Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 Dignified retirement: parody on the house that Jack built, -- fitted to the times

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GLC#
GLC02209
Type
Broadsides, posters & signs
Date
circa 1809
Author/Creator
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Title
Dignified retirement: parody on the house that Jack built, -- fitted to the times
Place Written
s.l.
Pagination
1 p. : Height: 45 cm, Width: 22.3 cm
Primary time period
The New Nation, 1783-1815
Sub-Era
The Age of Jefferson & Madison

A parody of the nursery rhyme styled upon eighteenth century children's chapbooks making fun of Jefferson's retirement at a time of national crisis. The figures are rough allegories of Jefferson (alternately a king then a priest, retiring to a "Mountain" [Monticello] to study philosophy), the American navy (de-commissioned by Jefferson), the Embargo, the British Fleet and the American volunteer army. The woodcut of the coach is printed upside down to represent how the Embargo "has turned all things up side down, and stopped the wheels of national prosperity." The title may come from Peter Pencil's 1809 caricature "Non Intercourse or Dignified Retirement" Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., The Image of Thomas Jefferson in the Public Eye, p. 121.

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