Akin, James. Rare American political caricature from the famous 1828 race

AKIN, JAMES (ATTRIBUTED TO)

THE PEDLAR AND HIS PACK OR THE DESPERATE EFFORT, AN OVER BALANCE. [PHILADELPHIA: 1828]

Rare American political caricature from the famous 1828 race

A cartoon satirizing the paradoxical effect that negative attacks on Andrew Jackson were having in the famous campaign of 1828. An editor-publisher in Philadelphia named John Binns had published several harsh hand-outs called "coffin hand bills" that accused Jackson of arbitrary executions of American militia volunteers under his command and Native American prisoners, as well as violent episodes from Jackson's personal history. All this, though hardly altogether false, had the effect of increasing Jackson's popularity. The cartoon shows Binns being crushed by the weight of the coffins, Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, the other leading candidates, hanging on. Adams is holding the Presidential chair, soon to be lost to the military hero.

REFERENCE:

Reilly, American Political Prints 3; Weitenkampf 21