Beauty and Booty

At the end of my last post I noted that in 1828 pro-Jackson editor Isaac Hill came up with the memorable line, "Pshaw! Why don’t you tell the whole truth? On the 8th of January, 1815, [Jackson] murdered in the coldest blood 1,500 British soldiers for merely trying to get into New Orleans for Booty and Beauty.”

Hill's one-liner gave rise to an 1828 campaign poster, above, that bears the caption "PROTECTOR & DEFENDER OF BEAUTY AND BOOTY".

But what is more interesting is that memory of the line seems to have lived on for decades. Immediately above is a copy of a handbill dated May 17, 1861 and printed at Morristown, Tennessee calling men to arms against the Yankee enemy. The text begins with the sentence, "The Yankee War is now being waged for 'beauty and booty.'"