Skip to main content

Primary sourcePainting1852

The Great Footrace for the Presidential Purse

Popular Graphic Arts · 1852

An 1852 satirical lithograph showing Franklin Pierce racing Winfield Scott and Daniel Webster for the presidency.

Pierce appears as a candidate in this satirical cartoon mocking the 1852 presidential race he ultimately won.

Ask Franklin Pierce about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Black and white lithograph satire of the 1852 presidential race. Three men race across a field: a uniformed general with a plumed hat, a heavyset man in a dark coat, and a smaller man in uniform with a plumed hat behind them. Onlookers in top hats watch from a rail. Caption text and speech bubbles fill the print.
Popular Graphic Arts, The Great Footrace for the Presidential Purse, 1852.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white lithograph print made in 1852 by Popular Graphic Arts. It is a political cartoon mocking the presidential election of that year, showing a footrace between three candidates: Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster, and Franklin Pierce. Onlookers cheer from behind a fence as the men race for a cash prize labeled as the president's salary.

Why it matters

Political cartoons like this were a popular way for 19th-century Americans to follow and mock elections. The print uses humor and exaggerated speech to poke fun at all three candidates, including Pierce, the eventual winner, who is shown trailing behind the others. It reveals how the public and press viewed the candidates' personalities and chances.

Look closer

  • What does each candidate's pose and speech bubble suggest about how the artist viewed him?
  • Why might the artist have shown Pierce behind the other two men?
  • What does this cartoon leave out about the real issues of the 1852 election?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Franklin Pierce on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Franklin Pierce sources

Meet the AI Franklin Pierce →
Handwritten manuscript page of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, headed 'Thirty-third Congress of the United States, First Session, begun and held at the city of Washington, December 1853,' with the title 'An Act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas' in ornate script.Document

Primary source

Kansas-Nebraska Act

United States Congress · 1854

Speech

Primary source

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce · 4 March 1853

A red-orange 1953 U.S. 3-cent postage stamp with a scalloped border. It shows a map of the southwest labeled 1853 Gadsden Purchase, with Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and a covered wagon pulled by oxen among saguaro cacti.Document

Secondary source

Gadsden Purchase

1853

Black-and-white lithograph cartoon. A giant reclining man's head with his mouth forced open lies on a platform. Small figures pry his jaw open while a Black man is being pushed headfirst into his mouth. A speech balloon reads 'MURDER!!! help-neighbors help, O my poor Wife and Children.' On the right, two men pull a rope tied around the head, labeled Democratic Platform. Labels read Cuba, Kansas, and Central America. Caption below reads 'Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler.'Painting

Primary source

Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler

John L. Magee · 1856

Oil portrait of a man with wavy dark hair, wearing a dark coat, white shirt and dark cravat, seated in a red upholstered chair against a dark background, with his hands clasped at the lower left.Painting

Primary source

Franklin Pierce

George Peter Alexander Healy · 1853

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Franklin Pierce now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions