"Position of the Democratic Party in 1852" (anti-Pierce, anti-Fugitive-Slave-Law print)
Position of the Democratic Party in 1852, Pierce face-down on the Baltimore Platform
An 1852 Boston print lays Pierce face-down on the Baltimore Platform before a slaveholder with a whip, while the Spirit of Jefferson cries "Ye degenerate
Techniques named on the archive record
Name-callingTransfer
Date
1852
Made by
William K. Leach (copyright entrant), sold by Bela Marsh, 25 Cornhill, Boston
Medium
Print
Country
United States
Regime
Fillmore Administration
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
Library of Congress , retrieved October 2, 2026
Source
Public domain: published 1852, US; LOC rights: "No known restrictions on publication." Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.
An 1852 antislavery print entered for copyright by William K. Leach and sold by Bela Marsh of Boston lays Franklin Pierce face-down on a "Baltimore Platform" lettered "Fugitive Slave Law and nigger catching," before a whip-holding "Slave holder & Peace maker," while a devil cheers.
The print
Content note: the platform label in this print uses a racial slur, and the picture includes a devil, a whip and shackles. The words are quoted as printed.
The archive describes Pierce lying face-down on a platform lettered "Baltimore Platform 1852." In front of him stands a slaveholder with a whip, labelled "Slave holder & Peace maker." A devil cheers. Haynau, Cass and Douglas look on, each with a speech box, and the Spirit of Jefferson calls down from a cloud. A diagonal line on the ground is lettered "Mason & Dixon's line."
Spirit of Jefferson.
Ye degenerate Sons !
[...]
" Well done my faithful servants ! [Devil]
" I accept this Cheerfully. [Pierce]
[...]
Fugitive Slave Law and nigger catching, and resist agitation on the Slavery question. & [text on the platform]
[...]
the slaveocratic miscalled the Democratic party. how they obey the crack of the Slaveholder's Whip!
[...]
Position of the Democratic Party in 1852.
"Freemen of America, how long will you be ledd by such leaders !"
How it argues
The archive tags the print for name-calling and transfer. The name-calling is literal: the party is "slaveocratic," "miscalled the Democratic party," and Pierce lies face-down before a whip. The transfer stacks stigma on the platform, a devil, a skull and crossbones, and manacles, so that a vote for the ticket reads as a vote for every one of them.
Underneath the caricature is a charge about a real law. The platform text ties the party to the Fugitive Slave Law and to silencing "agitation on the Slavery question." Putting Jefferson in the clouds to scold "Ye degenerate Sons!" is an appeal to authority, and a borrowed one; the print cannot show what Jefferson would have said. The slur on the platform is the print's own wording, used to mock the platform's support for the Fugitive Slave Law. It is still a slur, and it is quoted here because it is on the sheet.
Who made and sold it
The copyright line names William K. Leach in the District of Massachusetts, and the imprint says the print was sold by Bela Marsh at 25 Cornhill, Boston. The archive files the issuer as an individual. No party imprint appears in the transcription. Other party prints of the century are gathered on the campaign print hub.
FRAME object record, "Position of the Democratic Party in 1852" (anti-Pierce, anti-Fugitive-Slave-Law print). William K. Leach (copyright entrant), sold by Bela Marsh, 25 Cornhill, Boston.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain, published 1852; LOC: "No known restrictions on publication."
