1856 – A terrific ‘Salt River Ticket’ ridiculing the supporters of John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore after their candidates' defeat in the 1856 presidential election

Item Details

Unidentified, 1856, Unbound

Very Good

This ‘Salt River Ticket’ is printed on blue cardstock and measures approximately 3.5” x 2.25”. In nice shape. 

It features an illustration of crewmembers abandoning a steamship in distress bracketed by the text “Positively Last Trip for Salt River!!! / Will leave this day for the Head of the Saline Waters the dilapidated Steamer / ‘Opposition’” on the top, “Captain: Fremont” on the left, “Pilot: Fillmore” on the right, and “Choice Berths Reserved for Niggers” on the bottom.

Below the illustration, additional text reads: 

“On the passage a Grand Performance will take place during which the great Vaulter / Bennett will perform on the Wooly Horse. To conclude with the Farce of / Bleeding Kansas!!! / Principal Characters by Greely (sic), Raymond, and Jessie. / The signal for starting will be given in the Daily Papers.”

In mid-19th-century America, it was a popular form of political discourse for supporters of victorious election candidates to distribute Salt River tickets ridiculing supporters of losing candidates. 

Defeated candidates were said to have traveled up the “Salt River,” a real tributary of the Ohio River. The term was used from around 1830 until 1880 to symbolize political defeat, supposedly referring to Henry Clay, the Whig candidate in the 1832 presidential election, missing a crucial campaign rally that cost him the election when a boatman rowed up the Salt River into Kentucky instead of continuing on the Ohio. 

This ticket celebrates James Buchanan’s election as President. Fremont was the Republican candidate. Fillmore was the Know-Nothing Party’s candidate. Henry Bennett, an abolitionist, was one of the first settlers in Kansas during the guerrilla warfare between abolitionists and supporters of slavery that preceded the Civil War. The “Wooly Horse” refers to P.T. Barnum’s humbug exhibition of a horse with no mane or tail but a thick coat of wool that Fremont had supposedly discovered while exploring the Rocky Mountains. Horace Greeley, the abolitionist editor of the New York Tribune, published a laudatory campaign biography of Fremont during the lead-up to the election. Henry J. Raymond, the editor of the New York Times, was one of the founders of the Republican Patry in 1856. Jesse, Fremont’s politically astute wife, was widely regarded as the ‘brains’ of his campaign. 

(For more information, see Horner and Brewin’s “The Salt River Ticket, Democratic Discourse, and Nineteenth Century American Politics” in 2007 Issue 1 of Critical Studies in Media Communication, “Salt River Ephemera Collection: 1852-1872” at the Library Company of Philadelphia website, “Henry Bennett: A Settler of Kansas Territory” at the Dana Leeds website, and “Barnum on the Woolly Horse” at the Lost Museum Archive website.)

Although Salt River tickets for other elections occasionally appear at auctions and on eBay, tickets for the 1856 election are scarce. At the time of listing, there are no 1856 Salt River Tickets for sale in the trade. The Rare Book Hub shows none as having ever appeared at auction, and OCLC shows none are held in institutional collections.

#10497