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"Position of the Democratic Party in 1852. 'Freemen of America, how long will you be ledd by such leaders'," lithograph, 1852.
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Credit: Library of Congress

In this 1852 political cartoon the artist attacks Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Pierce and the Democratic Party Platform for endorsing the Compromise of 1850, which preserved the Union but came with the passage of the hated Fugitive Slave Law, which Pierce pledged to enforce.  In the cartoon Pierce, dubbed "one of the Southern dirt eaters," is sprawled across the Mason Dixon Line, prostrating himself at the feet of a "Slave holder & Peace Maker."

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