"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).
- Date
- 1856
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Nathaniel Currier, New York (publisher)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Pierce Administration
- Leader
- Franklin Pierce
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- 1856 US Election
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain: published 1856, US; LOC: "No known restrictions on publication."
Nathaniel Currier, New York, 1856 (LC-DIG-pga-04725); Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Text on the object
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.
