The Presidency in Times of Turmoil

America’s “founding fathers” and the revolutionary
period are widely regarded with reverence today, but for people living through
those times, there was plenty to criticize and poke fun at. The earliest American etchings and engravings commented on colonial frustrations, tensions and
eventual separation from Britain; the challenges of establishing a new national
government; and territorial expansion. The introduction of widespread
commercial lithography in the U.S. coincided with the presidency of Andrew Jackson,
whose political misadventures and personality provided cartoonists with plenty of fodder.

"A Peep into the Antifederal Club" (1793) provides an unflattering portrait of Thomas Jefferson and the Antifederalist party.

Major Jack Downing, pictured next to Andrew Jackson, was a fictional character popularized in a newspaper serial. He can be spotted frequently in Jacksonian-era cartoons, standing in for the American people.

The fictional character Major Jack Downing stands to Jackson's left, waving his hat over his head and patting Jackson's shoulder.

President Andrew Jackson holds a document labeled "Order for the removal of the public money deposited in the United States Bank."

Jackson's political foes, Nicholas Biddle (depicted as a devil), Mordecai Manuel Noah, James Watson Webb, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Silas Wright Jr., flee the wreckage.

The expansion of slavery
into western territories and the continued existence of slavery violently divided Americans throughout the 1850s. The issue of slavery was pivotal in the election of 1860, in which Abraham Lincoln emerged the victor.

This graphic cartoon portrays the bloody fighting that took place in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Democratic politicians who supported the act are portrayed as “border ruffians” who threaten Columbia, the female personification of America and freedom.

Presidential contenders John Bell, Stephen Douglas, and John C. Breckinridge attempt to break into the White House but are caught in the act by Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln

"Ah! ha! Gentlemen! you need'nt think to catch me napping; for I am a regular Wide awake." Lincoln's spear (actually a sharpened fence rail, a symbol of his campaign), cape, and lantern make him resemble a night watchman, but readers in the 1860s would also have recognized that he is dressed as a member of the "Wide Awakes," clubs of young men who marched in support of Lincoln during his election campaign. Wide Awakes typically wore short capes and flat-visored hats, and carried lanterns.

Upon seeing Lincoln, Constitutional Party candidate John Bell warns Democratic Party candidate Stephen Douglas to hurry. Douglas, however, is unable to unlock the White House door.

From inside the White House, outgoing president James Buchanan tries, unsuccessfully, to help his vice president, John C. Breckinridge, climb through a window. In despair, Breckinridge cries that he will have to dissolve the Union.

The seceding Confederacy
was a frequent target of cartoonists’ mockery during the Civil War, but so was Abraham Lincoln, who was faced
with difficult and dangerous decisions that threatened his chances of reelection.

In "Rowdy Notions of Emancipation," a brooding Lincoln turns his back on the violence perpetrated against African Americans during the New York City Draft Riots of July 13-16, 1863.