After the brutal lynching of a mentally disabled man, Henry Smith, this image in Detroit Plaindealer portrayed the failure of outgoing President Benjamin Harrison administration’s to condemn the lynching as a direct contrast to Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and the founding principles of the Republican Party. At left, President Abraham Lincoln is shown holding the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and opening the door of freedom to an African American man leaving bondage; at right, in 1893 a mob sets him on fire. The image suggests that government in a civilized society would have shielded any accused criminal, but particularly one of Smith’s limited mental capacity, from mob action.