[Washington, George]
Printed, decorative, illustrated broadside, with a variety of typefaces. A few light fox spots, trimmed closely to the border. Very Good. Illustration of "Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh, N.Y. Where as Commander-in-Chief he delivered his farewell address to the Army in front of the same." 8-1/2" x 11-1/2." Decorative border on yellow paper depicting roses, birds, insects, and grapes. Very Good. The broadside commemorates General Washington's famous rebuttal to his officers' petition advocating mutiny for Congress's failure to award them back pay. OCLC 1274231733 [1- DLC] as of September 2023.
[New York City Tavern License]
Broadside, oblong 11-1/2" x 7-1/4." Printed blank form, variety of typefaces and styles. Light wear. Blanks not filled in. Very Good. The licensed tavern keeper promises to "maintain good Rule and Order, and not use or suffer any unlawful Games or Meetings in said house. . ." This is an early New York City printing. "The final lines of the form date the printing to the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), during which time William Bradford was the only working printer in New York". We locate a few copies of this form at only a few institutions; it is unrecorded in the usual bibliographies. OCLC 783452540 [1- NYHS], 934498870 [1- Case Western], 191822974 [4- NYPL, LCP, Brown, MTSU] as of September 2023. Not in Evans, Bristol, Shipton & Mooney, ESTC, or at AAS.
[Huntington, Joseph]
134pp. "By Joseph Huntington D.D." written in neat ink beneath the title. Ezra Stiles's copy, with inscription at head of title: "To Revd E. Stiles. Nov. 23 1780." Several learned marginal notes by Stiles, with some text underlined. Stitched and untrimmed. Lacking the final blank. Closed tear at leaf 89-90 with slight text loss. Last several leaves with significant margin tears and loss of several letters. Hence Good only. "In response to Stephen West's Vindication of the principles and conduct of the church in Stockbridge, concerning the excommunication of Mrs. Fisk by an ecclesiastical council convened at Stockbridge. Attributed to Joseph Huntington in Dexter's Yale graduates" [ESTC] John Fisk had been a military officer and was now a school teacher in Stockbridge. He wooed and won the Widow Deane. Widow Deane's church warned her not to marry Fisk, whom it deemed an immoral character, primarily because of his barnyard [or military camp] language. Remorseful, Fisk sought pardon; nevertheless the church was unswayed by his purported repentance. The widow Deane went ahead and married him anyway-- she was promptly excommunicated at Stockbridge. Stephen West wrote a pamphlet in vindication of the excommunication. Huntington disagrees, saying the Church and Council seek "to debar mankind from the plain, common right they have of chusing those companions which they like best, and which they judge will be the greatest blessings and comforts to them." Writing during the American Revolution, Huntington compares such dictatorial behavior to that of "the British Ministry." FIRST EDITION. Evans 16804. Trumbull 888. ESTC W13558.
McClernand, John A.
Broadside, 5" x 8." Dated in typescript "Springfield, Ill., May 14, 1867. In handwriting at top margin: "Confidential." Addressed in ink handwriting to "Hon. James M. Epler." McClernand signs in type as Chairman of the Democratic Central Committee. Old horizontal folds, Near Fine. McClernand, now the Chair of the Illinois Democratic Central Committee, was Lincoln's contemporary. A Democratic Congressman, he was an ally of another Illinois politician, Stephen A. Douglas. As a Civil War general, a rank he gained largely through political maneuvering, he was considered incompetent and relieved of command in June 1863. After the War, McClernand was a leading opponent of Congressional Reconstruction. Here he warns that, if Democrats do not halt Republican inroads, "the fault will be ours, the spirit of lawlessness may be stimulated to still greater boldness, the Judiciary may be converted into a party engine, and the calamities which now distract the country may be rendered more grievous."
[Hunter, Benjamin F.]
Original printed and illustrated front wrapper [lightly spotted and worn; rear wrapper absent]. Stitched. [2], 19-91, [3- publ. advts] pp. Stitched. Illustrations. Good+. A typically lurid Barclay production. "Hunter had lost $7,000 when he invested in Armstrong's music-publishing company. Thinking to turn his loss into a profit, he insured Armstrong's life for $25,000. With a hired assistant, Tom Graham, he enticed Armstrong to Camden, New Jersey, and there bashed his head in with an ax which he had carefully marked with the initials of another man to throw suspicion on him. Though he remained unconscious, Armstrong survived, and Hunter, calling at his home, hastened his death by tearing the bandages from his head. Graham confessed and Hunter was convicted and hanged, and he was actually hanged by hand" [McDade]. McDade 494.
[Constitution]
Pages 615-674 pp, as issued. The U.S. Constitution is printed at pages 659-665, in Very Good condition. Frontis folding meteorological table; folding plate of the Virginia Natural Bridge; full-page plate after page 654. Disbound, a few fox spots, else Very Good. This exceptionally early printing of the U.S. Constitution, ratified by the Convention at Philadelphia on 17 September 1787, is likely its first periodical printing. It was preceded by a broadside printing and a newspaper printing. John Quincy Adams's Harvard commencement address, his first published writing, is also printed. I Mott 94-99. Evans 20280. Wilbur T. Roberts: "They Printed the Declaration and the Constitution," in THE MENTOR, July 1928, pp.52-54. Leonard A. Rapport, "Printing the Constitution," in PROLOGUE: THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, Fall 1970, pp.69-89.
Morton, Nathaniel
viii, 208 + 6-pages of subscriber's names (of 8, lacking the final subscriber leaf). Flaw at page 119 affects several words. Lightly toned, contemporary paneled sheep [somewhat shaken, with a few early leaves loosened. Good+. Third American edition, and the first to be printed in Rhode Island. The prefatory "To the Reader," dated 26 March 1669 by John Higginson and Thomas Thacher, recommends the book as the work of "an approved godly man, and one of the first Planters at Plymouth." Morton was a nephew of Governor Bradford and Secretary to the General Court of Massachusetts. Morton dedicates it to Thomas Prince, "Governour of the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth," and "the Magistrates, his Assistants in the said Government." "This book is one of the class commonly referred to as 'the cornerstones' of early New England history. It was the first strictly historical publication issued by the New England press, and brings the history of the colony down to 1668. The work is arranged in chronological order, and is filled with particulars of the greatest interest. The voyage of the Mayflower is given in detail, as is also the story of the landing and first settlement of the Pilgrims. The text is interspersed with several elegiac poems, epitaphs, and acrostics" [Church]. ESTC W13885. Howes M851. Evans 12469. Church 606.
Rhizomian Society
Octavo leaf, folded to [4] pp, each page 5" x 7-3/8." Printed in several different typefaces on rectos only. At head of title is the motto: "Animus Incorruptus, aeturnus, rector humani generis est." Lightly foxed, else Very Good. Research does not disclose anything about this oddly named Society. "Rhizome" suggests that the Society had utopian aspirations, emphasizing the relatedness of all beings and matter. Page 3 prints the "Order of Exercises": music, prayer, a benediction, and several essays: "Progress of Literature and Science" by J.W. Linn; "Agitation" by John Zuck; "National Destiny" by James Munsell; "Duty of the Strong to the Weak by J.W. Brier; and "Moral Grandeur" by H.H. Daugherty. Not located in Sabin, Rocq, Greenwood, Drury, OCLC, or the online sites of the Library of Congress, AAS, and University of California as of October 2023.
38, [1- publ. advt], [1 blank] pp. Stitched. Lightly foxed and toned. Very Good. Contemporary ownership signatures of Stephen W. Clark and [more elaborately and frequently] Philip Curtis. Beadle, of Wethersfield, "killed his wife and four children, and then committed suicide. Beadle, a respected merchant in the community, had suffered great financial loss as the result of the collapse of paper money. He became depressed, and unable to bear the embarrassment of poverty, decided on suicide, taking his family's lives as well to prevent their suffering. He had considered these acts for three years, and had made three previous attempts, which he aborted because he lacked a direct command from God" [Cohen]. The Sermon first issued from Hartford in 1783. Ours is the only other 18th century printing. The Wethersfield Historical Society has a long essay on the Beadle murders. McDade 76. Evans 21216. Cohen 3923. ESTC W12528.[6 locations].
Broadside print, 14" x 19" [by sight], in a contemporary frame. Twenty-Nine oval portraits of American Methodist preachers, including African-American preacher Francis Burns. A central vignette of "Pioneer Preacher" John Wesley riding a horse into a small village where rural citizens await him in front of a log cabin. Light dusting and minor spotting, Very Good. Reverend Francis Burns was the "first Black bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Elected in 1858, he served as a missionary bishop in Liberia. His rise to ministry and the episcopate happened against a background of American racism, colonialism, and imperialism. His early life was spent in Greene County, NY. His family was poor, and at the age of four he was indentured to a farmer. At age eight, he was indentured to the Atwood family. Mrs. Atwood was a Methodist class leader. She permitted Francis to attend school with her children during the winter season" [article on Burns at online UMC web site]. From the Smithsonian's description: "This black and white print contains twenty-nine small oval portraits of leaders of American Methodists and five vignettes. The vignettes are of John Wesley rescued from a burning building; Wesley preaching on the tombstone of his father; Old John Street Church, New York; Tremont Street Methodist Church, Boston; and Pioneer Preacher (the central vignette). . . This print was produced by the artist L. Hollis and lithographer John Chester Buttre. John Chester Buttre (1821-1893) was an American steel-plate engraver, lithographer and publisher. He first studied drawing in his hometown of Auburn, New York, and moved to New York City in 1841. He produced thousands of engraved portraits of American political and military figures, which he published in a three-volume work entitled The American Portrait Gallery. Nothing is known about artist L. Hollis." OCLC 499459544 [1- AAS]. Copies also noted at Smithsonian and Library of Congress.
Oblong engraved broadside, 9-7/8" x 5-3/4." Printed in elegant typescript, with contributor's name [Ruben Hain-] and amount [$5] in ink manuscript, and signature of Fred Fickey, Jr., as treasurer. Lithograph with portrait of Governor Hicks; illustration of clasping hands Union and Liberty; Lady Liberty holding the American Flag and shield, standing next to the American Eagle holding "E Pluribus Unum" banner. Very Good. Hicks helped to hold Maryland in the Union, although he hated abolitionists, approved of slavery, and urged President Lincoln not to send troops through Maryland. Appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1862, he endorsed Lincoln's bid for reelection. This attractive certificate memorializes Hicks's considerable accomplishment. Without a loyal Maryland, Washington DC would have been isolated from the rest of the Union. Frederick Fickey, Jr. [1786-1877] was a Baltimore merchant of the wholesale house of F. Fickey & Sons, and Treasurer and Secretary of the Union State Central Committee of Maryland from at least 1861-1862. He was an original directors of the Maryland Fire Insurance Company of Baltimore, Chairman of the Committee of the City Council of Merchants of Baltimore in 1860, and one of the Commissioners of Public Works from 1861-1864.
8pp, caption title [as issued]. Disbound with some loosening, but a clean copy. Signed at the end in type by Thomas Webb. Housed in a modern dark slipcase with gilt-lettered spine title. Good+. The New England Emigrant Aid Society was formed in 1854 to promote the emigration to Kansas of anti-slavery men and their families. Its Executive Committee, whose members included Eli Thayer, Edward Hale, and William Spooner, responds to criticism that the Society is a "mammoth moneyed corporation" which seeks "to control the institutions of Kansas." The charges against the Society were leveled in a Senate Report issued by the Chairman [Stephen A. Douglas] of the Committee on Territories. The Society, says the Executive Committee, does not promote "interference with the internal affairs and domestic concerns of the Territory;" it "has done what it could, in a peaceable, legal, and constitutional way, to aid in the settlement of Kansas by a population of freemen." FIRST EDITION. 22 Decker 220. Not in Sabin, Dary, Eberstadt, Work, Dumond, Blockson, LCP.
[2], 19-110, [2] pp. Original printed and illustrated front wrapper [rear wrapper lacking]. Full-page illustrations. Occasional light foxing. Good+. The man in question, John F. Hogan, was the victim of "husband-hunters." Such women "are as genuine and real pests of society as professional prostitutes, gamblers, confidence operators, etc." The author recounts "the history of a man who married no less than ten of these peculiar females, nearly all of whom resorted to the same base and reprehensible practices to trap their victim into matrimony." Hogan, on trial for bigamy in Philadelphia, explained that the women "are simply professional strumpets." Conceding that he "went through some kind of a ceremony," he nevertheless maintained he was not legally married to more than one woman at a time. OCLC records three locations under three accession numbers as of October 2023.
Four volumes: [26], 504; [8], 584; [8], 499, [1 blank]; [8], 445, [1, blank], [34- Index], [2 blanks] pp. Complete with nine folding maps: The United States of America; Boston, and its Environs; New York Island, & parts adjacent; The Jerseys, &c. &c; folding map of parts of Canada and New England at rear of Volume 2; The Carolina's, with part of Georgia; A Sketch of the Operations before Charlestown, South Carolina, 1780; The Part of Virginia which was the Seat of Action; Yorktown, and Gloucester Point, as besieged by The Allied Army. Bound in contemporary or near-contemporary marbled paper over boards and half calf, with gilt spine rules and gilt-lettered red morocco spine labels. Lightly foxed, Very Good. "First full-scale history of this war by an American; to its preparation Jefferson contributed some aid" [Howes]. "Gordon is deservedly reckoned as one of the most impartial and reliable of the numerous historians of the American Revolution" [Sabin]. "Gordon was a dissenting minister in England, who like many of his class sympathized with the contentions of the thirteen colonies. Going to America during the disturbances, and becoming pastor of the church at Jamaica Plain, now a district of Boston, he was throughout the Revolution a spectator close at hand to many important events, and the associate of many of the chief patriots" [Reese]. The List of Subscribers is a veritable Who's Who of important Revolutionary War figures, including John Adams, Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Samuel Adams, and many other notables. The volumes were owned by William Chauncey Fowler [1793-1881], with his ownership stamp on the blank upper margin of each volume's title page ["W.C. Fowler"]. Wikipedia has written his biography, calling him "an American scholar." Yale University has his papers, as well as those of the related Chauncey family. Reese Revolutionary Hundred 86. Howes G256. Sabin 28011. Larned 1341. Gephart 996.
[4] pp, entirely in Mrs. Jackson's ink manuscript. Folded octavo leaf. Old horizontal fold, light wear, Very Good. With the front portion of the stamped and addressed envelope to Tennent. A native of North Carolina, "Jackson's widow was much honored in North Carolina and throughout the former Confederate states. After the death of Mrs. Jefferson Davis in 1906, Mrs. Jackson was recognized nationwide as 'The First Lady of the South.' The 'tiny, brown-eyed lady' was the idol of Confederate veterans, many of whom came from all over the South to pay their respects to her and to her husband's memory. She literally lived her legend in her own day" [NCPedia online article about Mrs. J.]. Here the Widow Jackson is distressed by the Coat of Arms that Gaillard S. Tennent created for her family [words in capital letters are underlined in the original]: "In reply to yours of the 28th I would say that I did receive the copy of the Morrison coat of arms, which I requested Mrs. T.S. Morrison to procure, for me, and which I suppose was identical with one she showed me of her husband's family which is also my own. I did not notice, however, in the dim evening light, that the MOOR'S heads were representatives of the purest AFRICAN type, and when I showed it to my family, the exclamation burst forth from me of them, "Well, I didn't know we were descended from 'NIGGERS'!' Now, my dear Sir, I know that the tradition is that the Morrisons gained the distinction for prowess by the slaughter of some Moors, and the Coat of Arms is represented by three MOOR'S HEADS, but surely my idea of the Moors is that they were NOT PURE, BLACK, THICK LIPPED AFRICANS! I wrote Mrs. Morrison this, and she replied that you were willing to change the work, if it was not satisfactory. I have intended ever since to return it to you and ask you to change it, so now I am taking the liberty of sending it back and asking you kindly to make the changes I so desire-- eg. to relieve the picture of the hideous AFRICAN representation, and transform such monsters into the type of the BROWN race with more regular and intelligent features; certainly NOT the THICK, SENSUAL LIPS, but more of the style of the Malay race. Don't you think I am correct in this? At any rate, I want the changes made if it is not digressing too much from the truth, as the present representation is really very objectionable to me and my family. Indeed, I do not care to accept it without some changes comporting as near as possible to the ideas I have described. If you will be good enough to do this, I will of course send you a check of $500 upon receipt of the Coat of Arms with its improvements. Excuse my long letter, but I wanted to explain to you just what I wished in the change. Yours truly, Mrs. T.H. Jackson."
Four volumes, with seventeen engraved, uncolored plates [including frontis engraving in each volume], and four folding letterpress tables. Collation: pages [2- frontis: Falls of St. Anthony], viii, [26- 13 engravings plus their blank versos], 591, [1 blank]; [2- frontis: Tobacco plant], [4], 492, [1 blank]; [2- frontis: Black Snake], [4], 525, [1 blank], folding table after page 280; [2- frontis: Plan of Franklinville], [4], 415, [1 blank], 95, [1 blank], [9], [1blank], three folding tables after page 294. Bound in later half calf and marbled paper over boards [hinges tender, front cover of Volume 2 detached but present]. Text, plates, and tables clean. A couple of the plates trimmed closely, with occasional effect on caption. Except as noted, Very Good. The several plates noting dates are all 1794. Except for the frontis in each volume, all plates are bound consecutively in the first volume. As the Reese copy notes, this is evidently an early state of the first edition: the title pages are undated, the engravings are uncolored, and the book was evidently bound before later plates, maps, plans, and directions to the binder became available. A detailed index at the end of Volume 4 suggests the breadth of Winterbotham's coverage of his subject: the early settlement of the Americas, the American Revolution, the States of the United States, the Canadian Provinces and Northwest Territory, the West Indies and South America. Winterbotham found the time to write his tome while serving a stint at Newgate Prison for sedition. The volumes were owned by William Chauncey Fowler [1793-1881], with his ownership stamp on the blank upper margin of each volume's title page ["W.C. Fowler"]. Wikipedia has written his biography, calling him "an American scholar." Yale University has his papers, as well as those of the related Chauncey family. Howes W581. Gephart 1039. Sabin104832. 43 Decker 303.
