We Accept the Situation

Two panels set the argument in sharp opposition. At left, a Black man — drawn in the grotesque minstrel-caricature style routine in 1860s illustration, exaggerated lips and joyful posture — dances forward holding a ballot marked "A Vote" beside a posted Military Bill proclaiming suffrage for male citizens of "whatever race or color." At right, a gaunt ex-Confederate (hat stamped "Ex. C.S.A.") sulks beside a pole, a "No Vote" ballot at his feet, reading a notice that the bill disfranchises those who participated in rebellion or felony. The caption reads: "We Accept the Situation." Nast's point is blunt Radical Republican policy: the Reconstruction Military Bill enfranchises freedmen while stripping rebels of the vote they forfeited by treason — a civic inversion the former slaveholder must now endure.