# Treeing Coons, Polk as a hunter with Clay and Frelinghuysen by the tail, 1844

Treeing Coons is an 1844 pro-Polk cartoon drawn by H. Bucholzer and published by A. Purdy of New York. Polk, in buckskin, holds Clay and Frelinghuysen as raccoons by the tail while Jackson chops their branch and the dogs bark "Down with the Coons."

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      Treeing Coons (pro-Polk cartoon), 1844

      Treeing Coons, Polk as a hunter with Clay and Frelinghuysen by the tail, 1844
      H. Bucholzer's 1844 cartoon Treeing Coons: Polk in buckskin holds Clay and Frelinghuysen as Whig raccoons while Jackson chops the branch. Published by A.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Name-callingPlain folks
      Date1844Made byDrawn by H. Bucholzer; published by A. Purdy, New YorkMediumCartoonCountryUnited StatesRegimeTyler AdministrationSourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceLibrary of Congress Prints and Photographs Division , retrieved October 2, 2026SourcePublic domain: published 1844, US; LOC rights note: "No known restrictions on publication." Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. (item 2008661421)
      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.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  Treeing Coons is an 1844 pro-Polk cartoon drawn by H. Bucholzer and published by A. Purdy of New York. Polk, in buckskin, holds Clay and Frelinghuysen as raccoons by the tail while Jackson chops their branch and the dogs bark "Down with the Coons."

## The hunt

Clay and Frelinghuysen are up a tree. In the archive's description, Clay and Frelinghuysen are drawn with raccoon bodies, the Whigs' "coon" emblem. Polk, dressed as a hunter in buckskin with a knife, has them by the tail. Andrew Jackson is chopping their branch, and the dogs bark "Down with the Coons," a line the transcription records three times. Printed name labels identify ten figures, from Jackson and Calhoun to Van Buren and Tyler.

Get down from my tree, you vermin!

Hickory.

from this old man good Lord deliver us!

I feel we are gone Coons !

This state of things is quite surprisin

Such d_d bad luck my Frelinghuysen

My struggles are of no avail

For Polk has got me by the tail.

[...]

Down with the Coons.

[...]

TREEING COONS.

Sold Wholesale & Retail at 98 Nassau St. N.Y.

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked; the archive reads the small imprint punctuation at reduced confidence. Full record at propagandaarchive.org.

## Labels and costume

The archive reads two techniques here. Name-calling is the plainer one: the rivals are "vermin" and "Coons," and the joke depends on treating a party emblem as an animal to be hunted down. The second is the plain-folks pose. Polk is put in frontier dress, a hunter at work. The transcribed text names no policy, unless two one-word labels, "Repeal." and "Madisonian.", point to one; the record does not explain them. The cartoon's case is that the Whigs are cornered and that Polk's side has them.

The verse the transcription records, "This state of things is quite surprisin / Such d_d bad luck my Frelinghuysen," gives the losing side its own lament. The printed blank in "d_d" is the publisher's.

## Maker

The record credits the drawing to H. Bucholzer and the publication to A. Purdy, whose copyright line enters the print in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York in 1844. Bucholzer also drew Texas Coming In and Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant, both published that year by James Baillie and both on the Polk side. The campaign print hub has more from 1800 to 1900.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Treeing Coons (pro-Polk cartoon), 1844. Drawn by H. Bucholzer; published by A. Purdy, New York.

- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, item 2008661421, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain, published 1844; LOC: "No known restrictions on publication."

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/treeing-coons-polk-1844/