A SERVICEABLE GARMENT - OR REVERIE OF A BACHELOR.
New York: [N. Currier, 1856]. Lithograph broadside, 11-3/4" x 16-1/2." Pale uniform dusting. Minor blank edge wear. Prior mounting remnants on blank verso. Very Good.
The title derives from the book by popular author Donald Grant Mitchell, a/k/a Ik Marvel, who wrote "Reveries of a Bachelor." Buchanan, our only bachelor President, is depicted in shabby living quarters. He contemplates his ragged jacket, "on which he has evidently just sewn a patch marked 'Cuba.' This is probably a reference to his authorship of the Ostend Manifesto of 1854, which proposed that the United States annex or seize Cuba" [Reilly]. Acquisition of Cuba for an American Slave Empire was a dream of Southern Democrats.
The broadside depicts Buchanan's conversion, from early Federalist to Democrat to enabler of the Southern agenda. Buchanan remarks, "My Old coat was a very fashionable Federal coat when it was new, but by patching and turning I have made it quite a Democratic Garment. That Cuba patch to be sure is rather unsightly but it suits Southern fashions at this season."
"Buchanan's words suggest that the desire to extend American slave territory motivated his Ostend designs on Cuba" [Reilly].
Reilly 1856-13. Weitenkampf 116. Gale 5865. OCLC 1136525329 [1- AAS], 1038122536 [1- Boston Public] as of December 2022. Not at online sites of U Penn, Penn State. Item #38951
Price: $2,000.00