"Don’t take on so! long legs! I’ll help you up with your hay. "
Horace Greeley (left) was an influential Whig newspaper editor who supported the abolition of slavery.
"Oh d_n the hay dad’s under it! "
Martin Van Buren’s son, John Van Buren (right) was a gifted orator and a leader of a faction of New York Democrats known as “barnburners.”  They took up the antislavery cause and split with the Democratic Party over the issue.  They joined with the Free Soil party and nominated a reluctant Martin Van Buren (center) as a third-party candidate in the Presidential election of 1848.   Physically, John was tall and slender, which may have been the reason for the reference to “long legs.
"John you’ve got me under."
Drawn On Stone [Political Prints from the 1830's and 1840's]

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E. W. Clay
John and Dad in a Bad Fix
Publisher Unknown
Lithograph
ca. 1848		 The Wilmot Proviso was an amendment to a bill introduced in Congress to give President Tyler $2,000,000 to deal with the issue of the Texas territory and a possible war with Mexico.  David Wilmot’s amendment would have prohibited slavery in any territory that was acquired from Mexico.   Because the Wilmot Proviso brought the issue of slavery to the forefront, it caused the entire bill to fail.