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Stephen Collins Foster, by Thomas Hicks, 1856.
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Oil on canvas of Foster, head and shoulders, wearing a black jacket, gold vest, and a white shirt with black tie.

Credit: National Portrait Gallery,Smithsonian Institution;transferfrom the National Gallery of Art; gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, 1942.

In 1856, the year that Thomas Hicks painted his portrait, Stephen Foster joined other members of his family in supporting Pennsylvanian James Buchanan in his bid for the presidency. In addition to being ardent Democrats, the Fosters had a family interest in the election, for Buchanan's only brother was married to one of Foster's sisters. During the election, Foster wrote a series of campaign songs supporting Buchanan's candidacy and criticizing the Republican party for its support of abolition and the violence in "bloody" Kansas.

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