Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2004 Issue
Early Americana From David Lesser<br>Fine Antiquarian Books
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Rev. Appleton also gave us A Faithful and Wise Servant, Had in Honor, throughout the Churches. This was a eulogy in honor of Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, a Professor of Divinity at Harvard College, who passed away early in 1765. In his tribute Appleton notes, "Altho' his hardness of hearing was a great difficulty to him when debates were carried on, yet things being made known to him...here always appeared in him such an accuracy of thought..." What? What did you say? Item 4. $375.
Stephen A. Douglas, a northern Democrat, had become something of a pariah with southern Democrats for his "moderate" position on extending slavery to new states, which called on allowing the citizens of those states to make the choice. The southern branch of the party bolted from the northerners, demanding slavery be declared legal in all new territories. Item 42 is Douglas' 1860 Speech....on the Invasion of the States. In it, he criticized President Buchanan, who was more amendable to southern interests, for saying the federal government lacked constitutional authority to protect Virginia from an alleged northern conspiracy to rescue John Brown. This was evidently an attempt by Douglas to regain southern support by taking a more pro-southern position on the issue than did Buchanan. It didn't work. The southern Democrats did not return to Douglas, and instead split the party, assuring that a man they truly despised, Abraham Lincoln, would be elected president. $250.
Douglas was not the only candidate attempting to run as a "moderate" in the 1860 election. John Bell of Tennessee presented himself as a moderate candidate of the Constitutional Union Party. In those days, "constitutional" would appeal to southerners (because the constitution did not outlaw slavery), while "union" appealed to northerners. As a resident of a border state, he hoped that too would help bridge the gap. The southern Democrats wanted nothing to do with Bell either. Item 49 is Breckenridge and Lane Campaign Document, No. 5. The Public Record and Past History of John Bell & Edw'd Everett. The southern Democrats here portray Bell as a friend of compromise who voted with the abolitionists. Bell would carry the border states of Kentucky and Tennessee, and even Virginia, but the split would allow Lincoln to win the election with just 40% of the vote. $250.
Of course Douglas and Bell weren't the only ones attacked. Lincoln is the victim of abuse in this pamphlet, published by Douglas' supporters: Abraham Lincoln's Record on the Slavery Question. His Doctrines Condemned by Henry Clay. It's interesting that Henry Clay condemned Lincoln's doctrines, since he had been dead eight years when this was published in 1860, but hey, this is politics. It contains the usual charges that seemed to play well in that day, that Lincoln favored the "doctrine of negro equality with the white man," and that his "views on slavery tend to its abolition." Item 48. $500.
C.A. Grimmer predicted the coming of the apocalypse in The Voice of Stars or the Effects of the Coming Perihelia. The perihelia had to do with the alignment of the four great planets, and Grimmer predicted plagues would come unless strict sanitary measures were taken. Of course we now know that that these terrible things did not happen in 1880 as he predicted. Instead, the world came to an end in 2000 when the second millennium concluded. Item 70. $350.
