In the nineteenth-century, most voters got to know candidates through photographs and engravings; therefore, images on sheet music were chosen for their popular appeal. Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) entered the 1868 race as a Civil War hero; his Democratic opponent Horatio Seymour (1810–1886) not only had no war record but had openly criticized Lincoln’s war policies. Therefore on this cover, Seymour’s running mate, Francis Preston Blair, Jr., (1821–1875), a Union general, was depicted in uniform, as Grant usually was shown.

Despite charges of corruption in his administration, Grant was re-nominated in 1872. His opponent was Horace Greeley (1811–1872), founder and editor of the New York Tribune. The song, “Horace and No Relations,” pointedly referred to charges against Grant for naming family members to government positions. Yet even though Greeley had the endorsement of the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats, he and his running mate Benjamin Brown proved no match for the Republican incumbent.