BLOCKING THE CANNONS (1860)

Location: 436 Grant St, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Pittsburgh claims the site of the founding of a Republican Party in 1852. The party was dedicated to free soil in the west and restriction of slavery to the southern states.

The party championed high tariffs to protect American manufacturing and public investment in infrastructure. Pennsylvania’s support was critical to Abraham Lincoln’s nomination for president. After Lincoln’s election in 1860, incumbent President Buchanan’s southern Secretary of War ordered 124 large cannons to be moved from the Allegheny Arsenal to the South. In late December, in the first act by the North in the Civil War, thousands of Pittsburgh citizens blocked the movement of cannons from the city. Pittsburgh’s working class was a major force in the war as soldiers and as producers of armaments and supplies for the Union.

Blocking the Cannon (1860) marker at County Courthouse, Grant Street