---
title: '"The Balls Are Rolling - Clear the Track" (Currier, 1856)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/balls-rolling-fremont-1856/
description: Giant state-named balls roll over a crushed Buchanan (beneath the "Cincinnati Platform") and a Fillmore holding "Fugitive Bill" and "Albany Speech"…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!["The Balls Are Rolling - Clear the Track" (Currier, 1856)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/balls-rolling-fremont-1856.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/balls-rolling-fremont-1856.jpg)

# "The Balls Are Rolling - Clear the Track" (Currier, 1856)

Giant state-named balls roll over a crushed Buchanan (beneath the "Cincinnati Platform") and a Fillmore holding "Fugitive Bill" and "Albany Speech" papers, under a rainbow reading "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Press, Free Men & Fremont". Tells: state-by-state momentum as proof (bandwagon); motto words (virtue words); labels pinned on the crushed rivals ("Polygamy & Slavery", "Border Ruffianism"), the device used on the rivals in "Buck taking the Pot" (name-calling); an eagle on a fasces (borrowed symbols).

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
FREMONT [banner, left]   DAYTON [banner, right]
MICHIGAN   INDIANA   CALIFORNIA   NEW JERSEY   CONNECTICUT   MASSACHUSETTS   NEW YORK   PENNSYLVANIA   ILLINOIS   WISCONSIN   RHODE ISLAND   NEW HAMPSHIRE   OHIO   MAINE   VERMONT   IOWA [on the balls]
CONSTITUTION   LIBERTY   UNION [bands on the fasces]
FREE SOIL, FREE SPEECH, FREE PRESS, FREE MEN & FREMONT [on the rainbow]

Oh James! Erastus! trying won't save me, I hear them coming take me off the track.— [balloon, left figure]
ALBANY SPEECH   Fugitive Bill [on the papers he holds]
Oh dear!, Oh dear! this Platform will be the death of me, I'm nearly crushed out already.— [balloon on Maine ball]
CINCINNATI PLATFORM
KANSAS Bogus Laws
POLYGAMY & SLAVERY
BORDER RUFFIANISM
KANE   LECOMPTE
OSTEND
Pierce, Douglass
Choates dying Confession
For Free Men [illegible] Kansas [illegible]
Scene in Kansas Crushing out Freedom
Atlantic Ocean   Pacific Ocean   R. R. to California

THE BALLS ARE ROLLING — CLEAR THE TRACK —
For Sale at N° 2 Spruce St N.Y.

[Library marks, not part of the print: "Currier & Ives", "A 4160", "1854".]
```

Small labels were read from a 1024 px scan; words that did not resolve are marked [illegible]. The small caption near the chains is partly unreadable.

[← "The Whig Organ" (Frank Bellew, The Lantern, 28 August 1852)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/whig-organ-scott-bellew-1852/) ["'Buck' taking the 'Pot'" (Currier, 1856) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/buck-taking-pot-buchanan-1856/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)