Nast depicted General Grant as Prometheus, held captive by Johnsons policies
and a Supreme Court decision ("ex parte Milligan") which called into
question the authority of military trials for civilians when civil courts were open. Grant
is tormented by the hungry eagle of the unseen Zeus (Johnson) and the demonic furies of
the Confederate States. At the middle left, the spectral goddess Congress urges her sister
Columbia to aid Grant, and the spirits of the Union states on the right rise to do just
that. The dialog ends on a positive note: "And See! More Come!"
Indeed, the Military Reconstruction Act and the Tenure
of Office Act were passed on March 2, the same date as this issue which went to press two
weeks earlier. Nast also recited some of the military crimes and insults which occasioned
"Prometheus Bound," Thomas Nast illustration:
A Ravine in the Southern States. Prometheus (Grant)
Is discovered bound to the precipice. Panthea (Colum
Bia) and Ione (Congress) are sitting at his feet. South
Ern Furies, Minor Spirits, etc. TimeNight. During
The scene morn slowly breaks.
The hope of torturing him smells like a heap
of corpses to a death bird after battle.
We are the ministers of pain and fear,
And disappointment, and mistrust, and hate,
And clinging crime; and as lean dogs pursue
Through wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn,
We track all things that weep and bleed and live,
When the great King (Andy) betrays them to our will.
Darest thou observe how the fiends torture him?
Blood thou canst see, and fire, and canst hear groans;
Worse things, unheard, unseen, remain behind.
Look, Sister, where a troop of spirits gather,
Like flocks of clouds in springs delightful weather,
Thronging in the blue air!
And see! More come!
INSULTS TO UNITED STATES SOLDIERS
Washington, Feb. 6 A messenger has arrived from
Richmond to consult General Schofield regarding insults to the troops stationed around
that city. It appears that while a body of soldiers were marching through the town on the
way to camp, on Saturday, the inmates of a private house, occupied by a prominent rebel
family, displayed the rebel flag from the windows and greeted them with jeers and taunts.
General R. S. Granger, in command during General
Schofields absence, at first determined to arrest the whole party and occupy the
house; but reflecting that under the Presidents orders and the decisions of the
Supreme Court the military authorities have no further power in the South, he decided to
report the facts to General Schofield. The latter was greatly incensed, and left for
Richmond at once.
REWARDS OFFERED FOR THE KILLING OF UNION OFFICERS IN
The Nashville Press and Times of February 4,
contained the following statement:
We have received direct information of a diabolical
conspiracy which has been entered into by certain rebel citizens of Cannon, White, and
Warren Counties, to procure the assassination of a number of leading and influential Union
men, all late officers of the Federal Army, residing in the Third Congressional District.
The following are the names of the persons marked out for death and the sums offered for
making way with them:
For Colonel W. B. Stokes
For Colonel Blackburn
For Colonel Pleasure
For Captain Hathaway
A rebel citizen living near Alexandria, in De Kalb County,
has offered to give $1000 for the assassination of Captain Vanatta. It is understood that
three notorious cut-throats, who were once members of Champ Fergusons gang of
bushwhackers, have been employed to do the work. Several Union citizens, fearful of their
lives, have fled to Alexandria for safety, where a number of discharged Federal soldiers,
formerly belonging to Colonel Stokess cavalry, reside.
STATE OF THINGS IN TEXAS
General Sheridan says: "Two soldiers were shot at
Brenham, Texas, about two months ago; they were unarmed, and offered no provocation. The
grand jury could find no bill against their would-be assassins, but found a bill against
Brevet Major Smith, Seventeenth Infantry, for burglary, because he broke into the house of
some citizen in his attempt to arrest these men."
Large grants of lands and money have been made to rebel
soldiers in Texas. The bodies of rebels have been brought from other States for
reinterment, and an Act has been passed to remove the bodies of Union soldiers from the
MURDER OF UNION SOLDIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The recent release of Joseph Crawford Keys, Robert Keys,
his son, Elisha Byren, and F.G. Stowers, for the wanton murder of three Union soldiers in
South Carolina, is creating a good deal of comment. The victims were Corporal W. C.
Corbett, Emory Smith, and Mason Browning, all of the First Maine Veteran Volunteers, who
were killed while on guard over cotton. Each had been shot through the head; two with
wounds which must have cause immediate death; the third evidently having been drowned
after receiving his wound. The hair of each was scorched, showing the pistols had been
discharge close to their heads. The defendants are very rich, and it is stated one of
their counsel alone received $10,000 for his influence with the President in the matter.
"In South Carolina," says General Sickles,
"when arrests are made by military authority, and the parties turned over to the
civil tribunals, the accused are generally admitted to easy bail."
Articles Related to Military Reconstruction:
January 19, 1867, page 35
January 26, 1867, page 50
February 16, 1867, page 98
The Probability of
February 23, 1867, page 114
The Louisiana Bill
March 2, 1867, page 130
March 9, 1867, page 146
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Veto of the Reconstruction Bill
March 16, 1867, page 162
The Fortieth Congress
March 30, 1867, page 195
The Fortieth Congress
April 6, 1867, page 211
Sprats and Vetoes
April 6, 1867, page 210
Adjournment of Congress
April 13, 1867, page 226
March 2, 1867, page 137
March 30, 1867, page 194
The Southern Commanders
April 6, 1867, page 218
The Debate upon Impeachment
March 23, 1867, page 178
We Accept the Situation (cartoon)
April 13, 1867, page 240
The Big Thing (cartoon)
April 20, 1867, page 256
The End of Impeachment
June 22, 1867, page 386