Seventh Ward Beggars
Artist and publisher Henry R. Robinson American
Subject Andrew Jackson American
Subject Reuben Miles Whitney American
Not on view
This satire criticizes President Andrew Jackson’s decision in 1832 to dissolve the Bank of the United States. From 1833, the president and his cabinet distributed government funds through "pet" state banks and, according to this print, used the system to solicit kickbacks. Kneeling bankers here implore a king-like Jackson, who holds a scepter and sits on bales of surplus cash, for funds. New York bankers were affected by this new arrangement, and the city’s Seventh Ward Bank appears in the background. The man dressed in a brown suit is identified as "a spy" for the Courier & Enquirer, a New York newspaper that reported Washington political news in detail and whose editor turned against Jacksonian populism.
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