Lesson 11 Document 3
TITLE: The two platforms
CALL NUMBER: Broadside Collection, portfolio 159, no. 9 <Rare Bk Coll>[P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USXC4-5342 (color film copy
transparency)
LC-USZ62-32498 (b&w film copy neg.)
SUMMARY: Another in a series of racist posters attacking
Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866
Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. (See "The Constitutional Amendment," no.
1866-5.) The poster specifically characterizes Democratic candidate Hiester
Clymer's platform as "for the White Man," represented here by the idealized head
of a young man. (Clymer ran on a white-supremacy platform.) In contrast a
stereotyped black head represents Clymer's opponent James White Geary's
platform, "for the Negro." Below the portraits are the words, "Read the
platforms. Congress says, The Negro must be allowed to vote, or the states be
punished." Above is an explanation: "Every Radical in Congress Voted for Negro
Suffrage. Every Radical in the Pennsylvania Senate Voted for Negro Suffrage.
Stevens [Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens], Forney [John W. Forney,
editor of the " Philadelphia Press":], and Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss
Simon Cameron] are for Negro Suffrage; they are all Candidates for the United
States Senate. No Radical Newspaper Opposes Negro Suffrage. "Geary" said in a
Speech at Harrisburg, 11th of August, 1866--"There Can Be No Possible Objection
to Negro Suffrage."
MEDIUM: 1 print : Woodcut with letterpress on wove paper ; 44.4
x 57.2 cm (image)
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1866.
NOTES: Title appears as it is written on the item. Use surrogate: either electronic image or Reilly's American Political Prints book illustration.
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-8.
TOPICS:
African Americans (portrayed), suffrage
Cameron, Simon
Clymer, Hiester
Congress (U.S.), Reconstruction issues
Forney, John W.
Pennsylvania, state government and politics
Stevens, Thaddeus
FORMAT:Political
posters.
Woodcuts.
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Rare Book and Special
Collections Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
