With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the Revolution ended and Great Britain legally recognized the independent existence of the United States of America. Britain ceded claims not only on the thirteen colonies, but also on the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Settlers poured into the Ohio River valley.

A ballad is a particular type of secular song that was beloved in the British Isles long before the first settlers set sail for the New World. Generally, ballads tell a story or recount events that might include romance, tragedy, violence, or acts of heroism. In the eighteenth century, ballads that concerned themselves with the lives of common people and began with the words "come all ye…" had become very popular in Great Britain. In America, this type of ballad became the basis for many new songs, including The Lovely Ohio. The song optimistically celebrates life on the river at the end of the eighteenth century.

The Lake Erie, Wabash, and St. Louis Railroad Company was formed in 1852. There was, however, no train named the “Cannonball” when this song was first sung late in the 19th century. The anonymous hobos who made the song up may have been paying homage to a specific train, or to a “mythical train that runs everywhere,” as suggested by George Milburn in The Hobo’s Hornbook.

At the 1860 Republican convention in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln won his party's nomination for president of the United States. In 19 th century America, hardly a presidential candidate won an election without having his name linked to liberty in a song. Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., of New Hampshire's famous Hutchinson Family Singers, wrote the lyrics to Lincoln and Liberty and set them to the tune of Rosin the Bow , an Irish melody that is one of the most parodied in folk music. The Hutchinson Family Singers traveled the country singing anti-slavery and pro-Union songs, frequently at Lincoln's campaign appearances, and later, in the White House.