Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner

Published weeks after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, Nast crowds a single table with figures representing the full range of American immigrants and newly enfranchised citizens: a Black man, a Chinese man in traditional dress, a Native American, Irish, German, and other European arrivals, all seated as equals beneath portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and other founders. A centerpiece lantern reads Self-Governance; a sash on one figure declares Universal Suffrage. The wall behind them shows Castle Garden—New York's immigrant processing depot—labeled Welcome. The floor text reads Come One Come All / Free and Equal. Nast's Chinese and Irish figures carry the ethnic caricature standard to illustrated press of the era—exaggerated features used as ethnic shorthand—yet his explicit argument runs counter to the nativist press: the dinner table is America's answer to exclusion, and every chair is filled.