Existing comment:
The Great Republican Reform Party:
John C. Frémont (1813–1890) was the Republican Party's candidate in the presidential election of 1856. The new political party was the first to oppose the extension of slavery into the western territories. This cartoon lampoons Frémont by falsely associating him with several social causes, some highly controversial at the time. The six people in line addressing Frémont personify the reform movements of temperance, women's rights, socialism, libertarianism, Catholicism, and equal rights for blacks. Frémont tells them, "You shall all have what you desire."
Frémont would lose the election of 1856 to the Democratic Party's candidate, James Buchannan. Only four years later, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, would validate the fledgling party with his victory in the historic election of 1860.
Louis Maurer, 1856 |