Monumental Inscriptions!, 4th July 1828 (litho)

Depicts 6 fictitious funeral monuments, each to a militiamen executed by Jackson on 21 February 1815, after the Battle of New Orleans, for being deserters. The tombstones bear inscriptions detailing how each was a good man and soldier, and regardless of this, was "By the Orders of General Andrew Jackson, Shot to Death." Each monument was supposedly erected on 4 July, 1828. One monument reminds the reader "Let not the splendor of Military renown Blot out from your indignant recollection this bloody deed DONE BY A HERO." Includes a verse at the bottom entitled "Mournful Tragedy." Jackson had not actually ordered the men to be shot, but had signed off on the military court's verdict. Used as Anti-Jackson campaign propaganda in the 1828 presidential election, a campaign full of personal attacks on slanders on both candidates. Binns is attributed as the author of a like-named piece which bears the same text at the American Antiquarian Society (Shoemaker 32382). GLC08460 contains almost identical text in pamphlet form. John Binns (1772-1860) published the "Democratic Press" in Philadelphia, a paper that opposed Jackson. Andrew Jackson (1767-1845).