Title: stephen finding his mother
abstract: northern democratic presidential candidate stephen a. Douglas was widely criticized for his campaign tours of the country--an unusual practice for a presidential nominee. In an attempt to evade such opprobrium douglas disguised a july 1860 tour of new england and upstate new york as a personal visit to his elderly mother and family. When it took him over a month to go from washington to new york, republicans taunted him as "a little boy" (a reference to his shortness of stature) "lost in search of his mother. " one of the many handbills and cartoons published on this theme, "stephen finding his mother" also criticizes douglas's earlier support of legislative measures friendly to southern interests, including the kansas-nebraska act of 1854. Here "mother" columbia, seated in a chair adorned with an eagle and shield, holds douglas over her knee and spanks him with a switch labeled "maine law. " (the "maine law" here may refer to one of the laws enacted in various northeastern states to counteract the fugitive slave law, which was supported by douglas. ) columbia scolds hims, "you have been a bad boy steve, ever since you had anything to do with that nebraska bill and have made a great deal of trouble in the family and now i'll pay you for it. " douglas cries, "oh! marm let me off this time and i'll never do so any more. " to the left stands an elderly man in knee breeches, uncle sam, who encourages columbia to ". Give him the stripes till he sees stars. "
physical description: 1 print on wove paper: lithograph; image 28 x 31 cm. Notes: published in: american political prints, 1766-1876 / bernard f. Reilly. Boston: g. K. Hall, 1991, entry 1860-35.;probably drawn by louis maurer.;title from item. Date: 1860.
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