Nixon and Barnum had co-owned a small circus in 1860 before going their separate ways. Now Nixon was taking on his old partner with his Cremorne Garden Circus at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7 th Street, only a few blocks from Barnum’s big top.
Just as Barnum had given his own featured attraction, George Nutt, the military title of “Commodore,” Nixon had renamed Charles Nestel “Commodore Foote,” an homage to Andrew Foote, the Union naval captain in command of the Mississippi River fleet.
For days Nixon relentlessly badgered Barnum in the newspapers claiming that his “Commodore” was smaller, stronger and smarter than Barnum’s.On October 20, 1862 Nixon issued a challenge:
1. To place Commodore Nutt and Commodore Foote together on a platform in some respectable building in the city and let the public determine which of the two is smaller.
2. To allow a committee chosen by Mr. Barnum and myself, and an umpire appointed by the committee, to converse with both dwarfs on ordinary subjects – politics, geography, military matters, works of art, foreign languages and then determine the comparative mental powers of each.
3. To allow both dwarfs to give specimens of their performances, to show the extent of their artistic acquisitions.
4. To allow the proceeds of the exhibition to go to the fund of the Soldier’s Aid Association.
5. To show the authenticated family records of both, so that their ages can be unmistakably determined.
The next day Barnum responded with his own letter which said, “a wise man usually refrains from noticing such notoriety-hunters,” then charged that Nixon was a “notorious bankrupt” who had deserted his wife and children and owed his employees thousands of
dollars.
Commodore Foote’s manager, William Ellinger, then fired back with his own letter which said, “…although Mr. Nixon has been charged with not paying his performers, I must say that my salary was always ready for me at the box office.”
Rather than turn the Republican into a vehicle for slander, the newspaper’s editor
published a notice that it would “…hereafter close our columns to personal controversies.”
As a final volley Nixon placed an advertisement offering his tent for religious services. In response Barnum held services of his own before his circus performance on the Washington Mall in the autumn of 1862.
Photo from the collection of the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
-C. Berry