Lady Columbia Shields Grant

Nast casts Ulysses S. Grant in Roman military dress, sword at his side, standing beside a figure of Lady Columbia—labeled U.S. at her breast—who raises a shield marked Truth to deflect a volley of arrows. Broken shafts litter the ground at their feet. Behind the pair, a pedestal bears busts inscribed Washington and Lin[coln], aligning Grant with his presidential predecessors. A classical temple and open landscape recede into the background. The cartoon appeared during Grant's 1872 re-election campaign, when Liberal Republican and Democratic critics were hammering him over patronage and Reconstruction policy. Nast argues that Grant, defended by truth and national identity, is the rightful heir to the Union's founding legacy—and that his attackers' arrows simply cannot penetrate that shield.