"Why I think my 'galvanized' friend that you & I illustrate best contraction & expansion! – but d_nit Frank, it’s strange you can’t get fatter upon your congressional corn- crib & Treasury pap?"

  South Carolina congressman Francis W. Pickens once called Francis Preston Blair a "galvanized corpse." The cartoonist also implies that Blair used his political influence for personal gain.
Dixon Hall Lewis, a congressman from Alabama, weighed over 400 lbs.  A special seat had to be constructed for him when he joined the Senate in 1844.  He supported Calhoun on the issues of states’ rights and nullification.
'I think Buchanan is making forcible illustrations of the bad effects of an inflated
currency-. Eh! My fat 'all y'?"






Democrat Francis Preston Blair was the editor of the pro-administration newspaper, the Globe.  He was an influential advisor to President Van Buren. 

The Independent Treasury Bill, supported in the Senate by James Buchanan, required that federal capital be removed from unstable state banks to be placed in regional “sub-treasuries” controlled by the federal government instead.   After failing three times, the bill eventually passed in July 1840.
"Yes! And I think L__’s appears quite resigned to the pressure of our lean governor’s specie claws!"
Specie Claws is a play on the term "specie clause," referring to the government´s policy of accepting payments in specie (gold and silver) only, not inflated (paper) currency. President Jackson originally issued the Specie Circular in 1836 to stem inflation, but the Democrats also attempted to amend a similar clause to Van Buren´s Independent Treasury Bill. Notice the cartoonist has drawn Blair's hands to look like claws.
Drawn On Stone [Political Prints from the 1830's and 1840's]
"I say Tom there is a hint in the way of geography – showing the comparative size of Alabama & the Globe."
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Attributed to Napoleon Sarony
Expansion and Contraction as witnessed
in the Senate March 5, 1840 during Mr. Buchanan’s remarks on currency.
Publisher: H. R. Robinson
Lithograph
1840

 This cartoon, like Locofoco and the Nulification Nuptials, satirizes the surprising alliance between the Democratic Van Buren administration and the southern Nullifiers leading up to the presidential election of 1840.  Led by John C. Calhoun, the Nullifiers believed that individual states had the right to nullify federal laws they deemed unconstitutional.   They supported slavery and opposed tariffs, which they believed favored the northern, industrial states over the southern, agricultural states.  The Nullifiers had previously split with the Democratic Party over these issues.