ABRAHAM LINCOLN SILK CAMPAIGN RIBBON, 1860

A SCARCE RELIC OF THE 1860 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ARGUABLY THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL ELECTION IN AMERICAN HISTORY

“Rail Splitter in 1830 – Giant Killer in 1860”

Silk campaign ribbon, 1860. Black letterpress on cream silk. Length approximately [insert measurement]; printed surface centered within the field; lower edge with decorative fringe remnants.

A rare and visually striking Abraham Lincoln presidential campaign ribbon issued during the pivotal election of 1860, printed in bold black ink on cream silk. The design is dominated by the slogan: “RAIL SPLITTER IN 1830” above a central patriotic vignette and “GIANT KILLER IN 1860” below. At center appears a bust portrait of Lincoln in three-quarter view, flanked by draped American flags surmounted by a spread-winged eagle clutching arrows and olive branch. Beneath the portrait is “HONEST ABE,” the famous sobriquet central to Lincoln’s political identity as a moral exemplar and embodiment of republican virtue.

The phrase “Rail Splitter” deliberately invokes the biographical mythology cultivated by Republican strategists during the 1860 campaign. Lincoln’s humble frontier origins, particularly his youthful labor splitting rails in Indiana and Illinois, were transformed into potent political symbolism, contrasting his self-made character with the perceived aristocratic tendencies of his opponents.

The second epithet, “Giant Killer,” alludes to the expectation that Lincoln would best his Democratic opponent Stephen A. Douglas (the “Little Giant”) on the national stage in 1860. Just several years earlier, Lincoln and Douglas had engaged in their celebrated series of debates during the 1858 Illinois Senate race. Though unsuccessful electorally, Lincoln emerged nationally prominent, having confronted one of the Democratic Party’s most formidable figures and articulated a forceful moral opposition to the expansion of slavery.

The iconography of the ribbon reinforces its rhetoric. The paired American flags frame Lincoln as the embodiment of Unionist patriotism, while the federal eagle, rendered in assertive, almost heraldic form, signals national authority and constitutional legitimacy. The composition’s verticality and restrained palette lend it a graphic clarity typical of mid-19th-century campaign textiles, designed for visibility at rallies, torchlight processions, and mass political gatherings.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Art, Folk Art, Military Art, Etching, Engraving, Lithographs, Prints, Ephemera] [Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864,  Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]