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O. K.

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A postelection Whig satire, "Respectfully dedicated to the members of the Eighth Ward Tippecanoe Club and inscribed to their Patriotic Chairman Charles H. Delavan, Esqr." The artist shows a crowd of Whigs assembled in Lafayette Hall on Broadway. They gather on the left around Delavan, who speaks from a platform. Delavan is asked by a man in the crowd, "Charley do you think Van Buren will be elected." He responds, "If Van Buren should be reelected I will leave the United States."

At right a group of Democrats surround a board tallying the final electoral vote. All states are reported except for Illinois. A heavyset man in a broad-brimmed hat and knee-breeches complains, "I have lost my money betting on "sure" states as the Globe had them."

Other Loco Foco stalwarts stare in disbelief at the board. One laments, "There they go slap dab a score states in a heap and my post office with em too. O.K. oll Kill'd I spose." Others say, "the Globe said that it would be a tie in Ohio and Kentucky would be sure for Van," and "A Whig Bull-let-in in good arnest and a scatterin he's made among our folks in Ohio if this new is O. K. Ohio Kicking!" The "Globe" is Francis Preston Blair's pro-Van Buren newspaper. Perched atop the board is the Whig gamecock or rooster.

Marked stylistic and technical similarities between "O. K." and "The Last Card. Tip Overthrown, Loco Foco Consternation," and "Evenhanded Justice" (nos. 1840-60 through -62) confirm a common authorship. The artist may be H. Bucholzer, who emerged as one of James Baillie's chief artists during the 1844 presidential campaign.

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1700's | 1800-1809 | 1810-1819 | 1820-1829 | 1830-1835 | 1836-1839 | 1840-1843 | 1844-1845 | 1846-1849 | 1850-1855
1856-1859 | 1860 | 1861 | 1862 | 1863 | 1864 | 1865 | 1866-1870 | 1871-1876
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Current Print >> 39 of 77:  1840

<Back | Political Prints Home | Next>


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