Graphic of part of the Emancipation Proclamation
Rights and POwer: The POlitics of Reconstruction
Link to Part 1 of Section 4: Presidential Reconstruction Link to Part 2 of Section 4: Congress and Civil Rights Link to Part 3 of Section 4: The National Debate Over Reconstruction; IMpeachment; and the Election of Grant Link to Part 4 of Section 4: Reconstruction Government in the South Link to Biographies in Section 4

This Is A White Man's Government,Harper's Weekly, September 5, 1868.

"This Is A White Man's Government,"
Harper's Weekly, September 5, 1868.

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The 1868 presidential campaign revolved around the issues of Reconstruction. The Democrats' nominee, Horatio Seymour, ran on a platform opposing Reconstruction.

"This Is A White Man's Government" became the slogan of a Democratic campaign that openly appealed to racial fears and prejudice.

Political cartoonist Thomas Nast ridiculed the Democratic party as a coalition of Irish immigrants (left), white supremacists like Nathan Bedford Forrest, leader of the Ku Klux Klan (center), and Northern capitalists represented by Horatio Seymour (right). Nast's cartoon depicted Democrats as the oppressors of the black race, represented by a black Union soldier felled while carrying the American flag and a ballot box.
Copyright 2003
he Meaning of Freedom: Black and White Responses to Slavery From Free Labor to Slave Labor Rights and Power: The Politics of Reconstruction The Ending of Reconstruction Epilogue: The Unfinished Revolution Additional Resources Credits for this Exhibit Link to return to Digital History Home Link to return to Reconstruction Home Introduction