The Salt River Ticket, Democratic Discourse, and Nineteenth Century American Politics

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, victorious partisans distributed Salt River tickets to tease and mock the supporters of losing candidates in the days following local, state, and national elections. This once popular form of political communication provides an entry point for investigating the role of media in the carnivalesque political culture of the past. The imagery of the tickets and the circumstances of their use articulated the bond between partisan adversaries. The history of the Salt River ticket helps contextualize the conflict between liberal and populist values in contemporary American political discourse.

Keywords:

• Salt River Ticket
• Elections
• Political Ephemera
• Bakhtin
• Antebellum Politics

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Josh Lauer and the anonymous CSMC reviewers for their helpful comments, and Sandra Markham at the Library Company of Philadelphia for her research assistance. They thank Bob Trumpbour for his input and encouragement on an earlier version of the paper, presented at the 2005 AEJMC convention in San Antonio.

Notes

1. Free Ticket to the Saline Spring. (1856). Collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Reproduced by the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image for the online exhibit, “Crisis of the Union,” University of Pennsylvania, http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/civilwar/index.cfm. Most of the rest of the examples cited in the essay are drawn from four different archival collections: two are at the Historical Society of Philadelphia, one titled Salt River Satires, the other from the society's general print collection. The third collection comes from the McAllister papers, at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the fourth from the Lancaster County (PA) Historical Society. Because of the problems in using APA citation style for historical materials, most of the primary source material here will be cited in footnotes. HSP archives will be cited by title and year and collection. Library Company (LCP) tickets will be cited by location within the Salt River Tickets collection; unless otherwise noted, the call number for all LCP tickets is McA10089.F. Lancaster County (LCHS) tickets will be cited by title, year, and location in the collection.

2. For a comparison of Bakhtin and Habermas vis-à-vis the public sphere, see Gardiner (2005).

3. “Complimentary,” LCP 1956 Presidential election file; “How are you Copperhead?” LCP 1864 Presidential election File.

4. In a letter dated May 5, 1865, a Boston dealer told a Philadelphia collector that, despite his best efforts, he could find no Salt River tickets in Boston. LCP, McAllister papers (McA MSS 001).

5. For Harper's Weekly, election-day coverage (i.e., November issues) was examined from 1857 to 1904, with focus on Presidential years; similar research was done on Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1856, and 1872–1900. Postbellum election coverage of newspapers, focusing almost exclusively on Presidential years, with archival research limited to two days before and after the election (i.e., Monday to Thursday of election week) was done on The (Philadelphia) Public Ledger; The Philadelphia Inquirer, The (Philadelphia) Press; The North American ( Philadelphia); The Age ( Philadelphia); The Chicago Tribune; New York Herald; The New York Tribune; and New York Times. Philadelphia papers were examined beginning in the immediate post-Civil War era and continuing into the twentieth century, except for papers like The Age, which did not survive the century. Papers outside Philadelphia were examined, beginning in 1880 and continuing until 1900. Stories of tickets from papers outside of those titles and years just listed were found through Internet searches or in the course of related studies.

6. As a tool for figuring out the identities of the local politicians listed on many of the tickets, the Political Graveyard website (http://www.politicalgraveyard.com) proved invaluable.

7. The raccoon was the mascot of the Whig Party, just as the donkey was the mascot of the Democracy.

8. See the tickets in LCP, 1856 and 1860 Presidential election files; “I voted for Fillmore/Buck,” 1856, HSP, Society Print Collection. “I voted for Kern/Berrell,” LCP (undated) misc. file.

9. “Great Catastrophe on Salt River,” 1870; “Washington Up Salt River,” 1888 LCHS MG-94, folder 5.

10. “Ho! For Vaux'all,” 1860, HSP, Salt River Satires.

11. “Ho! For Salt River! Vaux Populi!” LCP 1858 Mayoral election file.

12. “Ho for the Salty Styx,” LCP 1864 Presidential file.

13. “John Buckaneer, master of the Crescent City,” 1856, Society Print Collection. “Salt River Excursion Extraordinary,” “Off for Salt River,” “For Salt River on the Steamer Union Slide,” LCP 1856 Presidential election file.

14. “Salt River Tribune,” “Salt River Ticket and Programme,” LCP Political Broadsides collection 5755.F.

“The Political Grecian Bend,” LCP 1868 Presidential election file.

15. “Railroad for Salt River,” LCP 1852 Presidential election file.

16. “Neither wind nor rain will delay,” 1856, Society Print Collection; “Breck and the little Giant on the “back-track” for the Saline Springs,” 1860, Salt River Satires. “Salt River ticket: One Way Only,” undated, LCHS MG-94, folder 5.

17. “Gone Up: Jef and the Southern Confederacy,” 1865 LCP Political Cartoons, 5766.F; LCP (undated) misc. file.

18. “Free pass on your favorite Gun-Boat,” “For Salt River,” 1864 LCP Presidential election file.

19. “Great Catastrophe,” 1870 LCHS, MG-94, folder 5.

20. “Complimentary ticket,” 1856, Society Print Collection; “Unsafe Steamer Fusion will Leave This Day,” LCP 1856 Presidential election file.

21. “Positively last trip for Salt River,” 1856, Society Print Collection.

22. “Neither wind nor rain will delay,” 1856, Society Print Collection.

23. “Grand scrub race,” 1856, Society Print Collection.

24. “Copper-Fastened Dug-Out Defeat,” LCHS, MG-94, folder 5. “The Republican Party going to the Right House,” 1860 Harper's Weekly: American Political Prints. Retrievedfrom http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/AdvancedSearchList.asp

25. “The Funeral of Foster,” 1860, Salt River Satires; “Biddy Lamenting the Result of the Election,” LCP 1858 Mayoral election file.

26. “Ho? For Salt River,” 1888; “Great Catastrophe on Salt River,” 1870, op. cit.

27. Several Republican tickets of the Civil War era demonstrate the same casual bigotry as their earlier Democratic counterparts. See “For Salt River Direct,” LCP 1864 Presidential election file.

28. “Positively last trip for Salt River,” 1856, Society Print Collection; “For Salt River!!” LCP 1856 Presidential election file

29. “Neither wind nor rain will delay,” 1856, Society Print Collection.

30. “Grand scrub race,” 1856, Society Print Collection.

31. “Little Mac on his way to Visit his Friends,” LCP 1864 Presidential election file.

32. “How are you Copperhead?” LCP 1864 Presidential election file.

33. “Ho! For Salt River!” 1912; “Salt River Ticket, Ahoy! Ahoy!” 1922, LCHS, MG-94, folder 5. An exception is a printed postcard celebrating the election of a Republican Lancaster City mayor, “Coalitionists trampled out of existence: G.O.P and Victory, 1929,” LCHS, MG-94, folder 5.

34. “Salt River Ticket,” 1952, LCHS, MG-94, folder 5.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Ruth Horner

Jennifer Ruth Horner recently received her PhD from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. Both authors contributed equally to the writing of this essay

Mark Brewin

Mark Brewin is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Tulsa