The Iconic Currier & Ives Campaign Print of the Beardless Lincoln - 1860

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/8/2023

Lithograph, 17” x 12”, titled The Rail Candidate. An unsigned 1860 presidential campaign-related cartoon likely drawn by Louis Maurer, published by Currier & Ives. Presented matted and framed, 22-1/2” x 17-1/2”. Rarely seen in this FINE condition. Abraham Lincoln's frontier personality as a "rail splitter" was the focus of many cartoons produced during the 1860 presidential campaign. In this example, the rail that Lincoln straddles uncomfortably, labeled Republican Plat-form, represents the party's antislavery platform. The rail is carried by a black man at front and the abolitionist editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley, at the back. Greeley was one of Lincoln's strongest supporters in the Northeast. In a bubble, Lincoln says, “It is true I have split Rails, but I begin to feel as if ‘this’ rail would split me, it's the hardest stick I ever straddled.” The black man complains...”Dis Nigger strong and willin', but its awful hard work to carry Old Massa Abe on nothing but dis ere rail!!” Greeley assures the candidate, “We can prove that you have split rails & that will ensure your election to the Presidency.”Although Lincoln personally believed in respecting the institution of slavery as it existed under the Constitution, he was firmly committed to keeping it from expanding into the western states and territories.

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