Fillmore's "American Express" wins a race, and Frémont is handed a cross

An 1856 Nathaniel Currier print stages the election as a horse race in which Millard Fillmore's "American Express" coach leads to cheers, Buchanan rides on Pierce's back, and Frémont's cart sinks in an "Abolition Cess Pool." The Library of Congress reads the cross in Frémont's hands as a hint that he was Catholic.

Content note: this print carries a nativist insinuation about religion and a period slur for antislavery men. They are quoted below as the archive records them.

What the print shows

The 1856 race had three serious tickets, and the print gives each a vehicle. Fillmore's carriage, lettered "American Express," heads toward the White House while a crowd cheers. Buchanan, the Democrat, rides on the shoulders of the outgoing president, Franklin Pierce, who complains about carrying "this old platform." Frémont, the Republican, sits in a cart stuck in a ditch. The balloons name Horace Greeley's team and give Henry Ward Beecher a rifle to pry the wheel loose. Frémont holds a cross.

Founded by Washington the only sure Line to Washington is the American Express.

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"

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 Pony, "Freemont", by "Wooly Head" out of "Wooly horse" from the Mariposa stable.)

Who sold it

Nathaniel Currier of New York published the print. The archive files it under the Pierce administration. Currier sold the same season's "Right Man for the Right Place", which casts Fillmore as the calm figure between two hotheads. Fillmore ran as the American Party's candidate, the label the Baker & Godwin banner of the same year prints as "American Candidate." The archive's content note calls this print nativist.

How to read it

The archive tags the print for bandwagon and name-calling. The bandwagon is plain: a leading coach, a cheering crowd, a driver saying the race is a sure thing. The name-calling sits in the race card, where each horse gets a pedigree. Fillmore's is "Honesty out of Experience." Buchanan's is "Fillibuster" out of "Federalist." Frémont's is "Wooly Head," a slur for antislavery men, and his cart sits in an "Abolition Cess Pool."

The cross is the line to stop on. The Library of Congress reads it as an allusion to rumors that Frémont was Catholic. The print does not say so in words. It puts a religious object in a candidate's hand and lets a nativist audience finish the thought. That is innuendo, and it was a test of faith applied to a man running for an office the Constitution says no religious test shall be required for. It was wrong. It was also lawful: a private printer selling an unfair picture, in a campaign where the answer was more pictures and a vote. The 1876 "anti-Catholic worm" print turns the religious charge around twenty years later: a pro-Tilden print accuses the Republican campaign of fishing with "an anti-Catholic worm."