God Grant Us Peace and More Rads "Bottled Up," a double placard proof of 1868

An 1868 double placard proof printed by Brown & Barrett of New York sets a Grant portrait headed "God Grant Us Peace" beside a Seymour portrait headed "We Shall See More Rads 'bottled up' in November." The Library of Congress notes a pun on Seymour's name and a possible jab at rumors of Grant's drinking.

Two panels, two candidates

This is a proof sheet with two placards printed side by side. On one, a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant sits under the words "God Grant Us Peace." On the other, a portrait of Horatio Seymour sits under "We Shall See More Rads 'bottled up' in November." The archive holds no fuller transcription, and its record describes no other text.

Both headings play on a surname. In the first, Grant's name doubles as the verb of a prayer. In the second, the Library of Congress notes a pun on Seymour's own name. FRAME counts the label "Rads" as the sheet's name-calling.

Printer and date

Brown & Barrett of New York printed it. The archive dates the proof by a copyright entry of 20 August 1868, which places it in the summer of that year's presidential campaign. The Library of Congress holds the sheet, the archive retrieved it on 2 October 2026, and the rights line records it as public domain by age.

Reading it

The Library of Congress raises two points it does not settle. The phrase "bottled up" may refer to rumors about Grant's drinking, which the Democrats used in 1868. And it is unclear whether the Grant panel was meant seriously at all. Printed on the same sheet as a Seymour placard, the pious heading could be sincere, or it could be the setup for the joke beside it.

The uncertainty is the instructive part. A placard that can be read as praise by one crowd and as a sneer by another lets a printer sell to both, or lets a partisan deny the meaner reading. If the drinking jab is there, it is an insinuation and not a charge: the sheet says nothing a reader could check or a candidate could answer. That kind of hint is harder to rebut than an open accusation.

Other 1868 pieces on this site are more direct. The Great American Tanner has Grant promise to finish the Democratic ticket, and Thomas Nast's Leaders of the Democratic Party quotes its targets against themselves. The campaign print hub follows these slogans across the century.