THE REAL ISSUE- UNION OR DISUNION. LETTER OF HON. S.S. MARSHALL, ON THE PARTIES AND POLITICS OF THE DAY, TO THE FREEMEN OF THE NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS.
Washington: Printed at the Union Office, 1856. 27, [1 blank] pp. Disbound, else Very Good.
Marshall was a Democratic Congressman from southern Illinois, i.e., "from the most conservative portion of this great country, and representing a people not infected with the fanatical or sectional sentiments of the extremes, either north or south."
This Letter to his constituents lashes out at Southern Fire-Eaters and the new Republican Party; they would destroy the Union rather than compromise their unreasonable views. Moreover, the Know-Nothing Party, led in this presidential election year by former President Millard Fillmore, is governed by "dreadful, unchristian, and unconstitutional oaths," presenting "the most dangerous instrument ever invented for the destruction of the liberties of a free people."
Marshall is a Western Expansionist in the tradition of his Democratic Senatorial colleague, Stephen A. Douglas; he thus resents that the controversy over slavery threatens to stall Americans' development of the Great West. He urges support for the Democrats' presidential candidate, James Buchanan.
LCP 6363. Not in Sabin, Eberstadt, or Decker. Item #40838
Price: $350.00