The U.S. Mexican War occupies a unique space in the history of a young United States. Robert W. Johannsen explains that  “the conflict—America's first against a foreign foe, fought in a distant and exotic land and justified by a rhetoric that stressed matters of honor and principle—lent itself to romantic idealization” (69). There was a strong voice of opposition, though, represented through anti-war poetry like that of Lowell and Whittier, anti-war journalism, as well as a strong voice of critique through political cartoons (or what Streicher would call political caricatures) appearing as lithographs and in newspapers. What makes these caricatures different from pure journalism or other forms of satire is that the artist, “from his viewpoint defines or chooses as an enemy whatever is relevant to timely problems and attacks that enemy by ridicule” (Streicher 440). Streicher explains that, “Some of the more accomplished artists are characterized by an overarching and global ability to convert historical processes and news of the day into penetrating graphic analyses” (440-41). Political cartoons can be the manifestation of a powerful voice of opposition, and for that reason, the political cartoons that critique the U.S. Mexican War are helpful in understanding the conversation about the short and largely supported conflict.