This cartoon clearly captures the dilemma of Abraham Lincoln and the country as the 1860 presidential election approached. Charles Blondin was a famous French tightrope walker, who walked Niagara Falls. The task was more difďŹ cult than he expected however, and he almost lost his life and that of his manager who was riding on his back. Here Lincoln must balance his way across the falls of American politics, balancing the slave issue on his back, a political trick that was equally as difďŹ cult and carried the threat of equal disaster. Harpers Weekly, August 25, 1860.
By the summer of 1862, many Confederates feared that the Federal government would adopt an emancipation policy. Probably the most important reason most Confederates were upset by the prospect was that it would upset society as they knew it and would put to question whether race made blacks inferior to whites. The cartoon exaggerates the issue in order to put the question clearly. The artist was telling his readers that he believed that without emancipation the Confederacy would be doomed, pointing out that there were some Confederates who would rather go down to defeat that accept emancipation. The cartoon also points out that if blacks were freed, some Confederates would support their conscription into the army. Would white Confederates prefer free blacks in their army enhancing their chances of independence, or keep blacks out of the army and in slavery, and accept defeat? Harpers Magazine, August 16, 1862.
Clement Vallandigham was in Congress when the Civil War broke out. His opposition to war measures alienated his constituents and he lost the 1862 election. Without authority to do so, General Burnside arrested him and subjected him to a court martial. He was convicted but Lincoln, embarrassed and wanting to let him off but not keep him around, expelled him to the Confederacy. Confederates did not want him either, and sent him to Canada where he continued his criticism. In1864, he returned to Ohio and was let alone. Neither Lincoln nor Davis trusted him. Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, June 20, 1863. 26
