As part of the festivities, the German Republicans of Chicago’s Seventh Ward were presented a banner in recognition of their efforts in securing victory in the March 2, 1858, Chicago municipal election for the Republican Party. Samuel L. Baker having been detained by business in New York, Charles L. Wilson read a letter from him and presented the banner on his behalf. In the latter half of the 1850s, the Seventh Ward of Chicago was referred to as the “Bloody Seventh” due to the political clashes between Irish residents who supported the Democratic Party and German residents who increasingly supported the Republican Party. The outcome of the 1858 Chicago municipal election was that the entire Republican ticket was elected. In addition, following the election the Chicago city marshall, city clerk, and five aldermen were all of German origin, and the Germans of the Seventh Ward were celebrated for their role in the Republican victory. While in the 1856 mayoral election the Seventh Ward had given a 790-vote margin of victory to Democrat Thomas Dyer, in the 1858 mayoral race the ward gave Republican victor John C. Haines a 158-vote advantage. The ward was lauded by the Chicago Tribune, which wrote that it had “been redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled! The great Irish citadel has been stormed–the black flag of Ruffianism has been hauled down, and the bright banner of Freedom waves in glorious triumph.”

In its coverage of the 1858 Chicago municipal election, the Daily Chicago Tribune referred to Democrats and the Democratic Party as “Border Ruffians” and “Border Ruffianism” in reference to the skirmishes along the border of Missouri and Kansas Territory during the events of “Bleeding Kansas”.