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"To Thine Own Self Be True."

To Thine Own Self Be True. Engraving
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Engraving of political cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast

Dimensions of engraving, caption and verse: 14.5 cm x 23.7 cm

From Harper's Weekly, 24 April 1875, page 336.


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[ This description is from the project: Who Counts? A Look at Voter Rights through Political Cartoons ]

Quoting Polonius’s precepts from Hamlet, Nast shows the hand of Columbia passing the text of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to the hand of an African American as the culmination of the civil and voting rights secured by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. In fact, the Civil Rights Act was limited in scope, and six years later it was overturned by the Supreme Court.