ASTOUNDING DEVELOPMENTS! THE AMERICAN PARTY SOLD TO BUCHANAN! LET ALL AMERICANS JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES!
Philadelphia: 1856 [October 20]. Folio broadside, 13" x 18-1/2." Printed in five columns beneath the caption title. Lightly toned with scattered spotting and several shallow chips at blank margins. Good+. Signed in type at the end by "Charles Gibbons, Chairman of Rep. State Ex. Committee | Philadelphia, Oct. 20, 1856."
This rare broadside prints the Address of Pennsylvania's Republican State Executive Committee "To the People of Pennsylvania." It reports Republicans' efforts to form an alliance with members of the American, or Know-Nothing, Party who are "opposed to the extension of slavery, and to the election of Mr. Buchanan to the Presidency."
The broadside demonstrates the chaotic rearrangements of Party affiliations in this crucial election year: the Whig Party was on the verge of extinction, destroyed by the growing sectional conflict over slavery; and the Know Nothings, under former President Fillmore, sought to fill the void. The Committee warns that "Mr. Fremont and Mr. Fillmore are therefore rival candidates." The Committee urges "Friends of liberty" to vote the Fremont ticket, "If you would check the extension of slavery, and assert the worth and dignity of free labor."
The Library of Congress is the only location recorded by OCLC. Its title [Control No. 2021768425] reverses the placement of our second and third sentences. We have located no other copies.
Not in Sabin, Eberstadt, Decker. Not at AAS. OCLC 1280407366 [1- DLC] as of December 2024. Item #40406
Price: $2,500.00