Liberty, the Fair Maid of Kansas_in the Hands of the "Border Ruffians."
date: label: date made
content: 1856
label: date made
content: ca 1854
name: label: depicted
content: Pierce, Franklin
label: depicted
content: Buchanan, James
label: depicted
content: Douglas, Stephen A.
label: depicted
content: Cass, Lewis
label: depicted
content: Marcy, William L.
label: maker
content: unknown
label: artist attribution
content: Magee, John L.
notes: label: Description
content: This political cartoon appeared during the 1856 presidential election and takes a vehement stance against the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Designed to open these territories to settlement, this act employed the doctrine of popular sovereignty to allow the people living in Kansas and Nebraska to vote these states into the Union as either slave or free. This resulted in the outbreak of violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the Kansas Territory, earning it the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.” This print depicts scenes of violence by pro-slavery “border ruffians” from Missouri who have crossed into Kansas against the free-soil settlers living there. In the foreground, leading figures of the Democratic Party are depicted as border ruffians. The personification of “Liberty, the Fair Maid of Kansas,” wears a Phrygian cap and a cape made of the American flag, and occupies the center of the illustration. Kneeling on the ground before Franklin Pierce, under whose presidency the Act had been passed. As he stands over her, with his foot on her cape, she begs him, “O spare me gentlemen, spare me!!” Pierce, shown heavily armed and drinking from a bottle, drunkenly guarantees her safety. To their right, Lewis Cass, a Democratic Senator from Michigan, leers at Liberty and sarcastically agrees with Pierce that she will be unharmed. On the right, Stephen Douglas scalps an anti-slavery settler. Douglas had designed the Act, hoping that the settlement of the western territories would allow for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. To the left of Pierce, presidential hopeful, James Buchanan, and William Marcy, Pierce’s Secretary of State, loot the body of a killed free-soiler. Marcy’s trousers are damaged and marked with “50 cts,” referring to a joke used by his political enemies. When serving as an associate justice for the Supreme Court of New York, he had used state funds to repair his pants. In the background, various scenes of violence perpetrated by the border ruffians are exhibited. Although there was actual violence in “Bleeding Kansas,” the imagery of theft and abduction in this print speaks to the possession of pro-slavery ideology over the virgin lands of Kansas.
label: Description
content: This print is attributed to John L. Magee, who was born in New York around 1820. In New York, he was employed by the lithographic firms of James Baillie and Nathaniel Currier. He started his own business in New York in 1850, but moved to Philadelphia sometime shortly after 1852. He was known for his political cartoons, which he produced until the 1860s.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: World
label: referenced
content: United States: Kansas
topic: label: depicted
content: Liberty
label: depicted
content: Clocks
label: classified
content: Political Caricatures
label: referenced
content: U.S. National Government, legislative branch
label: depicted
content: Drinking
label: decorative motif
content: Patriotism and Patriotic Symbols
label: depicted
content: Horses
label: referenced
content: West
label: depicted
content: Carriages
label: referenced
content: Reform Movements
label: depicted
content: Indians
label: related event
content: Kansas-Nebraska Act
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Weitenkampf, Frank. Political Caricature in the United States In Separately Published Cartoons
label: Related Publication
content: Library of Congress Online Catalog
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.3461
label: catalog number
content: 60.3461
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: image: 8 in x 14 1/2 in; 20.32 cm x 36.83 cm