"This is a White Man's Government"

Although the Civil War ended in 1865 and the nation was reunited, white Americans – particularly in the South – were not willing to let go of the power afforded to them by the social, political, and economic framework of chattel slavery. At the time the Democratic Party was pro-South, pro-slavery, and pro-white supremacy.

This 1868 political cartoon by Thomas Nast is a caricature of the Democratic Party and its three most powerful groups: Irish immigrants, former Confederates, and bankers. The figures that represent these three groups are standing atop a black Union soldier who is reaching for a ballot box.