"Hello Talmadge, take your horse’s hoofs from off my shoulder; I’ve no room for “sober second thoughts” now."
Earlier in his career, Van Buren famously said that “sober second thoughts” of the electorate should ultimately guide the government, not “temporary excitement.”
"By the powers t’is the Bronze Horse, he carries all before him. Marcy what shall We do?"
Amos Kendall (left) had been Van Buren's Postmaster General and remained a close advisor...
"Confound it I’m down, quite down, with my breeches torn again."
Democrat William L. Marcy (seated second from left) served three terms as Governor of New York before losing to the Whig candidate in the 1838 election. His opponents ridiculed him over a list of expenses he had submitted for reimbursement while he was a judge. The list included "mending work done to pantaloons.50 cents."
"Roll off that ball, t’is the voice of the People, they tolerate no more of your hard money humbugs."
Senator Nathaniel P. Tallmadge (on horse) led a faction of conservative or pro-Bank Democrats who opposed President Van Buren’s “hard-money” policies and allied themselves with the Whigs.
"Woodbury get out of my way or the ball will overwhelm us both. "
Thomas Hart Benton (third from right), a Democratic Senator from Missouri, supported Van Buren’s “hard-money” fiscal policy, meaning that paper currency must be backed by gold. “Mint Drops” refers to gold coins. Benton worked to return gold coins to circulation and insisted on receiving his salary in gold coins. During a speech to encourage the reversal of Congress’s censure of Andrew Jackson, Benton declared “Solitary and alone, I set this ball in motion.”
"Hello Benton, don’t let that fellow Talmadge ride rough shod over us."
Globe editor Francis Preston Blair (right) and Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury (second from right) supported Van Buren and his policies.
Drawn On Stone [Political Prints from the 1830's and 1840's]
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"Benton out with your old pistols that you shot Jackson with, & pop down Talmadge & his horse, or he’ll reach the Capitol."
Globe editor Francis Preston Blair (right) and Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury (second from right) supported Van Buren and his policies. 
 
Henry Dacre
Full Tilt for the Capitol
Publisher: H. R. Robinson
Lithograph
1840		 President Martin Van Buren (center) campaigned for re-election under difficult conditions due to the economic depression following the Panic of 1837.