Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2005 Issue
A Look into America's Unusual Past from David Lesser Antiquarian Books
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As long as we are speaking of California, here is a most unusual item pertaining to the Golden State: Report of the Committee of Internal Improvements, on the Use of Camels on the Plains. May 30, 1855. This state report discusses "...introducing camels and dromedaries into California and employing them for transportation across the deserts intervening between California and the Eastern States." Ultimately, Californians had to settle for the Pacific Railroad instead as a means of transportation to the East. Item 15. $150.
Franklin Pierce was the epitome of the "northern man with southern principles," the favorite of Democrats as they tried to hold together as a national party in the 1850s while others fell apart. Pierce was elected in 1852 by being sympathetic to southern interests, despite being a resident of New Hampshire. That didn't stop this Whig pamphleteer from claiming Pierce was a closet abolitionist. While admitting there was no clear incidence of these abolitionist tendencies, Frank. Pierce and His Abolition Allies claims that lots of isolated events shows these sympathies. Pierce would undoubtedly have been astonished to learn that he was really pro-abolition. Item 101. $175.
John Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate, was attacked from the opposite side by the "Know-Nothings" in 1856. Fremont, they claimed, was actually pro-slavery. The pamphlet is Fremont. Only Seventeen Working Days in the U.S. Senate. His Whole Civil Life. Twice Voting Against the Abolition of Slavery, in Washington - the Federal Capital. The "Know Nothings" were anti-immigrant, and particularly anti-Catholic, and yet surprisingly they were mostly against slavery as well. In 1856, they were battling the Republicans for the antislavery northern vote, and the evident strategy here was to attempt to make the Republicans appear proslavery. The two parties did split the northern vote, helping Democrat James Buchanan carry the day, but by 1860, the "Know-Nothings" had disappeared as a force, allowing the second Republican presidential nominee, Abraham Lincoln, to carry the day. Item 49. $175.
If the slavery issue was something of a side attack by the "Know Nothings," this one was more head on: Fremont's Romanism Established. Acknowledged by Archbishop Hughes...Hughes, Seward, Fremont, and the Foreigners. In 1856, the "Know Nothings," having quickly moved to a position of power, were already trying to hold on to their gains, as the slavery/abolition, North/South confrontations were increasingly dominating the scene, pushing their nativist agenda to the backburner. This piece was an attempt to push that quickly fading issue back to the forefront. Item 47. $175.
If you think that all leaders of the Confederacy went off to spend their golden years sipping bourbon together on the veranda, item 33 is a surprise. From Jubal Early, it is A Correspondence Between Generals Early and Mahone, in regard to a Military Memoir of the Latter. General Mahone had written an article in 1870 glorifying his own conduct in the war, and accusing General Early of incompetency. He had also charged that Early had backed out of a duel. In this publication, Early expounds his version of this old argument among old soldiers. While mostly forgotten today, Mahone would go on to play an important, if brief, role in politics. In the early 1870s, he was something of a railroad magnate, but economic issues of the 1870s would lead his business to collapse. He turned to politics instead.
