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Binns, John (1772-1860) Monumental Inscriptions!

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01825 Author/Creator: Binns, John (1772-1860) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Broadside Date: 1828 Pagination: 1 p. ; 57 x 44 cm. Order a Copy

Depicts 6 fictitious funeral monuments, each to a militiamen executed by Jackson on 21 February 1815, after the Battle of New Orleans, for being deserters. The tombstones bear inscriptions detailing how each was a good man and soldier, and regardless of this, was "By the Orders of General Andrew Jackson, Shot to Death." Each monument was supposedly erected on 4 July, 1828. One monument reminds the reader "Let not the splendor of Military renown Blot out from your indignant recollection this bloody deed DONE BY A HERO." Includes a verse at the bottom entitled "Mournful Tragedy." Jackson had not actually ordered the men to be shot, but had signed off on the military court's verdict. Used as Anti-Jackson campaign propaganda in the 1828 presidential election, a campaign full of personal attacks on slanders on both candidates. Binns is attributed as the author of a like-named piece which bears the same text at the American Antiquarian Society (Shoemaker 32382). GLC08460 contains almost identical text in pamphlet form.

John Binns published the "Democratic Press" in Philadelphia, a paper that opposed Jackson.

Binns, John, 1772-1860
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

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