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Rats quitting the ship - Public domain book illustration, Library of Congress
Summary
Postmaster general Amos Kendall's 1840 resignation prompted the artist's speculation on the desertion of other Van Buren cabinet members. Kendall resigned on May 16, to concentrate on editing the "Extra Globe," a Democratic campaign newspaper. The artist also echoes Whig charges of White House extravagance under Van Buren, and rumors (well-founded) of the lucrative financial benefits of Kendall's new post. The President sits on a throne on a dais, as Kendall bows before him tendering his resignation. Three other advisors caucus in the background. They are (left to right) Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury, Secretary of State John Forsyth, and editor Francis Preston Blair. Woodbury and Forsyth both hold their resignations. Kendall: "Your excellency please accept my resignation My health is very feeble. I've made no money in office, and Blair is to give me the profits of the Extra Globe. I must go back to editing Newspapers." Before accepting a cabinet post in the Jackson administration, Kendall had been a highly successful editor. Van Buren: "This is a very inauspicious time my Friends to dissolve the Cabinet. It really looks as if I am to be abandoned." Woodbury: "What's to become of me? Am I not to go to Russia France or England? We must provide for the family." Forsyth: "I wish to resign provided I can do it profitably; a foreign Mission is just the thing." Blair: "Dont all desert us. The Whigs will make capital out of this be sure of it." Contrary to the cartoonist's prediction, no cabinet resignations other than Kendall's were forthcoming.
Printed & published by H.R. Robinson, no. 52 Cortlandt St. N.Y. & Pennsa. Avenue Washington D.C.
Signed with monogram: HD (Henry Dacre?).
Title appears as it is written on the item.
Weitenkampf, p. 68.
Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1840-34.
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States (1837-1841), after serving as the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, both under President Andrew Jackson. While the country was prosperous when the "Little Magician" was elected, less than three months later the financial panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of senior roles, including eighth Vice President (1833–37) and tenth Secretary of State (1829–31), both under Andrew Jackson. Van Buren's inability as president to deal with the economic chaos of the Panic of 1837 and with the surging Whig Party led to his defeat in the 1840 election. "The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity."
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