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EXECUTIVE MERCY/MARCY and the BAMBERS.
   
Complete Explanation:
An attack on New York governor William L. Marcy's controversial decision to surrender Irish fugitives John Bamber, Sr., and his son James to the British consul after their detention in New York. The Bambers, wanted by the British government in connection with the killing of an Irish police constable, had sought asylum in the United States. Marcy's decision to return them to British custody caused a furor among New York Whigs and Irish immigrants. In the title the "A" in Marcy's name is crossed out and replaced with an "E."

Marcy is shown leading the two Bambers by a rope tied to their necks toward a stout British consul on the right. The prisoners are in hand and leg irons. In the background a ship sits offshore and a heavyset man with spectacles, city recorder Richard Riker, runs up waving a writ of habeas corpus and crying "Stop! Stop!" On the left is the Hall of Justice; on the right the consul's office.

Marcy's trousers are mended with a "50 cents" patch, a joke regarding a tailor's voucher for fifty cents that he submitted during his governorship of New York.

Marcy: "Here my dear Sir are these savage Irishmen, whom I gladly deliver over to you, to be dealt with as the Queen's most excellent Majesty may think fit."

British consul: "I thank your Excellency for your promptness, and shall represent your conduct in such a light to her most gracious Majesty, that I have not a bit of doubt she will reward you with a pair of new breeches!!"

The younger Bamber: "Is this the boasted liberty of the soil? Is this the law for an adopted citizen?"

Bamber, Sr.: "Is this the justice of the self-styled People's Party?"


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