Anti-Lincoln “Lincoln & Hamlin” Campaign Card
1860 - 3¾ x 2¾ inches
 
A scarce anti-Lincoln campaign card issued during the presidential election of 1860. Printed on coated stock, the design features a crude woodcut of a fleeing enslaved man beneath the caption “Lincoln & Hamlin” and the inflammatory slogan “Free [racial slur].” Produced by opponents of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, the card reflects Democratic efforts to portray the Republican ticket as a threat to slavery and the existing social order.
 
Small-format campaign ephemera of this nature was intended for immediate political use and survival rates are consequently low. As a result, such pieces remain important artifacts of the bitter sectional tensions and racial politics that characterized the election of 1860 on the eve of the Civil War.
 
Condition: Very fine, with a few light vertical creases; a notably clean example.