Concept
Version 13
Created by Boundless
The Dorr Rebellion
"Tyrants Prostrate Liberty Triumphant"
A polemic from Rhode Island (1844) in support of the Dorrite cause.
The locus of the cartoon is Dorr's prison cell. (He had been sentenced to life at hard labor and solitary confinement at the state prison at Providence.) Dorr (center, in shirtsleeves) stands and raises his manacled hands, proclaiming, "The process of this Court does not reach the man within, From this sentence of the Court I appeal to the People of our State and our Country!" Polk (left) and Dallas (far left) stand with joined hands. Dallas vows, "As sure as a God of Justice rules on high he will be free." Polk holds a hammer and pliers, apparently for use on Dorr's chains, and says, "The people will speak in tones of thunder yet, they brook no old King's charter, to enchain true patriots!" On the right stand Henry Clay, his running-mate Theodore Frelinghuysen (in clerical robes), and Daniel Webster. Clay raises his arm and declares, "Alas! alas! when Dorr is free King Charles charter will be destroyed, and with it the last British form of Government in these States. and the last hope of our Aristocracy for the people will have triumphed!" In his right hand is a document "Tariff," a token of his support of protection for American manufactures during the 1844 campaign. Frelinghuysen protests to Clay, "Ah my master say not so for then Church and State will never be united!" Daniel Webster responds with, "Yes they will If we join the American Party, and raise a Protestant succession on the ruins of Popery." The party to which he refers was nativist and anti-Catholic in ideology. Overhead flies the genius of Fame, carrying a crown for Dorr and trumpeting: Speed the sound O'er all your plains / The Martyr's freed from shameful chains! / Around his brow will freemen twine / A glorious wreath of myrtle vine! / Our Polk obey the people's call; / The Tyrant sees his shackles fall! / And every son of Liberty / Shout long live Dorr the great the Free!
Source
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"Tyrants prostrate liberty triumphant."
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661420/
Library of Congress
Public domain.