July 15, 1844, Monday.

Jim could hear the arguing even before he came into Mr Dougherty's post office that morning.

'I cannot believe, John, that you, a Democrat, would allow this filth to come through our mails!'

'DB, I can't help it, the mail is a federal service, free to all. If it ain't breakin' the law, I got no call to stop it, no matter how much it offends your sensibilities.'

'Them Southrens don't let the Abolitionists send them pamphlets through the mails. They pitches 'em straight in the fire!'

Mr Dougherty sighed. 'I can't help what the Southrens do. The US Mail is open to all, Whigs, Democrats, Liberty Party, even the Mormons, if they pay the postage in real money that don't have Joe Smith's picture on it. I'm sorry you don't like the cartoon, DB, but it was mailed fair and square.'

Jim hung back, not wanting to get in the middle of this political quarrel. He remembered the election of 1840. Tempers ran so high that year that the Whigs and Democrats held separate Fourth of July celebrations. Tavern talk often got heated, and men came to blows. So far, this year hadn't been quite that bad. They got through the Fourth all right, and no major brawls had broken out on Main Street.

Still, Jim was itching to see this cartoon. When DB Jenks had thrown it down on the counter, contemptuously, and stalked off the premises, Jim ventured, 'What's the cartoon about, Mr Dougherty?'

John Dougherty laughed. 'Just the usual tomfoolery by a newspaper cartoonist. See if you can make it out.' He handed Jim the cartoon, and added darkly, 'But no political campaign is goin' to make me go against my duty as postmaster. This is a serious responsibility. Where would we be, if every postmaster decided on what gets mailed and what don't?'

Jim agreed, and took the cartoon. Old Josiah Ferguson, out for his morning constitutional (which got him out of his daughter-in-law's hair), joined Jim in a perusal of this complicated drawing.

'What's it say, Jimmy? My old eyes ain't so good at print any more.'

'Don't you worry, Mr Ferguson. You've still got the best long vision in the county.'

Josiah chuckled. 'I do, don't I? I can see a bird atop a hunnert-foot tree, and tell you what kind of bird it is, too.' He grinned at Jim, who grinned back, knowing it was true.

'Fight between the Kentucky [rac]coon¹ and the Tennessee alligator,' Jim read. 'Tennessee is spelled wrong. Mrs McNab wouldn't like that.'

Josiah patted Jim's arm. 'You're a smart lad, Jimmy. You'll go far with that good spellin'. Read on.'

'The Kentucky [rac]coon is Henry Clay, the Whig candidate,' explained Jim. 'And the 'gator is James Polk. Which one are you for, Mr Ferguson?'

Josiah laughed. 'Neither'n. I'm a-gonna vote for the Liberty Party. They aim to get rid of slavery, and I don't trust either of the others to do that. They's too busy fightin' about Texas.'

'And Oregon,' Jim pointed out. 'Fifty-four-forty or fight²!' They both laughed.

Josiah shrugged. 'They're land-greedy. They want to expand. 'Manifest Destiny', my foot. They'll claim anything that lets 'em line their pockets at someone else's expense. And Texas will be another dad-blamed slave state. That needs to stop, right now, before God Almighty has had enough of our sinnin'.'

Jim looked at Josiah in wonder. He'd never heard the old man express such strong sentiments before. And he made a lot of sense. Prodded, Jim went back to 'reading' the cartoon.

'Who's that giraffe, Jimmy?'

Jim laughed. 'It's Andrew Jackson. He's saying: Altho I am one of those exalted characters who can "overlook" almost everything, yet I cannot overlook this disaster to our cause!' Former president Jackson was known to be very tall and thin, as well as being a great 'kingmaker' for the Democrats.

Josiah shook his head. 'That man is bad for the country, allus has been. It ain't right what he done to the Injuns down there.' It occurred to Jim that Josiah was older than the country itself. He remembered when there was fighting between Indians and settlers in the old days. 'It's one thing to have to fight scout parties,' Josiah went on, 'But them people wa'n't doin' nothin' to them. It was just pure-D greed, was all it was.'

'John C Calhoun is the camel,' added Jim. 'He's carryin' a basket of turnips and sayin' We bring peace and plenty!' They guffawed at that.

'Van Buren is a rat, he's scurryin' off home to Lindenwald, I think that's where he lives. And Tyler's a rattlesnake.' Tyler, the incumbent president, only got the job because President Harrison died a month after making a long inaugural speech in the rain. Most Whigs considered Tyler a traitor to their cause.

'Funny thing, that,' said Josiah. 'Nobody knew what to do when Harrison died like that. The Constitution didn't say. Then ol' Tyler up and said, "That makes me president." They didn't know what else to do, so there he was. He ain't no good, though.'

'Dan'l Webster's a bear, he wants to stomp Polk, and somebody – dunno who he is, exackly – is a boar carrying "Mint Drops".'

'That's Benton, prolly, the big money man,' said Josiah. 'Mint, money, get it?' Jim nodded.

'I dunno why they make these cartoons so hard to read,' complained Jim. 'You'd think they'd make 'em simpler. If I could draw, which I can't, I'd come up with one big idea.'

Josiah grinned. 'I know just what you mean, son. Like Ben Franklin done. Here, take a look at this.' And he fished a well-worn, carefully-saved piece of very old paper from the leather wallet he carried around his neck inside his shirt.

Jim stared in wonder. 'That's a really old one, isn't it, Mr Ferguson?'

Josiah nodded. 'Older than me, even. My father allus kept it. He said it showed what they was fightin' for. 'Join or die.' See? That snake was the colonies, and Ben Franklin could see they had to join up. Now, that's how to tell a story with a picture. Not this silliness.' He gestured to the cartoon Jim had been reading. 'If we had a few like ol' Ben nowadays, we'd be in better shape.'

Jim was about to ask more about Ben Franklin, but Mr Dougherty came back in and sent him on an errand. More political education would have to wait until another time.

Dmitri Gheorgheni