More Intriguing Americana From David Lesser Antiquarian Books
Rare Americana from David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books
By Michael Stillman
David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books always gives us an interesting collection of material in the field of Americana. His catalogue 82 of "Rare Americana" is no exception. It is filled with publications that touch on the major issues of their day, which, for the most part, run from the Revolution to Reconstruction. Here are some examples.
Long before there was an interstate highway system, before the US highways, before even the Lincoln Highway, there were wagon roads. In the 1850s, the government set out to build a series of these roads as part of the opening of the west. Pacific Wagon Roads, generated by Albert Campbell, who oversaw this project on behalf of the Department of the Interior, was published as a letter from its Secretary in 1859. Included are maps of several of these roads, including the Fort Kearny and South Pass Road through Nebraska and Wyoming, and the El Paso-Fort Yuma Road from Texas through New Mexico and Arizona. Unfortunately, many of the projects would be put on hold as a result of the looming crisis, which would erupt into the Civil War (Campbell would switch to the Confederate side). Item 31. $350.
William Plumer made an impassioned plea for separation of church and state to a justice committee of the Virginia House of delegates in 1847. It was printed as The Substance of an Argument Against the Indiscriminate Incorporation of Churches and Religious Societies. His fear was that the state would inevitably favor the strongest churches. In something akin to a backhanded compliment, Plumer argues, "To me it is a source of unspeakable pleasure, that I live in a land, where I believe the rights of conscience are most solemnly guaranteed to every human being, however ill informed or perverted his conscience may be on spiritual affairs." What greater show of support for religious liberty could there be than upholding the rights of the "spiritually perverted?" Item 129. $150.
One man who was considered "spiritually perverted" by too many of his fellow countrymen was Thomas Paine. As to what his spiritual beliefs were, that is not clear, but it is clear that he had little use for much of organized religion, at least such as it was in his day. Those views would turn the writer of "Common Sense," the book that in many ways led to the American Revolution, into something of a pariah in his homeland in his final years. It is nice to see that a few decades after his death, he was finally getting some recognition for his contributions to America.
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More Intriguing Americana From David Lesser Antiquarian Books
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Item 158 is An Address, Delivered Jan. 29, 1837....on the Centennial Anniversary of the Birth of Thomas Paine.... This address, delivered in Shalersville, Ohio, by Dr. Samuel Underhill, praises Paine for helping rescue humanity from ignorance and superstition. He speaks of the importance of Paine's book to America, despite "the black and calumniating ingratitude of that people who had received his first and greatest services." $500.
Late in life, Henry Clay, returned to the senate in an attempt to heal the growing divide between North and South. In 1850, he spearheaded the Compromise of 1850. That series of bills enabled California to enter the Union as a free state, but also opened the possibility of new slave states, and strengthened fugitive slave laws. Ultimately, it probably did more to assure the dissolution of the Union than preserve it, but it did succeed in putting the issue off for a few more years. Clay returned to his home state of Kentucky and gave this address: Mr. Clay's Speech. House of Representatives of Kentucky, November 14, 1850. He spoke about the negotiations involved to pass the compromise, and, as to whether he would ever consent to dissolution of the Union, "I answer never-never-never." Clay was already 73-years-old at the time, and "The Great Compromiser" would only live another two years, never having to witness the collapse of his great efforts to avoid war. Item 39. $250.
The Beginning of the end of the compromises can be viewed from the Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention, Convened at Charleston, S.C., April 23, 1860. The Whig Party had already collapsed over the slavery-abolition split, leaving the Democrats as the sole remaining national political party. That would come to an end at this convention. Though Stephen Douglas led in votes to become the party's presidential nominee, he was unable to secure enough to capture the nomination. The southern delegates would secede from the party, and after a second failed attempt to reach a compromise in Baltimore a few weeks later, the split of the Democrats into Northern and Southern factions would be sealed. It would open the door for the young Republican Party, a party strictly of the North, to sweep to victory behind a candidate named Abraham Lincoln. Item 68. $450.
Item 28 is The Brooklyn Water Works and Sewers. A Descriptive Memoir. A memoir of the Brooklyn sewers? I guess anything can have a memoir, but I'll hold my nose for this one. The date is 1867. $650.
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More Intriguing Americana From David Lesser Antiquarian Books
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The Fourth of July is generally reserved for happy, patriotic celebrations, but in 1855, Rev. C.B. Boynton used it to attack Roman Catholicism. In his Address Before the Citizens of Cincinnati; Delivered on the Fourth Day of July, 1855, the good reverend claims the Founding Fathers considered the Papacy "the antagonist of Christ, the corrupter of public and private morality, the enemy of human liberty, and the determined foe of progress." He goes on to say, "We who are here, most firmly believe that this young Benjamin of nations was born in a native American, and from a genuine Protestant family." Tell that to the Indians. Boynton was a supporter of the American Party, better known as the "Know-nothings." Oddly, this bigoted group was also anti-slavery, labeling both the Papacy and the Slave Power as foes to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And ultimately, as the party spread into the pro-slavery South, this issue would tear it apart, just as it had the Whigs before, and would do to the Democrats later. After quickly becoming a national and local force in the 1854-1856 period, even nominating a former president, Millard Fillmore, as its presidential candidate in 1856, the party quickly disintegrated. Slavery was much more on people's minds than nativism. Item 24. $250.
Edward Everett was one of the great orators of the mid-19th century, or at least, one of the longest winded. He is the man who gave the lead, two-hour speech at Gettysburg that fateful day, though no one refers to his as the "Gettysburg Address." On August 28, 1856, Everett gave a speech in Albany, New York, on the nonpolitical topic The Uses of Astronomy. It was given to celebrate the opening of the Dudley Observatory. This copy was inscribed by Everett to the aforementioned "President Fillmore With the best respects of Edward Everett." Item 71. $350.
David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has a website at www.lesserbooks.com The phone number is 203-389-8111.
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