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Zachary Taylor and Lewis Cass engage in a bout of fisticuffs in their battle for the presidency in 1848. Taylor, clearly getting the better of his opponent, seizes Cass by the lapels saying, "A little more grape! Gen"al" Gas!"
Cass pleads, "Enough! Enough! you've knocked all the breath out of my body--Carry me off Old Bullion!" His appeal for help is to conservative Democratic senator Thomas Hart Benton, who stands to the left wondering, "I didn't think old Gas would have funked so soon; these d--d Barnburners must have frightened his pluck out of him."
One of the "Barnburners" (i.e., radical Democrats), former President Martin Van Buren (far left), comments, "If old Gas comes round in my neighborhood I'll give a poke that will soon settle his hash."
On the far right stands Henry Clay, who lost the Whig nomination to Taylor. His aside: "As I couldn't get the match myself I am glad Old Rough and Ready has got it." |
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