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Bloody Shirt and Bloody Chasm |
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H.G. "Let Us Clasp Hands Over the Bloody Chasm" |
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Cartoonist: Thomas Nast |
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Source: Harper's Weekly |
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Date:
October 19, 1872, p. 804
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Click to see a large version of this cartoon |
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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.
Here, in the October 19, 1872 issue of Harper's Weekly, Nast represents the Democratic victory in the Georgia
state elections as an ominous turning-point in the lives of Southern blacks.
Over the bodies of two murdered black men, Greeley clasps hands with a former
Confederate soldier, gun behind his back, with one foot on the American flag and
the other on the back of one of the black men. Behind Greeley, some Southern
white men cast their ballots, while in the left-background others open fire on a
group of black men. The question on the polling place-"What are you going
to do about it?"-was "Boss" Tweed's alleged response to inquiries
into the corrupt practices of Tammany Hall. The message of this cartoon is
clear: Greeley's trimming of his principles for the sake of political office
will result in disaster, perhaps extermination, for Southern blacks. |
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