HANCOCK, HANCOCK.- COCK-A-DOODLE DOO! JUNE 24TH 1880 - Rare Book Insider
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[Election of 1880]

HANCOCK, HANCOCK.- COCK-A-DOODLE DOO! JUNE 24TH 1880

Copyright by Geo. H. Hanks, New York: 1880
  • $650
Metamorphic card, 3-1/4" x 5-3/8" fully opened. Richly colored, light wear, Very Good. The unopened illustration depicts a dignified, serious Hancock as a rooster in elaborate feathers. But when opened, Hancock has lost his feathers, is emaciated and bleeding from the mouth. The caption reads, "November 2nd. | 1880 | Hancock Hancock Boo-Hoo-Hoo." Winfield Scott Hancock, a decorated Civil War general and a hero of Gettysburg, was the losing Democrats' presidential candidate in 1880, opposing Republican James A. Garfield. The verso, entitled 'Rhymes for Young Democrats,' brilliantly skewers the overt racism of the Democratic Party. It begins: "Sing a song of shotguns, | Pocket full of knives, | Four-and- twenty black men, | Running for their lives; | When the polls are open, | Shut the nigger's mouth, | Isn't that a bully way | To make a solid South?" OCLC 32320004 [1- Brown] as of August 2024.
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BY THE HONORABLE JAMES KENT, ESQUIRE CHANCELLOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME OR MAY CONCERN: KNOW YE, THAT [JAMES TALLMADGE JUNIOR] HAVING BEEN DULY EXAMINED AND REGULARLY ADMITTED AS A [COUNSELLOR] IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, IN THE TERM OF [JUNE] IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND [FOURTEEN] I DO HEREBY AUTHORIZE AND LICENSE THE SAID [JAMES TALLMADGE JUNIOR] TO APPEAR IN THE SAID COURT, AND THERE TO PRACTICE AS A [COUNSELLOR] ACCORDING TO THE RULES AND CUSTOMS OF THE SAID COURT, AND THE LAWS OF THIS STATE. GIVEN UNDER MY HAND AND THE SEAL OF THE SAID COURT, AT [NEW YORK] THE [ELEVENTH] DAY OF [JULY] IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND [FOURTEEN] [signed in ink manuscript] JAMES KENT

Kent, James 7" x 10-3/4". Printed certificate on thick paper, the New York State seal at the bottom left corner. Printed in typescript with several fonts, completed in ink manuscript [as noted by the brackets]and signed in ink by James Kent. Text surrounded by an ornamental rectangular border. Acknowledgment in ink manuscript on verso, dated and signed by Isaac L. Kip, Assistant Registrar. Very Good. James Kent [1763-1847] the son of Moss Kent, a lawyer, is considered one of the great jurists of any era. Admitted to the New York Bar in 1785, he was a State Assemblyman, the first professor of law in Columbia College, Governor Jay's appointee as Master in Chancery; New York's Chief Justice; and a member of the 1821 State Constitutional Convention, where he unsuccessfully opposed raising the property qualification for Negroes. His four-volume COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW is a foundation of American jurisprudence. Tallmadge became a Congressman and author of the Tallmadge Amendment, which would have prohibited Slavery in the contemplated State of Missouri.
  • $375