Southern Claims.
A political cartoon titled Southern Claims, published in the February 15, 1879, edition of Harper's Weekly, depicts Saint Peter in heaven reading an excerpt from a speech in the Congressional Record by E. John Ellis, a Louisiana member of the U.S. House of Representatives, which extols the loyalty of the men who fought for the Confederacy. According to the text, the Confederate soldiers "had been loyal to their country. Loyal to their God. Loyal to the noblest holiest emotions ever breathed by the human soul." Saint Peter, with the key to the gate of heaven affixed to his belt, says in the caption below, "If this is the case, it will be best for them to wait—till they come up here."
Thomas Nast, who opposed claims for compensation by southerners after the Civil War, created this cartoon.
Citation: Harper's Weekly. AP2 .H32. Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.