Lincoln In Caricature by Rufus Rockwell
Wilson
The cartoon Extremes Meet appeared
in London Punch on October 24, 1863. The good-will shown by Russia for the
Union, when it stood without other friends among the nations, from the first was
warmly resented by the ruling class of England, and British ill-will found
characteristic expression in the present drawing. The Polish insurrection was
then in progress, and the American President and the Russian Czar were depicted
triumphantly clasping hands in the foreground of an arresting picture of rapine
and desolation. The effect sought by the artist is made clear in the appended
dialogue:
Abe: Imperial son of Nicholas
the Great,
We air in the same fix I calculate,
You with your Poles, with Southern rebels I,
Who spurn my rule and my revenge defy.
Alex: Vengeance is mine, old man; see where it falls,
Behold your hearths laid waste, and ruined walls,
Your gibbets, where the struggling patriot hangs,
Whilst my brave myrmidons enjoy his pangs.
Russia displayed friendship for the Union, despite the fear entertained in high
circles in St. Petersburg that its cause was a losing one. “Your situation is
getting worse and worse,” Prince Gortschakoff said to Bayard Taylor in late
October, 1862 “the chances of preserving the Union are growing more and more
desperate …Can you find no basis of arrangement before your strength is so
exhausted that you must lose for many years to come your position in the world?”
But Russia’s lively concern for the welfare of the Union took form in deeds as
well as words. A Russian fleet of war vessels arriving in New York City in
September, 1863, was given an enthusiastic popular and official welcome, and
when it visited Washington, the President being ill, marked attention was shown
its admiral and officers by Secretary Seward, this “to reflect the cordiality
and friendship which the nation cherishes toward Russia.” It was widely believed
that the fleet had been sent to American waters to help the United States in
case of war with France or Great Britain. There was no tangible basis for this
belief, but four years later, as will be noted in another place, it stilled
opposition to the purchase by the United States of what is now the Territory of
Alaska.