British Fun

by Richard S. West

First published in London on September 21, 1861, Fun was the Liberal Party competitor to the Conservative Party’s Punch.  While Fun, rarely agreed with Punch on domestic matters, they saw eye-to-eye on the American Civil War.  Fun’s cartoons generally were more venomous because it was less stodgy then Punch.

Matt Morgan, who joined Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in New York five years after the Civil War, was Fun’s chief cartoonist.  Abraham Lincoln was his villain.  He judged President Lincoln’s decision to emancipate the slaves to be ruinous to the Union cause, saw Lincoln as a trickster, and reveled in every Union setback as a personal defeat for Lincoln.  Later, in the pages of the London Comic News, Morgan depicted Lincoln as Death itself.

In July 1864, cartoonist Wilfred Lawson replaced Morgan and eased back on Fun’s graphic attacks on Lincoln.  After Lincoln’s assassination, Lawson depicted him as Caesar being stabbed by Brutus as he reached for the cup of victory.  This was the only cartoon that ever appeared in Fun that depicted Lincoln in a favorable light.