"A Truce — Not a Compromise"

Two clasped hands — one gripping a revolver — press down on a scatter of inflammatory broadsides: *"Tilden or Blood,"* *"Civil War,"* *"Are You Ready for Civil War?"* and a pamphlet invoking the KKK. The printed caption, set beneath the image in small type, reads: *A truce — not a compromise, but a chance for high-toned gentlemen to retire gracefully from their very civil declarations of war.* Nast's target is the violent Democratic rhetoric surrounding the disputed 1876 Hayes–Tilden election. Tilden partisans had threatened armed revolt if their candidate was denied the presidency; Nast frames their "reform" posturing as a pistol-backed bluff. The composition offers no ethnic caricature — the argument is purely political, skewering hotheaded newspaper agitators and party bosses who wrapped insurrectionary threats in genteel language.