"The Champions of Freedom" Frémont and Dayton banner (Buffalo, 1856)
The Champions of Freedom, a Buffalo banner for Frémont and Dayton, 1856
The Champions of Freedom (1856): C. E. Lewis of Buffalo set Frémont and Dayton under an eagle and a Washington medallion. Library of Congress, public
Techniques named on the archive record
Glittering generalitiesTransfer
Date
1856
Made by
C. E. Lewis, Buffalo (publisher); Republican campaign
Medium
Poster
Country
United States
Regime
Pierce Administration
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division , retrieved October 2, 2026
Source
Public domain: published 1856, US; LOC: "No known restrictions on publication." C. E. Lewis, Buffalo, 1856 (LC-DIG-pga-07356); Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.
The Champions of Freedom is an 1856 Republican ticket banner drawn on stone and published by C. E. Lewis of Buffalo. Oval portraits of John C. Frémont and William L. Dayton sit under an eagle, flags and a shield, with a small Washington medallion between them and one word of program: Freedom.
What is on it
Two oval portraits, Frémont on one side and Dayton on the other, sit beneath an eagle with flags and a shield. Between them is a small medallion of George Washington. The only text is the two names, the title, and the printers' lines.
JNo C. FREMONT. Wm L. DAYTON.
THE CHAMPIONS OF FREEDOM.
On Stone & Published by C. E. Lewis 208 Main St. Buffalo. [lower left]
From a Photograph by [illegible] [centre, small]
Chs. Grebner Printed 208 Main St. Buffalo. [lower right]
One word doing the work
The archive tags the banner for glittering generalities and transfer. "Freedom" is the generality. It is one of the strongest words in American politics, and here it carries the whole platform without a sentence of explanation: freedom for whom, from what, by which law. A buyer who already agreed would fill that in. A buyer who did not would learn nothing.
The transfer is in the furniture. The eagle, the flags and the shield belong to the country, not to a party, and Washington's face in the middle lends the ticket a founder's standing. None of that is a lie. It is the ordinary way a banner works, and it works the same way for every party that used it.
This is a commercial print from a Buffalo shop, drawn by the publisher and printed by Chs. Grebner at the same Main Street address. The portraits are credited to a photograph whose maker's name is illegible in the archive's reading. The record gives no print run and no price. The archive files the issuer as media and the purpose as persuasion, and it ties the sheet to the 1856 election and the Republican campaign.
1856 on this site
The American Party had its own banner that year: Baker & Godwin's Fillmore between Justice and Liberty, framed with the same kind of national emblems. Currier's Presidential Sweepstakes took the opposite approach and mocked Frémont, handing him a cross and sinking his cart in an "Abolition Cess Pool." Four years later a Philadelphia banner for Lincoln and Hamlin did print policy words. The campaign print hub holds the rest.
Sources
FRAME object record, "The Champions of Freedom" Frémont and Dayton banner (Buffalo, 1856). C. E. Lewis, Buffalo (publisher); Republican campaign.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-07356, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain, published 1856; LOC: "No known restrictions on publication."
