Illustrated with four cartoons by Thomas Nast; the first showing Greeley eating from a large bowl lettered “My Own Words and Deeds.”

      In 1872, Horace Greeley ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States. He served as the candidate of both the Democrats and the Liberal Republicans (a breakaway party that split off from the Republican Party due to its members' dislike of the corruption of the Republicans and the Republicans' Reconstruction policies), in the 1872 election. In the run-up to the 1872 United States presidential election, major changes occurred in the United States. Specifically, the 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote for the first time, while the government cracked down on the Ku Klux Klan. In addition, the economy was still in good shape and President Ulysses S. Grant's corruption scandals for the most part was still not public knowledge. With this background, the incumbent U.S. President was able to decisively defeat Greeley.