plea for the North
and South "to clasp hands across the bloody chasm which has too long
divided them …" (Greeley had used a similar phrase as early as April 1865
while calling for sectional reconciliation.) In various "clasping
hands" cartoons, Nast would incorporate the Ku Klux Klan, John Wilkes Booth
over the grave of Lincoln, a "shoulder-hitter" (i.e., a strongman for
an urban political boss), and former Confederate soldiers.
One of the most spectacular shows Greeley trying to extend his reach across the
grotesque vastness of the Union graves at Andersonville Prison in a ludicrous
effort to connect with the hand of a tiny hooded figure on the far side. During
the Civil War, at least 13,000 Union enlisted men perished of starvation or
disease at the notorious Confederate prison. The prison commandant, Henry Wirz,
became the only person executed for his participation in the Confederate war
effort. "Let Us Clasp Hands Over the Bloody Chasm" (dated September
21) appeared in print September 11. In a stroke of fortunate timing which Nast
could not have predicted, on September 15 Greeley received a speaking invitation
to visit Cincinnati (September 19-21), which was hastily extended into a
campaign swing through the Upper South. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|