“We Accept the Situation”
This 1867 Harper’s Weekly cartoon refers to the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, which instructed ex-Confederate states to hold constitutional conventions and stipulated that the resulting constitutions must provide voting rights for black men. The two images here suggest white northerners’ views of both ex-Confederates and emancipated slaves. How is each depicted? What does this suggest about the troubles that lay ahead for Reconstruction policy? The cartoonist was Thomas Nast (1840–1902), one of the most influential artists of his era. Nast first drew “Santa Claus” in his modern form, and it was he who began depicting the Democratic Party as a kicking donkey and Republicans as an elephant — suggesting (since elephants are supposed to have good memories) their long remembrance of the Civil War and emancipation. Library of Congress.