. . . If we fail, let us fail like men, and expire together in one common struggle . . . —Henry Clay, 1813, Panel 23, 1956, Inscription:Lake Erie — 1813 [illegible] of Lake Erie — 1813, Jacob Lawrence, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross, © 2019 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
On January 8, 1813, Senator Henry Clay delivered this speech to Congress. Clay sought to rally congressional members to increase support for the war with Britain in order to protect Americans on the front lines from impressment. Lawrence selects some of the last lines of Clay’s persuasive oration to emphasize the importance of committing to a common struggle to defend all Americans.
This 1943 mural of Black sailor Cyrus Tiffany and Commander Oliver Hazard Perry by Martyl Schweig Langsdorf visualizes as public art the contributions of Black people in America’s early wars. A sailor in the Battle of Lake Erie, Tiffany was in charge of Perry’s multiracial crew. While Langsdorf pictures Tiffany heroically shielding Perry as they transfer vessels in the midst of battle, Lawrence departs from this convention in his painting.