Caricature and Other Comic Art Part 30

It is in vain that we seek for specimens of colonial caricature outside of the Franklin circle. Satirical pictures were doubtless produced in great numbers, and a few may have been published; but caricature is a thing of the moment, and usually perishes with the moment, unless it is incorporated with a periodical. Almost all the intellectual product of the colonial period that was not theological has some relation to the wise and jovial Franklin, the incomparable American, the father of his country's intellectual life, whether manifested in literature, burlesque, politics, invention, or science.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Boston Ma.s.sacre Coffins; Boston, March, 1774. (From "American Historical Record.")]

The Boston ma.s.sacre, as it was called, which was commemorated by the device of a row of coffins, often employed before and since, might have been more properly styled a street brawl, if the mere presence of British troops in Boston in 1774 had not been an outrage of international dimensions. The four victims, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Cauldwell, and Crispus Attucks, were borne to the grave by all that was most distinguished in the province, and the whole people seemed to have either followed or witnessed the procession. Amidst the frenzy of the time, these coffin-lids served to express and relieve the popular feeling. The subsequent acquittal of the innocent soldiers, who had shown more forbearance than armed men usually do when taunted and a.s.sailed by an unarmed crowd, remains one of the most honorable of the early records of Boston.

There were attempts at caricature during the later years of the Revolutionary war. From 1778, when inflated paper, French francs, British gold, and Hessian thalers had given the business centres of the country a short, fallacious prosperity, there was gayety enough in Philadelphia and Boston. There were b.a.l.l.s and parties, and sending to France for articles of luxury, and profusion of all kinds--as there was in the late war, and as there must be in all wars which are not paid for till the war is over. There are indications in the old books that the burlesquing pencil was a familiar instrument then among the merry lads of the cities and towns. But their efforts, after having answered their momentary purpose, perished.

And the habit of burlesque survived the war. There are few persons, even among the zealous fraternity of collectors, who are aware that a New York dramatist, in the year 1788, endeavored to burlesque, in a regular five-act comedy, the violent debates which distracted all circles while the acceptance of the new Const.i.tution was the question of questions. A copy or two of this comedy, called "The Politician Outwitted," have been preserved. In lieu of the lost pictures, take this brief scene, which exhibits a violent squabble between an inveterate opponent of the Const.i.tution and a burning patriot who supports it. They enter, in proper comedy fas.h.i.+on, after they are in full quarrel.

"_Enter_ OLD LOVEYET _and_ TRUEMAN.

"_Loveyet._ I tell you, it is the most infernal scheme that ever was devised.

"_Trueman._ And I tell you, sir, that your argument is heterodox, sophistical, and most preposterously illogical.

"_Loveyet._ I insist upon it, sir, you know nothing at all about the matter! And give me leave to tell you, sir--

"_Trueman._ What! Give you leave to tell me I know nothing at all about the matter? I shall do no such thing, sir. I'm not to be governed by your _ipse dixit_.

"_Loveyet._ I desire none of your musty Latin, for I don't understand it, not I.

"_Trueman._ O the ignorance of the age! To oppose a plan of government like the new Const.i.tution! _Like_ it, did I say? There never _was_ one like it. Neither Minos, Solon, Lycurgus, nor Romulus ever fabricated so wise a system. Why, it is a political phenomenon, a prodigy of legislative wisdom, the fame of which will soon extend ultramundane, and astonish the nations of the world with its transcendent excellence. To what a sublime height will the superb edifice attain!

"_Loveyet._ Your aspiring edifice shall never be erected in this State, sir.

"_Trueman._ Mr. Loveyet, you will not listen to reason. Only calmly attend one moment.

[_Reads._] 'We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide--'

"_Loveyet._ I tell you I won't hear it.

"_Trueman._ Mark all that. [_Reads._] 'Section the First. All legislative power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.' Very judicious and salutary, upon my erudition!

'Section the Second--'

"_Loveyet._ I'll hear no more of your sections."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Militia Drill in Ma.s.sachusetts in 1832.]

They continue the debate until both disputants are in the white heat of pa.s.sion. Old Mr. Loveyet rushes away at last to break off the match between his daughter and Trueman's son, and Trueman retorts by calling his fiery antagonist "a conceited sot." This comedy is poor stuff, but it suffices to reveal the existence of the spirit of caricature among us at that early day, when New York was a clean, cobble-stoned, Dutch-looking town of thirty thousand inhabitants, one of whom, a boy five years of age, was named Was.h.i.+ngton Irving.

General Was.h.i.+ngton was inaugurated President at the same city in the following year. How often has the world been a.s.sured that no dissentient voice was heard on that occasion! The arrival of the general in New York was a pageant which the entire population is supposed to have most heartily approved; and a very pleasing spectacle it must have been, as seen from the end of the island--the vessels decked with flags and streamers, and the President's stately barge, rowed by thirteen pilots in white uniforms, advancing toward the city, surrounded and followed by a cloud of small boats, to the thunder of great guns. But even then, it seems, there were a few who looked askance. At least one caricature appeared. "All the world here," wrote John Armstrong to the unreconciled General Gates, "are busy in collecting flowers and sweets of every kind to amuse and delight the President." People were asking one another, he adds, by what awe-inspiring t.i.tle the President should be called, even plain Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, regarding "His Excellency" as beneath the grandeur of the office. "Yet," says Armstrong, "in the midst of this admiration there are skeptics who doubt its propriety, and wits who amuse themselves at its extravagance. The first will grumble and the last will laugh, and the President should be prepared to meet the attacks of both with firmness and good nature. A caricature has already appeared, called 'The Entry,' full of very disloyal and profane allusions." It was by no means a good-natured picture. General Was.h.i.+ngton was represented riding upon an a.s.s, and held in the arms of his favorite man Billy, once huntsman, then valet and factotum; Colonel David Humphreys, the general's aid and secretary, led the a.s.s, singing hosannas and birthday odes, one couplet of which was legible:

"The glorious time has come to pa.s.s When David shall conduct an a.s.s."

This effort was more ill-natured than brilliant; but the reader who examines the fugitive publications of that period will often feel that the adulation of the President was such as to provoke and justify severe caricature. That adulation was as excessive as it was ill executed; and part of the office of caricature is to remind Philip that he is a man.

The numberless "verses," "odes," "tributes," "stanzas," "lines," and "sonnets" addressed to President Was.h.i.+ngton lie entombed in the dingy leaves of the old newspapers; but a few of the epigrams which they provoked have been disinterred, and even some of the caricatures are described in the letters of the time. Neither the verses nor the pictures are at all remarkable. Probably the best caricature that appeared during the administration of General Was.h.i.+ngton was suggested by the removal of the national capital from New York to Philadelphia.

Senator Robert Morris, being a Philadelphian, and having large possessions in Philadelphia, was popularly supposed to have procured the pa.s.sage of the measure, and accordingly the portly Senator is seen in the picture carrying off upon his broad shoulders the Federal Hall, the windows of which are crowded with members of both Houses, some commending, others cursing this novel method of removal. In the distance is seen the old Paulus Hook ferry-house, at what is now Jersey City, on the roof of which is the devil beckoning to the heavy-laden Morris, and crying to him, "This way, Bobby." The removal of the capital was a fruitful theme for the humorists of the day. Even then "New York politicians" had an ill name, and Congress was deemed well out of their reach.

But those were the halcyon days of the untried administration; to which indeed there was as yet nothing that could be called an Opposition. The entire nation, with here and there an individual exception, was in full accord with the feeling expressed in Benjamin Russell's allegory that went "the round of the press" in 1789 and 1790:

"THE FEDERAL s.h.i.+P.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A s.h.i.+p.]

"Just _launched_ on the _Ocean of Empire_, the s.h.i.+p COLUMBIA, GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, Commander, which, after being thirteen years in _dock_, is at length well _manned_, and in very good condition. The s.h.i.+p is a _first rate_--has a good _bottom_, which all the Builders have p.r.o.nounced _sound_ and _good_. Some objection has been made to parts of the _tackling_, or _running rigging_, which, it is supposed, will be _altered_, when they shall be found to be incommodious, as the s.h.i.+p is able to make very good _headway_ with them as they are. A _jury_ of _Carpenters_ have this matter now under consideration. The _Captain_ and _First Mate_ are universally esteemed by all the Owners--Eleven[40] in number--and she has been _insured_, under their direction, to make a good _mooring_ in the _harbor_ of Public Prosperity and Felicity--whitherto she is bound. The Owners can furnish, besides the s.h.i.+p's Company, the following materials:--_New-Hamps.h.i.+re_, the Masts and Spars; _Ma.s.sachusetts_, Timber for the Hull, Fish, &c.; _Connecticut_, Beef and Pork; _New-York_, Porter and other Cabin stores; _New-Jersey_, the Cordage; _Pennsylvania_, Flour and Bread;--_Delaware_, the Colors, and Clothing for the Crew; _Maryland_, the Iron work and small Anchors; _Virginia_, Tobacco and the Sheet Anchor; _South-Carolina_, Rice; and _Georgia_, Powder and small Provisions. Thus found, may this _good s.h.i.+p_ put to sea, and the prayer of all is, that G.o.d _may preserve her, and bring her in safety to her desired haven_."

[Footnote 40: Only eleven States had accepted the Const.i.tution when this was written.]

The Government had not been long domiciled in the City of Brotherly Love before parties became defined and party spirit acrimonious. The popular heart and hope and imagination were all on the side of revolutionized France in her unequal struggle with the allied kings. Conservative and "safe" men were more and more drawn into sympathy with the powers that were striving to maintain the established order, chief of which was Great Britain. President Was.h.i.+ngton, in maintaining the just balance between the two contending principles and powers, could not but give some dissatisfaction to both political parties, and, most of all, to the one in the warmest sympathy with France. In the dearth of pictorical relics of that period, I insert the parody of the Athanasian creed annexed, from the _National Gazette_ of Philadelphia, edited by Freneau, and maintained by the friends of Jefferson and Madison:

"A NEW POLITICAL CREED FOR THE USE OF WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

"Whoever would live peaceably in Philadelphia, above all things it is necessary that he hold the Federal faith--and the Federal faith is this, that there are two governing powers in this country, both equal, and yet one superior: which faith except every one keep undefiledly, without doubt he shall be abused everlastingly.

"The Briton is superior to the American, and the American is inferior to the Briton: and yet they are equal, and the Briton shall govern the American.

"The Briton, while here, is commanded to obey the American, and yet the American ought to obey the Briton.

"And yet they ought not both to be obedient, but only one to be obedient. For there is one dominion nominal of the American, and another dominion real of the Briton.

"And yet there are not two dominions, but only one dominion.

"For like as we are compelled by the British const.i.tution book to acknowledge that _subjects_ must submit themselves to their monarchs, and be obedient to them in all things:

"So we are forbid by our Federal executive to say that we are at all influenced by our treaty with France, or to pay regard to what it enforceth:

"The American was created for the Briton, and the Briton for the American:

"And yet the American shall be a slave to the Briton, and the Briton the tyrant of the American.

"And Britons are of three denominations, and yet only of one soul, nature, and subsistency:

"The Irishman of infinite impudence:

"The Scotchman of cunning most inscrutable:

"And the Englishman of impertinence altogether insupportable:

"The only true and honorable gentlemen of this our blessed country.

"He, therefore, that would live in quiet, must thus think of the Briton and the American.

"It is furthermore necessary that every _good_ American should believe in the infallibility of the executive, when its proclamations are echoed by Britons:

"For the true faith is, that we believe and confess that the Government is fallible and infallible:

"Fallible in its republican nature, and infallible in its monarchical tendency, erring in its state of individuality, and unerring in its Federal complexity.

"So that though it be both fallible and infallible, yet it is not twain, but one government only, as having consolidated all state dominion, in order to rule with sway uncontrolled.