Frémont Campaign Flags

In those two years free-staters and proslavery advocates had been at each other's throats in Kansas Territory. The free-state town of Lawrence had been sacked, five proslavery men were killed in the Pottawatomie Massacre, and Charles Sumner was caned in the U.S. Senate chamber for speaking on "The Crime Against Kansas."

In 1854 a new political party was formed--the Republicans, replacing the earlier Whig party which had disintegrated. Eager to find a candidate who would appeal to many, the Republicans sought out an explorer of the west, one whose adventures had captured the popular imagination. They turned to the man known as the "Pathfinder," John Charles Frémont.

Frémont's opposition included James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, a Democrat who was sympathetic to the South. Former President Millard Fillmore was the candidate of the proslavery American Party, also called the "Know-Nothings" because members were instructed to respond to questions about their activities with the phrase, "I know nothing."

The Republicans took an anti-slavery stand. The party's catchy slogan was Free Soil, Free Men and Frémont--and Free Kansas. Their strong stance brought warnings that if Frémont won, the South would secede from the Union.

Campaigning for president was much different in 1856 than it is today. The candidates let others promote them and did little actual campaigning themselves. Clubs in support of candidates sprung up around the country, with torchlight parades, rallies, and speeches singing the praises of the nominees.

It was not unusual, then, to see clubs spreading the word about John C. Frémont. This "God Save Kansas" banner was made by the Ladies of Lancaster, New Hampshire, for the town's Frémont Club. When donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1883, it was given as "evidence of the sympathy felt by the people of the Granite State with the early settlers of Kansas in the struggle between slavery and freedom."

Frémont supporters could be found in Mansfield, Ohio, as well, where James E. Smith (who moved to Kansas in 1861) attended political rallies carrying a flag made by his wife and sister. This flag (pictured at top) leaves no doubt about its bearer's sympathies--"Frémont, Dayton, and Free Kansas." (William L. Dayton, a former senator from New Jersey, was Frémont's running mate.)

A third flag in the collections also represents the desires of many Americans at the time. It carries the slogan "Admit Me Free" and a large star representing the hoped-for entry of Kansas into the Union as a free state. Walter H. Whitehead carried this flag in the first Republican demonstration in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1856 campaign. Whitehead, who later moved to Kansas, also carried the flag in the 1860 presidential campaign in support of Abraham Lincoln.

Although Frémont was not successful in his quest for the presidency--he finished second with a half million votes out of a total four million--it was a respectable showing for the new Republican party. The election also laid the ground work for the party's next presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, who won in late 1860. Southern states followed through on threats to secede from the Union if a free soil president was elected, Kansas was admitted as a free state on Jan. 29, 1861, and the first shots of the Civil War were fired just three months later.

These flags are in the collections of the Society's Kansas Museum of History.

Return to the latest Cool Things.

Check out the Cool Things Archive.