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"The Political Death of Bogus Caesar"
"Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets."
"Some to the common pulpits, and cry out liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!"
Thomas Nast drew this cartoon in May 1868 as the removal trial for the
impeached president, Andrew Johnson, was occurring in the U.S. Senate.
At the time, the cartoonist had not been working for Harper’s
Weekly in over a year. He had intended to submit the cartoon to a
would-be rival of the national newspaper, the short-lived Illustrated
Chicago News (April-June 1868), but it went out of business. When
Nast returned to Harper’s Weekly as a regular contributor, he
brought the cartoon with him. With the removal trial ended (in a narrow
victory for Johnson), the editors decided to wait until the end of
Johnson’s presidential term to publish it.
The cartoon appears in the March 13 issue, which covers the
inauguration of President Ulysses S. Grant, along with an editorial
which harshly reviews the Johnson administration. "Andrew Johnson
retires from the Presidency … with certainly as little general respect
as attended the retirement of Mr. Pierce or Mr. Buchanan. … [I]t was
possible for Mr. Johnson neither to comprehend the character nor to
assume … the exquisite good sense and sagacity of his predecessor
[Abraham Lincoln]. … He failed, and failed utterly … Mr. Johnson’s
Administration has had, however, the good result of proving the
character of the people. At every moment of his evil career it has been
evident that the country condemned him. … [T]he people …
contemptuously dismissed a President who will be remembered for not one
wise word or one truly honorable action."
This cartoon is a close parody of a painting by Jean-Leon Gérôme
called The Death of Caesar. The impeached Johnson, whom
Nast perhaps assumed would be removed from office by the Senate, lies
dead on the floor, his throne toppled over, and his vetoes at his side.
On the wall above the slain tyrant, Johnson’s own words "Treason
is a crime and must be punished" hang as an indictment against his
presidency. In the right-front, a scroll labeled "Tenure of
Office" refers to the law enacted by Congress to limit the
president’s power to interfere with the implementation of
Reconstruction policy. The quotes underneath the picture are taken from
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene I), just after
Caesar has been murdered; the first exclamation (left) is made by Cinna
and the second (right) by Cassius.
The Roman senators with swords aloft, who have killed the American
Caesar, are the Republican House managers of Johnson’s removal trial
of the impeached president in the Senate. They are (left-right): George
Boutwell of Massachusetts; John Logan of Illinois; John Bingham of Ohio;
James Wilson of Iowa; Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts; and Thomas
Williams of Pennsylvania. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania is shown
exiting the scene on the far right. Since the ailing Stevens died in
August 1868, it is obvious that this cartoon was completed before his
death.
Robert C. Kennedy
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