The Monotous Minstrel

Title: The Monotous Minstrel

Year: 1862

Creator: Vanity Fair

Description: President Lincoln, (to H.G.) — “Go away, you tiresome vagrant! It’s always the same old croaking tune, ‘Abolition, Abolition, Marching On!'”

Horace Greeley is dressed as a minstrel playing a flute at the foot of a house. With him is a miniature black person on a leash asking for money. Lincoln is in the open doorway leaning over motioning for Greeley to leave. Despite Greeley’s incessant calls for abolition of the slaves, Lincoln was more concerned with restoring the Union. He would keep slavery if that meant keeping the country together and avoiding war.