An august convention

National Union Convention--(1866 :--Philadelphia, Pa.)

Vallandigham, Clement L. (Clement Laird),--1820-1871.

Copperhead movement--1860-1870.

The National Union Convention met in Philadelphia in August 1866 to create a political party that would back President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction program and to elect a new Congress. Here, the convention is portrayed as a gathering of muzzled dogs, their collars inscribed with state names, who file toward a large doghouse, the "Wigwam." Except for the unwelcome arrival of Copperheads or Peace Democrats Fernando Wood and C. L. Vallandigham, the meeting was surprisingly harmonious even with the participation of representatives from both North and South. Here two dogs, "Massachusetts" and "South Carolina," side by side, lead the pack toward the Wigwam. Wood and Vallandigham are portrayed as cats, each held by the scruff of its neck by guard dogs Edgar Cowan and J. R. Doolittle. At bottom left stands a dog with a brush and a pail marked "N.Y. Times" tied to its tail. In the background "The Dead Dog of The White House," incumbent Andrew Johnson, lies in the road in front of the presidential mansion, which flies from its roof an American flag labeled "My Policy." "My Policy" was Johnson's campaign catchword. The Philadelphia movement ultimately failed, and anti-Johnson Republicans achieved more than a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress.

Weitenkampf

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, American cartoon print filing series, DIGITAL ID: (digital file from b&w film copy neg.) cph 3b36099 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b36099

American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-4.

1866

Michelle Epps

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Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)