Your Plan and Mine

This two-panel cartoon, published during the election of 1864, shows Democratic presidential candidate George B. McClellan seeking peace by offering an olive branch to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and giving him permission to return the black Union soldier into slavery. He also requests that the South return to the Union and for unification between the Union and Confederacy. The other panel shows Lincoln demanding unconditional surrender from Jefferson Davis at the point of a bayonet and demanding a permanent end to slavery. It also depicts a slave asserting his freedom, reaffirming Lincoln’s stance. This cartoon can be viewed as pro-Lincoln or McClellan. McClellan can be seen as a compromising figure seeking to end American causualites with Lincoln as a uncompromising force hellbent on freeing the slaves. For Republicans, this would be a pro-Lincoln cartoon contrasting the strong, assertive Lincoln with a passive McClellan who is giving in to Southern demands by “begging” “entreating” “promising.”