A "Liberal" Surrender - "Anything to Beat Grant."

.This political cartoon by Thomas Nast shows the anti-Grant forces surrendering a fort to the twin threats of Democratic corruption and violence—represented by the Tammany Ring and the KKK. The image is a scathing critique of the uneasy alliance between Liberal Republicans and Democrats during the 1872 presidential election.

At the center of the cartoon, perched on the wall of the fort and waving a white flag, is Carl Schurz, founder of the Liberal Republican Party. His flag reads, “Truce. We surrender anything to beat Grant,” mocking the lengths to which the opposition was willing to go just to defeat the sitting president. Next to him is Horace Greeley, the Liberal Republican favorite who would eventually become the Democratic nominee. He holds a trumpet upside down, a nod to his incompetence, and in his pocket is a paper titled What I Know About Blowing—a reference to Nast’s series of satirical cartoons mocking Greeley’s exaggerated self-importance. The joke draws from Greeley’s 1871 book, What I Know About Farming, which was based more on childhood memories than real expertise.

On the right, a group climbs over the fort wall under the banner of the Democratic Party – Seymour Blair, a callback to the party’s previous ticket in 1868. In the center stands a cannon labeled Cincinnati Convention, the only national convention ever held by the Liberal Republican Party, now left largely defenseless against the forces advancing toward it. Off in the distance, on the left, is the approaching Philadelphia Convention, representing the Republican stronghold. Though it wouldn’t convene until June, it was widely expected to reaffirm support for Ulysses S. Grant, who remained popular with the American public.

The cartoon captures Nast’s view of the Liberal Republicans as disorganized and willing to compromise with dangerous elements just to oppose Grant—while the Republicans, in his eyes, stood on firmer and more principled ground.