A quotation presented in text at the start of the film is cut out of the surviving print, but remains faintly visible during a dissolve transition. The text reads: "To the support of the Constitution let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor . . . while ever such a feeling as this shall prevail, vain will be every attempt, and fruitless every effort, to subvert the national freedom." - Abraham Lincoln
The quotation is an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address, a speech he delivered in Springfield, Illinois, as a 28-year-old lawyer and politician on January 27, 1838.
The quotation is an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address, a speech he delivered in Springfield, Illinois, as a 28-year-old lawyer and politician on January 27, 1838.
The Sentinels of the Republic, a conservative lobbying group led by Raymond Pitcairn, presented this cartoon as part of its multimedia "Safeguard the Constitution" exhibition at the Garrick Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October 1935. Starting in early 1936, the Sentinels took their show on the road, bringing some version of their anti-New Deal exhibit (including this controversial cartoon) to communities around the country.
This anti-New Deal political cartoon was promoted and circulated by the right-wing Sentinels of the Republic in 1936, ahead of the presidential election in the United States. (Despite the work of the Sentinels, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won re-election in a landslide over Republican challenger Alf Landon.)
In the surviving print, the final scene is in color and promotes the 1936 Republican ticket of Alf Landon and Frank Knox. While this cartoon was shown as early as October 1935, the Landon-Knox ticket came out of the Republican National Convention held in June of 1936 (prior to which Knox had been seeking the Republican presidential nomination for himself, running against Landon). This suggests the scene was added to (or altered for) subsequent releases of the cartoon.
This cartoon, sharply critical of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies, was controversial at the time of its release. Seen as ridiculing and disrespecting the office of the President of the United States, the cartoon was banned in some markets, and was later edited from its original form. The only known surviving print appears to be a cut version.