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 AKIN, James (attrib.)
The Pedlar and his Pack or the Desperate Effort, an Over Balance
[Philadelphia: 1828]. Etched with aquatinting and hand-coloured. Excellent condition. Image size (including text): 9 5/8 x 14 inches. Sheet size: 10 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches.
Rare American political caricature from the famous 1828 race
This is an interesting 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 and Native American prisoners, as well as violent episodes from Jackson's personal history. The hand bills failed, though it isn't clear whether it was because they exaggerated Jackson's excesses or because an important portion of the population approved of the implied excesses. 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. Adams is holding the Presidential chair, soon to be lost.
Not in Murrell A History of American Graphic Humor; Reilly American Political Prints 1828 - 3; Weitenkampf p. 21
#18739 $1,500.00  
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