AN EXCISEMAN, 1792
This crude cartoon targets the hated FIGURE of the whiskey tax collector, shown making off with two barrels of the drink. An evil spirit hooks him by the nose to deliver him to the gallows, where he is roasted over a flaming barrel of whiskey. The ghoulish poem under the gallows begins: “Just where he hung the people meet / To see him swing was music sweet.” Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.