"We Are On The Home Stretch."

This political caricature satirizes the failing presidential campaign of Horace Greeley, shown slumped on a stretcher carried by two weary supporters. The caption, “We Are On The Home Stretch,” quotes the New York Tribune—Greeley’s own paper—from October 9, 1872, and is used here ironically to underscore his political collapse.

The cartoon likely appeared in Harper’s Weekly, a publication that frequently opposed Greeley and championed President Grant’s reelection. While the Tribune promoted Greeley’s candidacy, Harper’s—with illustrator Thomas Nast as its sharpest voice—used satire to highlight Greeley’s contradictions and waning public support.