LIBERTY TICKET. "PLEDGED BUT TO TRUTH, TO LIBERTY AND LAW, / NO FAVOR SWAYS US, AND NO FEAR SHALL AWE." FOR ELECTORS AT LARGE. JOEL HAYDEN. JOHN G. WHITTIER. . .
[Boston: 1844?]. Narrow broadside, 3-1/4" x 10." Spotted, a bit of creasing. Engraved illustration of the tree of liberty beneath the title. Old mounting remnant on blank verso. The candidate for Governor was Samuel E. Sewall; for Lieutenant Governor, William Jackson; for State Senate Abel Bliss and Chauncy Chapin; for Congressman, Lucius Boltwood; and five for State Representatives. All were antislavery men. Good+.
The forerunner of Martin Van Buren's 1848 Free Soil Party and of the Republican Party in 1854, the Liberty Party was the first political party organized to oppose slavery. It lost badly in this Massachusetts election. However, on the national scene-- headed by James Birney -- it was sufficiently powerful to defeat Henry Clay's bid for the presidency, as his tepid stand on the slavery question angered northern anti-slavery Whigs.
This is a rare artifact of the Liberty Party's short but influential existence. The Boston Public Library and the MA Historical Society-- suggesting dates of 1844, 1843, and 1840-- own copies very similar to ours: they name Sewall's residence as Roxbury, and Jackson's as Newton. Ours do not name the residences. Item #40118
Price: $500.00