Triumph

Triumph. A large, elaborate allegory predicting the triumph of the Union over the dark forces of the Confederacy and King Cotton. A published key accompanying the print describes the secession of the South in heavily moralistic terms, as the workings of an insidious Hydra of human discord, spawner of treachery and rebellion. The composition is divided into a lower and upper half. Below are the forces of darkness, ruled over by King Cotton, an alligator-headed monarch whose body is a sack of cotton. As the key describes, he roars through the south the reeking monster--It reviles and tears asunder the bonds of a free and united humanity, and raises with the power of arms the banner of secession. The bowie-knife and dagger, the revolver, the lash and a bloodhound, are the titles to his rights to the golden crown and ermine, which a benighted people yet honours as a sacred symbol. Sighing under the feet of the tyrant the imploring looks of the slave turn heavenward. The monster sits on a throne, before a burning column with the words Lecompton (the controversial proslavery Kansas constitution passed in 1857), Fugitive Slave Law, and Missouri Compromise. He has pistols and daggers in his belt. One of King Cotton's paws is placed on a manacled slave, who looks upward toward a sublime apparition which appears in an aureole of clouds. Here Freedom, wearing an Indian bonnet and holding a liberty cap, appears with a large American flag amid a crowd of deities and historical figures, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Freedom is attended by Christianity (left) and Justice (right). Immediately in front of her is Humanitas, borne by an eagle and holding an infant and reaching down toward the supplicant slave below. The eagle fiercely clutches the hem of King Cotton's ermine cloak and wields several lightning bolts, which have ignited the terrified monarch's throne. Equally terrorized by the vision are the hideous Hydra of Discord

Accompanying Alligator Amid Apparition Appears Aureole Bloodhound Bolts Bonds Borne Bowie Clutches Composition Compromise Confederacy Constitution Controversial Cottons Daggers Deities Describes Discord Divided Elaborate Equally Ermine Fiercely Fugitive Heavenward Heavily Hideous Honours Humanity Hydra Ignited Immediately Imploring Insidious Jefferson Kansas Lash Lightning Manacled Missouri Monarchs Moralistic Passed Paws Pistols Predicting Raises Reaching Revolver Roars Ruled Sack Secession Sighing Sublime Supplicant Tears Terms Terrified Terrorized Titles Treachery Tyrant Upward Vision Wields Workings

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