American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

Lithograph with hand-coloring, [1848], sheet 11 1/8 x 16 in., on wove paper, minor soil, closed tear to left edge, framed to 16 1/2 x 21 1/2 in., not examined out of frame. 

Published in the lead-up to the 1848 Whig National Convention where the party's main contenders for the presidential nomination were Generals Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) or Winfield Scott (1786-1866). A figure, probably a combination of the two generals, is depicted in caricature wearing a comically ostentatious plumed hat, his military uniform, and grasping a sword while seated upon a large pile of skulls. The cartoon is a criticism of the Whig party's choice of a popular military general with unclear political beliefs, over the ideals of the party, embodied by stalwarts like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. RARE: OCLC locates only 1 copy, without color, held at the American Antiquarian Society.