Senate Chamber U.S.A. Conclusion of Clay’s Speech In Defence of Slavery [caption title].
[N.p., but likely New York. 1839]. Lithograph, 10.25” x 12” plus margins. CONDITION: Good, narrow margins, upper margin expertly extended, lightly soiled, paper pulp reinforcements on verso. A rare and anonymously-produced political cartoon attacking Henry Clay's duplicitous position on slavery, the issue that was at the fulcrum of so
many political, moral, and legal conflicts in antebellum America. Clay, at the time a Senator from Kentucky and one of the country's most
popular politicians, grew infamous for his attempts to play both sides of
the slavery issue. This cartoon takes the opportunity of one of his 1839
Senate speeches to skewer his views on slavery as he angled for another
presidential nomination. The text points out the hypocrisy and
contradictions in his words and attitudes. Audiences above the Mason-Dixon
Line hear Clay proclaim: "I consider Slavery as a Curse, a curse to the
Master and a grievous wrong to the Slave," insisting he was "no friend to
slavery," while those in the South are assured that as an owner of
three-score humans he "will continue to oppose any scheme, whatever, of
emancipation, gradual or immediate." The text also points out his
contradictory views on dueling. An illustration of Mason & Dixon's Line
separates his views on slavery. South Carolina's John Calhoun who, with
Clay, was two-thirds of the Senate's "Great Triumvirate," and was the
country's most prominent slavery advocate, shakes Clay's hand and promises
his support. He assures Clay that abandoning his "'folly & delusion' about
liberty" and endorsing slavery as the "'most safe & stable basis for free
institutions'" will also secure South Carolina's support in his next
presidential run: "you shall be made President for life." Both men are mindlessly standing with one foot upon a prone enslaved man. In addition, Clay stands upon a torn portion of a Kentucky Convention Bill (likely addressing the issue of fugitive slaves), and Calhoun's left foot
stands on a torn part of a memorials and resolutions from Vermont and
Massachusetts affirming that "All men are created equal and entitled to
liberty &c.'" The afflicted and enslaved African-American man on which they trample to the viewer, in a quote from the Old Testament Book of Micah (7:8, relating to the rise of Israel): "Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall; I shall arise." Though this print bears no publication information, the style and substance point toward the work of H.R. Robinson of New York, who produced a number of sharp political attacks in the form of satirical prints in the 1830s. Not in Reilly. Rare, with only three copies recorded in OCLC, at the Library of Congress, Boston Public Library, and the American Antiquarian Society. REFERENCES: Weitenkampf, p. 60; OCLC 741723538 and 1038126677. CONDITION: Moderate soiling and creasing, repaired one-inch puncture in blank portion of image area, top edge roughly trimmed, mount remnants on verso. Overall good plus.
Item #6685
Price: $5,000.00