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...if we fail, let us fail like men, and expire together in one common strugge... -Henry Clay, 1813
Jacob Lawrence American
Not on view
An inscription on the back of this painting identifies its subject as the Battle of Lake Erie, a landmark American naval victory over the British that took place in Ohio on September 10, 1813. In contrast to the standard heroic narrative, Lawrence’s desolate scene shows a lone American seaman stranded and dying among billows of torn sails. The painting’s meaning may be inferred from its title, which is an excerpt from a speech in which Senator Henry Clay pleaded Congress for continued funding for the war with Britain and touted American strength and unity. Perhaps the torn sails are symbols of the political fragmentation and conflict that Clay warned would contribute to national and military weakness.
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