Lombard BannerFrom its birth in 1854 until its admission to statehood in 1861, Kansas Territory was at the center of a national controversy over whether slavery should be allowed in new western states just entering the Union. The question of whether Kansas would be slave or free became a nationwide political issue.This painted silk banner (pictured below) arrived in Kansas during the 1860 Presidential campaign, which would result in the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln gave the banner to Mark W. Delahay, a prominent newspaper editor and political leader from the city of Leavenworth. Delahay, an advocate of the free-state cause, was related to Lincoln by marriage and had helped him in earlier political campaigns. 
In 1856, Lincoln had joined the newly formed Republican Party, which stood against the extension of slavery into areas where it had earlier been against the law. Two years later, the party nominated Lincoln to run for U.S. Senator from Illinois against Stephen Douglas. Douglas, who advocated deciding for or against slavery by popular vote, was just completing his first Senate term. The candidates agreed to engage in a series of public debates at various locations around the state. Seven debates were scheduled for the summer and fall of 1858, with the fifth taking place in Galesburg, Illinois, on October 7. Students at Lombard University in Galesburg decided to honor the candidates by making banners for them. The Republican student delegation met Lincoln as he arrived in town and presented him with this banner, which then headed a procession that escorted Lincoln to the site of the debate. Mark Delahay used the banner in Kansas during the 1860 presidential campaign. Delahay died in 1879, and the next year his widow presented the Lombard Banner to the Kansas Historical Society. It resides in the collections of the Society's Kansas Museum of History. The banner reads "To Abraham Lincoln / the / Champion of Liberty / by the / Students of Lombard. / October 7, 1858." On its back is embroidered a design of eagle and stars.
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