Peace Secure—Safe and Protected

Nast presents an allegory of armed peace: Columbia, robed in classical dress and laurel-crowned, rests her hand on an enormous cannon barrel while doves perch on the muzzle and carry olive branches in flight. Behind her, a Union soldier stands sentinel beneath the American flag. The caption reads Peace Secure—Safe and Protected. The argument is Reconstruction-era Republican orthodoxy—that lasting peace requires military readiness, not disarmament. Nast drew this as Radical Republican resolve was faltering and Southern Democrats pressed to demobilize federal forces. The cannon is not a threat but a guarantor; remove it, the image warns, and the doves scatter. No ethnic caricature appears here; this is straight allegorical advocacy for keeping federal troops in the South.