Abraham Lincoln And The London Punch Part 2

"North" and "South" are branded deep-- On the beak all reeking red, On the talons blood-bespread!

But 'tis not so much the anguish Of the wound that rends his side, Makes this fettered giant languish, As the thought how once, in pride, That great eagle took its stand, Gently on his giant hand!

How to it the meat he'd carry In its mew to feed secure; How he'd fling it on the quarry, How recall it to the lure, Make it stoop, to his caresses, Hooded neck and jingling jesses.

And another thought is pressing, Like hot iron on his brain-- Millions that would fain be blessing, Ban, e'en now, King Cotton's name.

Oh, that here those hands are bound, Which should scatter wealth around!

"Not this Eagle's screaming smothers That sad sound across the sea-- Wailing babes and weeping mothers, Wailing, weeping, wanting me.

Hands that I would fain employ, Hearts that I would fill with joy!

"I must writhe--a giant fettered,-- While those millions peak and pine; By my wealth their lot unbettered, And their suffering worse than mine.

For they know that I would fain Help their need, were't not my chain!

"But _I_ know not where to turn me For relief from bonds and woe; Frosts may pinch and suns may burn me, But for rescue--none I know, Save the millions I have fed, Should they rise for lack of bread--

"Saying, 'We will brook no longer, That King Cotton bound should be: Be his gaolers strong, _we_'re stronger, In our hunger o'er sea-- More for want, than love, uprisen, We are come to break his prison!'

"Welcome even such releasing, Fain my work I'd be about: Soon would want and wail be ceasing, Were King Cotton once let out-- Though all torn and faint and bleeding, Millions still I've strength for feeding."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOOK OUT FOR SQUALLS.

JACK BULL. "YOU DO WHAT'S RIGHT, MY SON, OR I'LL BLOW YOU OUT OF THE WATER."]

Then came an episode which did for the moment set John Bull and _Punch_ on a n.o.bler basis. All during the Trent affair--when the United States was obviously wrong in arresting the Confederate Commissioners, Mason and Slidell, on board an English ship--the Tenniel cartoons rose to the higher level of just indignation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BAD CASE OF THROWING STONES.

_Mr Bull._ "NOW MIND YOU, SIR--NO SHUFFLING--AN AMPLE APOLOGY--OR I PUT THE MATTER INTO THE HANDS OF MY LAWYERS, MESSRS. WHITWORTH AND ARMSTRONG."]

Even now, however, _Punch_ was unable or unwilling to see the magnanimity of Abraham Lincoln's apology for an error not his own.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAITING FOR AN ANSWER.]

This was all the more unjust because _Punch_ was both able and willing to discriminate between the level-headed men of the North and the jingoes, as this extract will show.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLUMBIA'S FIX.

COLUMBIA. "WHICH ANSWER SHALL I SEND?"]

OUR DEAR BROTHER JONATHAN

This delightful ebullition of fervent brotherly love has most fittingly appeared in a Philadelphia paper:--

"It may be, in view of all these grave considerations and the sad necessities of the case, that, in order to avoid a war which could only end in our discomfiture, the Administration may be compelled to concede the demands of England, and perhaps release MESSRS.

MASON and SLIDELL. G.o.d forbid!--but in a crisis like this we must adapt ourselves to stern circ.u.mstances, and yield every feeling of pride to maintain our existence. If this contingency should ever arise--and I am only speculating upon a disagreeable possibility--then let us swear, not only to ourselves but our children who come after us, to repay this greedy, insolent, and cowardly Power with the retribution of a just and fearful vengeance. If England in our time of distress makes herself our foe, and offers to be our a.s.sa.s.sin, we will treat her as a foe when we can do so untrammeled and unmenaced by another enemy."

"Greedy, insolent, and cowardly," these are nice fraternal terms; and what a truly loving spirit is evinced by swearing "fearful vengeance" upon the "a.s.sa.s.sin," and handing to posterity the keeping of the oath!

No whit less affectionate in feeling is what follows:--

"If we do concede the demands of England, however, it will only be because we desire to crush this rebellion, as a duty we owe to mankind. It will be because we prefer to master the great evil, and do not wish to be alienated from our duty by an international and comparatively unimportant quarrel; it will be because we prefer national salvation to the gratification of any feeling of national pride. It will be a great act of self-denial. But when we come from this rebellion it will be with a magnificent army, educated and organised, and with the sense of this wrong weighing upon them. It will be with a navy competent to meet any navy upon the globe. It will be for us then to remember how England was our enemy in the day of our misfortune, and to make that remembrance a dark and fearful page of her history, and an eternal memory of our own."

That these are the opinions of most people in America n.o.body on this side of the Atlantic will believe. But that there are roughs and rowdies in the States, who as they have nothing they can lose by war are always full of bl.u.s.ter and warlike in their talk, this may any one in England very easily conceive. Of course it is to please them that such stuff as we have quoted is stuck in Yankee newspapers; and our sole surprise is that the journals which admit it find it pays them so to do. The rowdies as a rule are not overflushed with wealth and can ill afford to spend their coppers upon literature, which, the chances are, they scarcely would know how to read.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOXING DAY.

MR PUNCH. "NOW THEN! WHICH END WILL YOU HAVE, JONATHAN?"]

For the benefit of the American jingoes _Punch_ on December 7th, issued the following warning, with an appropriate cartoon:

[Ill.u.s.tration: "UP A TREE."

Colonel Bull and the Yankee 'c.o.o.n.

'c.o.o.n. "AIR YOU IN ARNEST, COLONEL?"

COLONEL BULL. "I AM."

'c.o.o.n. "DON'T FIRE--I'LL COME DOWN."]

A WARNING TO JONATHAN;

OR, "DOTH HE WAG HIS TAIL?"

JONATHAN, JONATHAN, 'ware of the Lion: He's patient, he's placable, slow to take fire: There are tricks which in safety a puppy might try on, But from dogs of his _own_ size they waken his ire.

With your bounce and your bunk.u.m you've pelted him often, Good humoured he laughed as the missiles flew by, Hard words you've employed, which he ne'er bid you soften, As knowing your tallest of talk all my eye.

When you bl.u.s.tered he still was content with pooh-poohing, When you flared up he just let the shavings burn out: He knew you were fonder of talking than doing, And Lions for trifles don't put themselves out.

But beware how you tempt even leonine patience, Or presume the old strength has forsaken his paw: He's proud to admit you and he are relations, But even relations may take too much law.

If there's one thing he values, 'tis right of asylum; Safe who rests 'neath the guard of the Lion must be: In that shelter the hard-hunted fugitive whilome Must be able to sleep the deep sleep of the free.

Then think twice, and think well, ere from guard of the Lion Those who seek his protection you try to withdraw: Though STOWELL and WHEATEN and KENT you rely on, There are points on which Lions won't listen to jaw.

Remember in time the old tale of the showman, Who his head in the mouth of the Lion would sheath, Till with lengthened impunity, bold as a Roman, He seemed to forget that the Lion had teeth.

But the time came at last, when all risks madly scorning, He went just too far down that road rough and red, When, with only one wag of his tail for a warning, Snap went Leo's jaws, and off went BARNUM'S head!

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

MRS BRITANNIA. "THERE, JOHN! HE SAYS HE IS VERY SORRY, AND THAT HE DIDN'T MEAN TO DO IT--SO YOU CAN PUT THIS BACK INTO THE PICKLE-TUB."]

This was followed up on December 14th, with one of Tenniel's finest cartoons, that ent.i.tled "Waiting for an Answer."

[Ill.u.s.tration: OBERON AND t.i.tANIA.

OBERON (MR. PRESIDENT LINCOLN) "I DO BUT BEG A LITTLE =n.i.g.g.e.r= BOY, TO BE MY HENCHMAN."

t.i.tANIA (MISS VIRGINIA) "SET YOUR HEART AT REST, THE =NORTHERN= LAND BUYS NOT THE CHILD OF ME."]