Scott Fyall
HIST 359
Pro Van Buren 1848
For this advertisement I focused on the primary platform of the Free Soil Party prior to the U.S. Presidential Election of 1848: no slavery in the new territories. First off, the song chosen for this video, “Now Let Me Fly” (performed by Kim and Reggie Harris), was a popular slave song at the time. The theme of the song is a hope for a better life; lyrics such as “I just want to see how that chariot feels” and “I just want to make it to the Promised Land” speak to the that theme of optimism. In addition to being catchy, the song reminds voters that slavery is still an unsolved problem in the United States. If the voters let Van Buren and Adams “fly” to the Executive Office, this issue will finally be addressed.
The video opens up with a picture of the eagle and the Free Soil motto of “Free Soil…Free Labor…Free Speech” and then pans out to present voters with the Free Soil Party ticket of Van Buren and Adams. The add then utilizes the “let me fly” lyrics to show Cass and Taylor literally flying through the air, having been bucked aside by Van Buren and his buffalo in a political cartoon called “The Buffalo Hunt.” This cartoon is optimistic about Van Buren’s chances in the election (e.g. in the “Buffalo Hunt,” Van Buren is the only candidate able to tame the buffalo) and it makes reference to the fact that Van Buren was nominated at the Free Soil Convention in Buffalo, New York. In the cartoon Van Buren exclaims “Clear the track! or I’ll Ram you both!” [sic] Taylor blames his airborne state on his reluctance to decisively embrace the Whig Party doctrines, while Cass exclaims “Confound this Wilmot Proviso, I’m afraid it will lead to something bad;” a reference to his opposition to preventing slavery in the new territories (shown here as a downfall of his) and displaying a contrast between him and the Free Soil Party (a contrast between a successful, and an unsuccessful, approach to the election). The cartoon has the effect of convincing potential voters that Van Buren is a serious candidate with a realistic potential of winning; traits that the Free Soil ticket needed to reaffirm as representatives of a relatively young third party.
The next scene is a newspaper clipping from The Semi-Weekly Eagle of Brattleboro, Vermont, on July 17, 1848, that references how Martin Van Buren was snubbed for nomination at the 1844 Democratic National Convention for his stance against the annexation of Texas for fear that it would lead to a sectional crisis over slavery in the West. Even though Van Buren was the leader of the dominant Jacksonian faction of the Democrats (e.g. “Mr. Van Buren was laid on the shelf, though a majority of the nominating convention were in his favor” [sic]), he did not win the nomination. The clipping then calls for the vindication of Van Buren’s anti-slavery views by encouraging potential voters to support Van Buren when it says “the time has come when they [northerners within the Democratic Party] can pay the debt with interest, and they intend to do it.”
Keeping with the rhythm and catchiness of the song, the ad once again presents the Van Buren/Adams ticket. This is then followed by a political cartoon called “Can you rest one hand on the sacred altar of liberty, and with the other extend the domain of the darkest curse?” The name of the cartoon was taken from a famous speech made by Daniel Washburn at the Utica Convention in June of 1848. The extension of the domain of the darkest curse references the extension of slavery into the new territories, which Washburn claimed went against the will of those who fought and died for freedom in the American Revolution. Van Buren is shown holding the Constitution in one hand, and resting the other on a pedestal bearing his name along with Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson. The cartoon also makes reference to the death of the Democratic New York Governor, Silas Wright, who many believed died as a result of pressures put on him by James K. Polk.
A jackal labeled “Propaganda” paws at Wright’s grave, while piglets representing several New York politicians try to feed from the “Federal Pap,” represented by a sow with a black man’s head, while uttering anti-Van Buren phrases. The sow proclaims “Talk about glory. Gull the doughfaces. If they resist the extension of Slavery, threaten the Union. We don’t care, we must have a market for our property.” This statement alludes to the idea that Northern Democrats were gullible and being taken advantage of by Southern Interests, and that Van Buren’s opponents valued the business of slavery over the unity of the nation. In this cartoon, Cass laments the control that Southern slave-drivers have over him, and Taylor calls Van Buren “the greatest Statesman of the age.” The cartoon drives forward the narrative that the slavery issue must be addressed, and as the rest of the advertisement explains, there are two important reasons for this.
For one, the institution of slavery is both an economically and culturally outdated practice; a big motivator behind Free Soilers’ desire to see slavery omitted from America’s new territories. The next frame is thus the famous picture, “Am I not a man and a brother?”, which first appeared as part of Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery campaign in 1787. Besides being recognizable to voters at the time, this picture would also make the slavery issue clear to anyone who had not understood what the ad had been alluding to up to that point, and reasserts it for those who did.
The ad then reveals that Lewis Cass, if elected, would by virtue of the pressures of his party be “bound” to veto any act “prohibiting slavery in territory now free.” This is followed by an image of slave bondage apparatuses, a drawing called “Common mode of whipping with the paddle,” and the image of a slave driver whipping a man while holding his baby aloft. These images are shown in quick succession to coincide with the rhythm of the song, to shock the viewer, and to show that Cass is in support of this brutal and archaic system’s continuation into the West.
After highlighting the outdated nature of slavery’s practice, the ad then promotes the Free Soiler’s strongest argument: that the extension of slavery into the new territories will also negatively affect white workers as well, making them a de facto “slave” of Southern economic ambitions. Here, Zachary Taylor is shown as being opposed to the Wilmot Proviso and the “principles involved in it.” Chief among these “principles” is the protection of the white laboring man and the economic integrity of the nation. The next quote from the New Hampshire Sentinel – “If slavery is not excluded by law, then the presence of the slave will exclude the laboring white man” – makes this clear to the viewer (it is written in red to add urgency and scariness to its subject matter).
The quote is accompanied by a very busy, yet very powerful, political cartoon called “The Tree of Liberty.” According to the library of congress (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661469/) the cartoon is “abolitionist on the one hand and laments the absence of federal protection for American industry on the other.” As the cartoon shows, the only man who benefits from the shade of the liberty tree, in a slave economy, is the Southern slaveholder; who here proclaims “Surrounded by Slaves & basking at ease by their labor we can have a clearer conception of the value of Liberty,” which is likely meant to come across as ironic. Given that the ad has already proved Cass and Taylor to be in support of slavery’s expansion, it thus also argues that those two are inherently opposed to the best interests of the laboring white man.
Accordingly, this image of the southern slaveholder is contrasted with a drawing of white laborers tending their field with the lyrics “I just want to make it to the promised land” coupled with light shining from the sky. This highlight’s the free white man’s hard-working agricultural spirit, pursuit of happiness, and economic independence; things that would be further repressed if slavery continued to spread (slaveholders held a natural economic advantage over white laborers).
The next scene includes lyrics from an 1848 Free Soil campaign song called “Land and Water Free” that warns of the coming tyranny that will result if slavery continues to expand and “all new states are not made free.” This tyranny will not only continue to harm black people, but as the ad points out, it will continue to harm the white population – and the nation as a whole – as well. Since it is public knowledge that neither Cass nor Taylor would put an end to this tyranny, the only option the voters have, as the ad reminds them in the end, is to vote for the Van Buren/Adams ticket; two men who, as the final image reasserts, stand for “Free Soil…Free Labor” and “Free Speech.”