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Set-to between the champion old tip & the swell Dutcheman of Kinderhook -- 1836
Summary
Satire on the presidential campaign of 1836, portraying the contest as a boxing match between Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren and Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. The artist clearly favors Harrison. The work is a variation on an 1834 cartoon which uses the boxing match as a metaphor for the struggle between Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle, president of the Bank of the United States. (See "Set To Between Old Hickory and Bully Nick," no. 1834-4). In a ring Van Buren and Harrison spar as their seconds and a crowd of observers stand by. On the left, Van Buren is seconded by Andrew Jackson and "bottle holder" Amos Kendall. On the right, Harrison's second is a "Western lad" (a frontiersman in buckskins) and his bottle holder "Old Seventy-six" (a lame Revolutionary war veteran). The text below the scene identifies Harrison's backers as "the People" and Van Buren's as "Office holders & mail Contractors." Kendall (drinking from the bottle): "I begin to tremble for Matty -- There appears to be a Surplus Fund in this Bottle, so I'll een take a pull to raise my spirits . . ." Jackson: "By the Eternal! what a severe counter hit! It's bunged up Matty's peeper, and if he don't keep his other eye open he'ill get a Cross buttock. He begins to be a little queerish already. D--n his Dutch courage! Amos where's the Bottle? after this Round put some more into him." Van Buren: "Stand by me Old Hickory or I'm a gone Chicken!" Harrison: "Look out for your bread-basket Matty, I'll remove the deposits for you." Jackson's words recall his controversial 1834 order to withdraw federal funds or "deposits" from the Bank of the United States. Frontiersman: "Whoop! wake snakes! . . . he [Harrison] puts it into him as fast as a streak of greased lightning through a gooseberry bush. That "Cold blooded" Kinderhooker will be row'd up Salt River or I'm a nigger!" Old Seventy-six: "Thank Heaven the People have a Champion at last who will support the Constitution and laws that we fought and bled to obtain . . ."
Printed & published by H.R. Robinson, 48 & 52 Cortlandt St. N.Y.
Signed with monogram: C (Edward Williams Clay).
Title appears as it is written on the item.
Davison, no. 82.
Hess & Kaplan, p. 78.
Weitenkampf, p. 45.
Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1836-12.
Born: Feb. 9, 1773 Died: April 4, 1841 Presidential Term: March 4, 1841 - April 4, 1841 Vice President: John Tyler William Henry Harrison, American military officer and politician was the ninth President of the United States (1841), the oldest President to be elected at the time. Delivering the longest inaugural address in U.S. history, he came down with pneumonia that made his 30-day presidency the shortest in U.S. history. On his 32nd day, he became the first to die in office, serving the shortest tenure in U.S. Presidential history. "All the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer." /William Henry Harrison/
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States (1837-1841), after serving as the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, both under President Andrew Jackson. While the country was prosperous when the "Little Magician" was elected, less than three months later the financial panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of senior roles, including eighth Vice President (1833–37) and tenth Secretary of State (1829–31), both under Andrew Jackson. Van Buren's inability as president to deal with the economic chaos of the Panic of 1837 and with the surging Whig Party led to his defeat in the 1840 election. "The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity."
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