Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 20 Politics, Race, and the Culture Wars Part 5

Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 20 Politics, Race, and the Culture Wars Part 5

The immense pressures on Lincoln at this moment were captured in a cartoon, The Political Blondin , that appeared in Frank Leslie’s Budget of Fun on September 1, 1864. In the cartoon, the president’s position on the tightrope is more precarious than ever. A glum-looking Lincoln pushes a wheelbarrow stuffed with the American flag (the nation). On his shoulders, he carries two worried-looking cabinet members, Secretary of War Stanton and Secretary of the Navy Welles (representing the uncertain Union military prospects in the summer of 1864). A third member, the departed Chase, has tumbled off Stanton’s shoulders. From the galleries, on opposite sides, are Union leaders, including Grant and Sherman, and Confederate ones, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Also present is John Bull (Great Britain) and Napoleon III (France), foreign voices in the war. The cartoon’s caption tells us that the spectators are assailing Lincoln with contradictory advice to move “slower,” “faster,” “more No…