Political "Blondins" Crossing Salt River

The polarizing issue of slavery and its extension into the West is the crux of this political cartoon depicting the presidential candidates in 1860. In their attempts to cross Salt River, Abraham Lincoln teeters on a rail balanced by the abolitionist Horace Greeley. Stephen Douglas, the champion of popular sovereignty, a doctrine that lets voters decide their regions political and economic destiny, is falling off of the Non Intervention rope, while President James Buchanan carries John C. Breckenridge across the rope labeled Slavery Extension. John Bell and his running mate, Edward Everett, stand on the Constitutional Bridge, proclaiming that it is the only structure that connects these two shores [North and South] in an indissoluble bond of union.. The name Blondins in the title refers to the Frenchman Charles Blondin, who created a sensation in the summer of 1859 when he crossed the Niagara River repeatedly on a tightrope. Summary from: Library of Congress Print & Photographs Collection.