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Secondary sourcePainting1850

The Hurly-Burly Pot

James S. Baillie · 1850

An 1850 political cartoon mocking sectionalist politicians as witches, with Benedict Arnold invoked as their 'patron saint' of treason.

Arnold's name and image are used here as the ultimate symbol of treason, decades after his betrayal.

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Political cartoon titled The Hurly-Burly Pot. Three caricatured men in witch-like pointed hats stir a large cauldron over a fire, with a fourth figure's head rising from the pot. Speech bubbles and labeled sacks read Abolition, Free Soil, Fourierism, Treason, Blue Laws, and Anti-Rent. Labels name figures including Wilmot, Garrison, Greeley, Calhoun, and Arnold.
James S. Baillie, The Hurly-Burly Pot, lithograph with watercolor, 1850.

About this source

What it is

This 1850 lithograph with watercolor, by artist James S. Baillie, is a political cartoon attacking abolitionist, Free Soil, and other sectionalist movements of the time. It shows several political figures as witches stirring a cauldron of 'Treason,' 'Abolition,' and other sectional causes.

Why it matters

The cartoon shows how, more than fifty years after his betrayal, Benedict Arnold's name had become shorthand in American political culture for treason and disunion. In the image, Senator John C. Calhoun invokes Arnold as a 'patron saint,' and Arnold's head rises from the cauldron to bless the sectionalist plotters, showing how his legacy was used to attack opponents in the sectional crisis before the Civil War.

Look closer

  • Why would the artist choose Arnold, rather than any other historical figure, to represent treason?
  • What does the choice of witches from Shakespeare's Macbeth add to the cartoon's message?
  • What does this cartoon tell us about how political insults worked in 1850s America?

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

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