King Andy Johnson: My Kingdom for a Horse

Nast casts Andrew Johnson as Shakespeare's desperate Richard III, crown askew, costumed in Tudor ruff and armor, his oversized head contorted with rage. On the floor lie two shattered toy hobby-horses labeled Democratic and Republican—both parties having refused Johnson their 1868 presidential nomination. In the background a small figure wheels in a crude contraption labeled Conservative, Johnson's last, feeble hope. The figure wears a medal on his chest, likely mocking his self-awarded honors. The broken horses compress a sharp political fact: Johnson had alienated both national parties through his lenient Reconstruction policy and clashes with Congress. Nast's caricature exaggerates Johnson's features, a common convention in 1860s editorial art. The Shakespeare allusion—Richard III, Act V—frames Johnson not merely as a loser but as a tyrant trading a kingdom for a horse he cannot find.