1834

Uncle Sam Sick with La Grippe

American, 1799 - 1857

The "grippe" from which Uncle Sam is suffering is the economic crisis precipitated by President Andrew Jackson's veto of a bill to recharter the Bank of the United States. Jackson is the physician, Senator Thomas Hart Benton is the pharmacist holding a large enema syringe, and Martin Van Buren, later to succeed Jackson as president, is the nurse. Jackson's failure to improve his patient's condition has led to the call for another doctor, Nicholas Biddle, the Philadelphian who had headed the closed national bank.