Credit: Library of Congress
During the Civil War, soldiers" votes in Pennsylvania were critical in the Congressional elections of 1862 and the presidential election of 1864. In this anti-Republican editorial cartoon from 1864 a Republican election worker tells another to "turn around" as he rejects a vote for Democratic presidential candidate George B. McClellan from a Union officer, who has lost an eye, arm, and leg in service to his country. On the left, an African American soldier, caricatured as a whiskey drinking thug, tells the officer, "You cant put in dat you Copperhead traitor, nor any oder ‘cept for Massa Lincoln." The soldier replies, "I am an American citizen and did not think I had fought and bled for this. Alas my country!"
