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A satire on the Democrats' or "Loco Focos'" 1852 pursuit of Franklin Pierce for the presidential nomination. At the foot of the White Mountains in the "Dismal Swamp," an immense, swampy region of North Carolina and Virginia, Pierce is pursued by Loco Foco hunters in military uniforms. Pierce has been chased up a dead tree by either a fox (an allusion to party warhorse Martin Van Buren, perhaps) or a dog. Several hunters make their way through the water and tall grass toward him.
Pierce cries, "Gentlemen don't fire! if you please I cant stand the smell of Powder! it makes me feel faint even to think of it!!" (On Pierce's reputation for fainting in combat see "The Game-Cock & the Goose," no. 1852-18.)
A hunter standing on a log at left comments, "What a place to come to, find a Candidate." Another (standing at right) replies, "Well it aint such a bad spot, when the party are hard up, here's where we started that famous Poke [i.e., James K. Polk] in 44." A third hunter asks, "Ain't we got first rate men enough outside of this? I never heard of that fellow before." At far right, a man holding up a hat answers, "Thats just what we want, a Candidate, that nobody ever heard of; the people know our big men too well ever to elect any of them."
A crane flies off to the right. |
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