Abraham Lincoln And The London Punch Part 1

Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch.

by William Shepard Walsh.

"Tell me what a man laughs at, and I will tell you what he is," was one of Goethe's pregnant apothegms.

Laughter, one of the chief lines of cleavage between man and beast, is one of the chief points of differentiation between man and man. From the good-natured banter which kins all the world to the envenomed sneer that sunders it, laughter runs the whole gamut of human emotions.

It is always sincere, even in its own despite. No subterfuge, when subterfuge underlies it, is more easily unmasked. A man may smile and smile and be a villain, but villainy by the seeing eye can be infallibly detected beneath the smile.

A counterfeit laugh may be uttered, as counterfeit coin is uttered, but it does not ring true. Its baseness reveals itself to more senses than one.

Now for more than sixty years the recognized organ of British laughter has been the London _Punch_. The contemporary mood of John Bull towards Brother Jonathan has always voiced itself through the grinning lips of this chartered jester.

It cannot be said that even before the outbreak of the Civil War _Punch_ had shown itself friendly to America or Americans. Why should it? The British mob disliked us and flouted us. _Punch_ as the mouthpiece of the mob, followed suit. In the original prospectus of that journal, issued in 1845, it was expressly announced that the paper was to be devoted in part to "Yankee yarns," to "the naturalization of those alien Jonathans whose adherence to the truth has forced them to emigrate from their native land." It would appear from this new crook-backed Daniel come to judgment, that Ananias and Autolycus were models of punctilious honesty and meticulous truthfulness compared with the average American.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIVORCE A VINCULO.

Mrs. Carolina a.s.serts her Right to "Larrup" her n.i.g.g.e.r.]

Writing from Boston to Sir Edward Head, in 1854, George Ticknor said: "I am much struck with what you say about the ignorance that prevails in England, concerning this country and its inst.i.tutions, and the mischief likely to spring from it. From _Punch_ up to your leading statesmen, things are constantly said and done out of sheer misapprehension, or ignorance, that have for some time been breeding ill-will here, and are likely to breed more."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AMERICAN DIFFICULTY.

PRESIDENT ABE. "WHAT A NICE WHITE HOUSE THIS WOULD BE, IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE BLACKS!"]

Up to, and even immediately after the war, _Punch's_ sympathies professedly leaned towards the North, though it took occasion to lecture both sides from the standpoint of a disinterested and superior friend, who saw that neither side was absolutely and unconditionally right.

When the news of the secession of South Carolina reached England, in January, 1861, John Tenniel contributed a cartoon to the jester's pages ent.i.tled: "Divorce a Vinculo" with the explanatory subt.i.tle "Mrs. Carolina a.s.serts her rights to 'larrup' her n.i.g.g.e.r." Mrs. Carolina was represented as a vulgar virago holding a cat-o-nine tails in her right hand, and shaking her clenched left fist in the face of a serenely defiant youth, clad in a star-spangled shirt, to whom a little brat of a n.i.g.g.e.r appealed with clasped hands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "CaeSAR IMPERATOR!"

OR, THE AMERICAN GLADIATORS.]

In the same number the following poem breathed a similar anti-secession sentiment.

SECESSION AND SLAVERY

Secede, ye Southern States, secede, No better plan could be, If you of n.i.g.g.e.rs would be freed, To set your n.i.g.g.e.rs free.

Runaway slaves by federal law At present you reclaim; So from the Union straight withdraw And play the Free Soil game.

What, when you've once the knot untied, Will bind the Northern men?

And who'll resign to your cow-hide The fugitives again?

Absquatulate, then, slick as grease, And break up unity, Or take your president in peace And eat your humble pie.

But if your stomachs proud disdain That salutary meal And you, in pa.s.sion worse than vain, Must rend the commonweal, Then all mankind will jest and scoff At people in the case Of him that hastily cut off His nose to spite his face.

Later, _Punch_ applauded that portion of Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural, which dealt with the question of secession.

THE COMMINUTED STATES

Who can say where Secession will stop? That is a question which is raised by MR. LINCOLN, in a part of his inaugural address, directed to enforce upon fools and madmen the necessity of acquiescence by minorities in the decision of majorities. The President tells the frantic portion of his fellow countrymen that:--

"There is no alternative for continuing the Government but acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this."

The force of this simple reasoning will be seen by the lunatics to whom it is addressed, during their lucid intervals, if they have any. It may even be hoped that some of them may recover the use of their reflecting faculties so far as to be enabled to follow out PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S argument, and their own folly, into ultimate consequences and conclusions. Then they will see what is likely to be the end of Secession, for it is not quite true that there is no end to Secession, and the end of Secession will be for the Secessionists an end of everything. Seceders will go on seceding and subseceding, until at last every citizen will secede from every other citizen, and each individual will be a sovereign state in himself, self-government personified, a walking autonomy, a lone star, doing business and supporting itself off its own hook.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NAUGHTY JONATHAN.

"YOU SHAN'T INTERFERE, MOTHER--AND YOU OUGHT TO BE ON MY SIDE--AND IT'S A GREAT SHAME--AND I DON'T CARE--AND YOU SHALL INTERFERE--AND I WON'T HAVE IT."]

When the seceding states were in search of a name, _Punch_ suggested that of Slaveownia, and when at the convention held February 9, 1861, at Montgomery, Alabama, they adopted the t.i.tle of the Confederate States of America, _Punch_ reopened his battery in this fashion:

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW THEY WENT TO TAKE CANADA.

"For the outrage offered in the Queen's Proclamation, the United States will possess itself of Canada,"--New York Herald.]

"The Southern Secessionists must be admitted to be blessed with at least the philosophical virtue of self-knowledge. They term this new league the 'Confederate States of America'; thus they call themselves by what they doubtless feel to be their right name. They are confederates in the crime of upholding slavery. A correct estimate of their moral position is manifest in that distinctive denomination of theirs, 'Confederate States.' This t.i.tle is a beautiful ant.i.thesis to that of the United States of America. The more doggedly confederate slave mongers combine, the more firmly good republicans should unite."

[Ill.u.s.tration: SEPTEMBER 28, 1861.

A FAMILY QUARREL]

Once more when reviewing Jefferson Davis' message to the Confederate Congress, _Punch_ recognized that slavery was really the bone of contention between the two sections:

THE JUST AND HOLY CAUSE OF SLAVERY

"We feel," says PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS, in his Message to the Secessional Congress, "that our cause is just and holy." Could not the negroes of the Southern States, if they rose against their masters, say just as much, with at least equal justice, for their own insurrection? The less MR DAVIS says about justice and holiness the better, if he does not want to preach a dangerous doctrine, besides being considered a humbug. "Dash holiness, and justice be blanked!" is the consistent language for MR. JEFFERSON DAVIS.

"Might is right; we expect to thrash the Northerners; and the Inst.i.tution of Slavery for ever!"

Again, when General Beauregard declared in a proclamation to the South that "unborn generations would arise and call them blessed," _Punch_ declared that the reporters, with their proverbial inaccuracy, had omitted the concluding word "rascals."

[Ill.u.s.tration: KING COTTON BOUND; Or, The Modern Prometheus.]

Yet even now, it appealed to both sections to restrain their hands from flying at each other's throats:

ODE TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH