THE REBELLION: ITS CHARACTER, MOTIVE, AND AIM. ORATION...DELIVERED AT WASHINGTON, MO., ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1862.
[St Louis? 1862]. 12pp, with caption title, as issued. Disbound, Very Good.
Union control of Missouri during the War "was exercised in a unique manner. The governor and most of the legislative body had decamped. The only unionist body with some claim to sovereignty was the state convention that had adjourned in March after rejecting secession." This Convention "ruled Missouri until January 1865, when a government elected under a new free-state constitution took over" [McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 292-293]. Drake was "the most active and conspicuous member" of this Convention, the leader of the Radical faction, which was "well organized under Drake and with a definite program, including immediate emancipation, a new constitution, and a system of drastic disfranchisement" [DAB].
Drake asserts here, "The Nation throws off the shackles of enslavement to Slavery; and to-morrow the noontide of freedom will blaze over a country where no man shall ever again be called, or be, a slave,"
FIRST EDITION, Bartlett 1374. Sabin 20817n. Not in LCP. Item #31624
Price: $175.00