Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner

Published weeks after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, Nast crowds a single table with figures representing the full range of American immigrants and newly enfranchised citizens: a Black man, a Chinese man in traditional dress, a Native American, Irish, German, and other European arrivals, all seated as equals beneath portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and other founders. A centerpiece lantern reads Self-Governance; a sash on one figure declares Universal Suffrage. The wall behind them shows Castle Garden—New York's immigrant processing depot—labeled Welcome. The floor text reads *Come One Come All / Free and Equal*. Nast's Chinese and Irish figures carry the ethnic caricature standard to illustrated press of the era—exaggerated features used as ethnic shorthand—yet his explicit argument runs counter to the nativist press: the dinner table is America's answer to exclusion, and every chair is filled.