A Lament for the US Tax Payer

 On the 18^th of April in ‘75

Hardly a tax was then alive.

A tiny British tax on tea

And Patriots made the British flee.

 

Today Americans meekly send,

Tax money for the rich to spend.

Loopholes and subsidies do the job,

The rich need not the people rob.

 

Where’s Robin Hood? (You might well ask),

His bones are not up to the task.

Offshored dough is hard to trace,

Greed doth run the fastest race.

Your money does much honest work,

It pays for bombs and missiles, jerk.

What about health care? you might ask.

You'd better go and get your flask. 

Please be careful what you say, 

Do not alarm the NRA. 

The army ain't the only ones, 

What's got a lot of potent guns.  

Alas! Do not in misery wallow,

Bread and circuses you can swallow.

Let’s drink a toast to celebrate,

Though Miller and Bud is all we rate.

Champagne and yachts belong to others,

Even though we all are brothers.

Someday their dough will trickle down,

And we can all then go to town.

 

With abject apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Masters of Caricature: James Gillray

James Gillray (1756-1815) was one of the great Georgian caricaturists, perhaps second only to his hero, William Hogarth. His etchings were highly popular and sold well. He produced at least 1000 caricatures in his life, perhaps as many as 1700.

Gillray's subjects were social and political. His style was satirical, witty, and humorous. The 20th century cartoonist David Low called Gillray the father of the political cartoon  -- and Hogarth the grandfather. 

The objects of Gillray's satire included Napoleon, George III, the royal family, and many other political and military leaders of the day. Unlike many political cartoonists since, he did not favor a particular political party or viewpoint. He was an equal opportunity satirist. 

Gillray did exhibit a hearty dislike for the excesses of the French Revolution. He staunchly supported Britain's wars against the Revolution and Napoleon (1793-1815). One of his common themes was to contrast the starving French "Jacobin" with a hearty, well-fed John Bull, as in "French Liberty v. British Slavery."

Gillray's opposition to the Revolution did not stop him from lampooning Britain's war leaders, such as William Pitt the Younger. In "The Plum Pudding in Danger," (1805) he portrays a gaunt Pitt and a little Napoleon carving up the world (the pudding) into British and French possessions. 

"Maniac- Ravings- or- Little Boney in a strong fit" (1803) was one of many Gillray caricatures that irritated Napoleon. During the peace of 1802-1803 he demanded that the British government suppress them, without effect. 

Gillray also attacked British supporters of the Revolution, such as Thomas Paine. In "Fashion Before Ease," he portrays Paine trying to force poor Britannia into a tight corset, an allusion to one of Paine's early jobs as a corset maker.

The cartoon accuses Paine of trying to replace the comfortable British constitution with a strangulating French one. A measuring tape hangs from Paine's pocket bearing the title of his radical work, "The Rights of Man." 

 

Gillray's frequent jabs at George III and his family seem to have arisen after the king declared that he couldn't understand the cartoonist's works. In "Temperance Enjoying a Frugal Meal" (1792) George and Queen Charlotte are having a cheap breakfast. 

Gillray contrasted the miserliness of King George with the extravagant hedonism of his eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, in "A Voluptuary Under the Horrors of Digestion" (1792). 

Another Gillray cartoon enraged the prince so much that he paid a large amount of money to suppress it and have the plate destroyed. The plate survived. 

Gillray's social caricatures satirized fashions, tastes, and ideas of the day. In "The Cow-Pock -- or -- the Wonderful Effects of the new Inoculation" (1802), he ridiculed the fear that Edward Jenner's cowpox vaccine for smallpox would produce cow-like appendages. Jenner is the figure in the brown coat at center left. 

Gillray often made fun of new fashions. One was the vogue for monstrously high headgear, lampooned in "A Modern Belle Going to the rooms at Bath" (1796)

"Following the Fashion" from the same time lampoons the latest trends in dress for the ladies, kind of the thick and thin of  it.

Gillray produced quite a few prints dealing with illness and medical issues. One of the most effective in conveying agonizing pain was "The Gout" (1799). Presumably, he was himself a sufferer. 

He also satirized a popular remedy for gout and other illnesses: rum punch. In "Punch Cures Big" the tipplers proclaim that punch cures the Gout, the Colic, and the 'Tisick (a cough or "splutter")

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at some of Gillray's masterful caricatures. If you would like to follow my blog, just click on the blue "FOLLOW" button on the right side of the first page. Below there you can also find my previous posts. Thanks! 

John Laurens: Liberty and Slavery

John Laurens is remembered today, if at all, for two things. One is his advocacy of freeing enslaved blacks to fight against the British during the War for Independence. The other is his tragic and senseless death in one of the last skirmishes of that war. 

To be sure, he is now remembered for something else. Some historians argue that he had a homosexual relationship with his undoubtedly close friend, Alexander Hamilton. But I'll leave that issue to others, and focus on the first two.

John Laurens (1754-1782) was the eldest son of planter Henry Laurens of Charleston (then Charlestown), South Carolina. [For more on Henry, see my previous post, The Tower of London's Only American Prisoner: Henry Laurens Detail of portrait of Henry by John Singleton Copley, 1782]

In the middle years of the 18th century, Henry Laurens had amassed a huge fortune, first as a slave trader and then as a rice planter. During the disputes with Britain that led to the American War for Independence, he became an important Patriot leader, even serving as president of the Continental Congress.

Following the example of many of South Carolina's elite, Henry had sent John to Europe for education. The War for Independence began while John was finishing legal studies at Lincoln's Inn in London. Against his father's wishes, he returned to America and joined the Continental Army. Also against his father's wishes, he left behind his heavily pregnant wife, Martha Manning, daughter of one of Henry's British business associates. 

John later confessed that he had carelessly gotten Martha pregnant and married her not for love, but out of pity. He never saw Martha again after he left England, nor did he ever see the daughter she gave birth to a few months later. 

Once in the Patriot army, John rose quickly to the rank of colonel -- too quickly in the view of some fellow officers. He fought bravely at Brandywine and other battles, and earned a reputation for courage bordering on recklessness. He became an aide de camp to George Washington and formed close friendships with two other aides, Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette.

In 1779 Laurens returned to South Carolina. The British army had captured Savannah, Georgia and were threatening Charleston. He subsequently fought bravely in several actions in the Southern Campaign. 

His return is best remembered for the shocking proposal he brought before the South Carolina General Assembly. With the blessing of Congress and Washington, Laurens moved that South Carolina, which had a black majority, enlist blacks in the Patriot army in return for their freedom.

He sought the support of his father, who in a letter to John declared his commitment to abolition of slavery. Henry's declaration was  inspired in part by British critics who ridiculed the sincerity of slaveholders proclaiming liberty and equality for all men. 

The letter was subsequently published. It is difficult to see it as anything more than a publicity stunt. But John took it seriously and continued to press his father on the issue. 

Henry also promised to give John forty of his enslaved blacks to form a nucleus of a unit of free black soldiers. When John formally proposed the creation of a black regiment after he returned to South Carolina, however, Henry got cold feet. He tried to convince John that the idea could never win a majority in the state assembly.

Henry proved correct, but he also did nothing to help his son. John moved the proposal before the assembly three times between 1779 and 1782. Much to his distress and disgust, the delegates repeatedly rejected it by large majorities. The most vocal of Laurens' opponents were John and Edward Rutledge and Christopher Gadsden, designer of the famous "Don't Tread on Me" flag. 

(Images: John Rutledge and Christopher Gadsden)

The second rejection took place in early 1780, as the British were advancing on Charleston with a large army and fleet under Sir Henry Clinton. The invaders took the city after a several weeks' siege. It was the worst Patriot defeat of the war to date. 

The entire defending army of more than 5000 men was made prisoner, including a furious John Laurens, who was convinced that the enlistment of black soldiers could have saved Charleston from capture. (Image: The Siege of Charleston, 1780, from the British lines. Artist: Alonzo Chapelle, 1860s)

Laurens was soon exchanged for a British officer, and resumed his crusade against slavery. On one occasion he wrote that if South Carolina could not be cultivated without slaves, "we should flee from it as a hateful country." This remark may hold the key to his ultimate fate.

John was an enthusiastic but impetuous soldier given to grand gestures. He often ignored or disobeyed the commands of superior officers. Sometimes he acted so rashly as to seem as if he was courting martyrdom. 

A few months after the last rejection of his black regiment proposal, in August 1782, he was killed leading his men against a British foraging expedition. He had advanced against orders to await reinforcements. He was only 28.

The Battle of the Combahee, a minor skirmish in fact, was one of the last actions of the war, and it was absolutely meaningless. The British were ready to concede independence. They evacuated Charleston in December 1782. 

One must wonder if John Laurens was seeking death in battle, having despaired that his new country would eliminate the institution that mocked its call for liberty.  

John is buried at his father's favorite plantation, Mepkin, now a Catholic monastery, near Moncks Corner, South Carolina. The epitaph which Henry chose for his son's grave marker, is a famous line from the Roman poet Horace: "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori." (It is sweet and proper to die for one's country.") 

It was an odd choice, given that Henry had tried to keep John out of the army. It also says nothing about John's attempts to create an army of free blacks, which Henry had never truly supported. After all, what would the neighbors think? 

Was John Laurens sincere in advocating African emancipation? It is impossible to be sure. I think he was, whether out of a sense of guilt or conviction. He first expressed abolitionist views in Britain while being educated. He became friends with British opponents of slavery, including Thomas Day and John Bicknell, who had written an abolitionist poem, "The Dying Negro."

Laurens was influenced as well by British claims that the American demand for liberty was hypocritical, given the large number of African slaves in the colonies. There was loads of hypocrisy on the British side as well, given that Britain was the largest slave trading nation in the world. 

But the fact that the British commanders freed thousands of slaves who came over to their lines put a sting in their claims of American hypocrisy. The new freedmen also helped to swell British manpower. 

When opponents of his proposals claimed that the enslaved blacks were incapable of appreciating and handling liberty, Laurens countered that blacks and whites shared the same humanity, abilities, and desires. It was slavery itself that had debased a people who, under better circumstances, would prove to be excellent citizens of the republic:

"We have sunk the Africans and their descendants below the Standard of Humanity, and almost render'd them incapable of that Blessing [Liberty] which equal Heaven bestowed upon us all." Here John echoed the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

John had his own blind spots, his own hypocrisies. Like most southern officers he had a black manservant named Strawberry who it seems he did not treat well. 

During the early nineteenth century, southern writers extolled John Laurens as a chivalric model for the region's youth, but ignored or suppressed his views on slavery. Many of those young men went on to die for a cause far less worthy than his.

Further Reading: 

Gregory Massey, John Laurens and the American Revolution. Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

The Papers of Henry Laurens. Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press. Volumes dealing with the revolutionary years in particular.

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