---
title: '"The Great Presidential Sweepstakes of 1856" (Currier)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/presidential-sweepstakes-fillmore-1856/
description: Horse-race cartoon with Fillmore's "American Express" carriage leading toward the White House to cheers, while Buchanan rides Pierce's shoulders and a…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Nativist cartoon with an anti-Catholic insinuation (a cross carried by the opposing candidate) and the period smear 'Wooly Head' for antislavery men, shown as published. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["The Great Presidential Sweepstakes of 1856" (Currier)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/presidential-sweepstakes-fillmore-1856.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/presidential-sweepstakes-fillmore-1856.jpg)

# "The Great Presidential Sweepstakes of 1856" (Currier)

Horse-race cartoon with Fillmore's "American Express" carriage leading toward the White House to cheers, while Buchanan rides Pierce's shoulders and a Frémont carrying a cross, which LOC reads as an allusion to rumours of his Catholicism (nativist innuendo), sits in a cart stuck in an "Abolition Cess Pool". The tells: a "sure thing" lead and cheering crowd (bandwagon), and the entry notes that label the rivals "Filibuster", "Wooly Head" and "Abolition Cess Pool".

## Text on the object

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

```
Fillmore and Union for ever !— [balloon, crowd at left]

We'll soon have the "right man in the right place".— [balloon, crowd]

Founded by Washington the only sure Line to Washington is the American Express. [balloon, Fillmore]

We're got a Sure thing on this race [balloon, driver]

I don't see how my party expect me to carry this old platform in, a winner, when they thought I had'nt legs enough to run for myself.— [balloon, Pierce]

Frank, I am afraid we aint got legs enough to beat Fillmore, but its some comfort to see old Greely's team stuck in the mud [balloon, Buchanan]

I say Pierce aint that old Platform rather heavy?— [balloon, spectator]

It's no use crying Kansas any more it don't Prick his Ears a bit.— I guess we're about used up.— [balloon, figure leading the horse]

Oh that I had kept the road & not tried to wade through this dirty ditch, but these fellows persuaded me, it was a shorter Way— and so I've "gone it blind" [balloon, Frémont]

Brother Horace jerk his head up once more and Shriek for Kansas, and I'll give the wheel a pry with my rifle.— [balloon, Beecher]

AMERICAN EXPRESS [on the carriage]   TRIBUNE [on a hatband]   ABOLITION CESS POOL

THE GREAT PRESIDENTIAL SWEEPSTAKES OF 1856.
Free for all ages, "go as they please"

YOUNG AMERICA.— Enters, "Fillmore" by Honesty out of Experience (trained on the Union track)
DEMOCRAT.— Enters, "Old Buck" (alias "Platform") by "Fillibuster" out of "Federalist" "Exercised on the Ostend Course"
GREELY, WEED, BEECHER & Co.— Enters, Ca-nuck [hyphen uncertain] Pony, "Freemont", by "Wooly Head" out of "Wooly horse" from the Mariposa stable.)

For Sale at N° 2 Spruce St N.Y.
```

Read from a 1024 px scan; "We're got a Sure thing" is as printed (probably for "We've got"). The hyphen in 'Ca-nuck' cannot be confirmed at 1024 px.

[← "The Grand National Fight" (Democratic print, 1856)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-national-fight-buchanan-1856/) ["The Right Man for the Right Place" (Currier, 1856) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/right-man-fillmore-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)