Peleg Sprague is not one the better known of historic American political leaders. He served for a few terms in Congress in the 1820s, and as a senator from Maine from 1830-35. After that, he returned home, and a few years later was appointed a Federal District Court Judge in Massachusetts, where he served for many years until his retirement. However, Sprague should be noted for the courageous stand he took on behalf of the Georgia Cherokees in the early stages of their forced removal from their ancestral homeland. His views are enunciated in the Speech of Mr. Sprague, of Maine: delivered in the Senate of the United States, 16th April, 1830...upon the subject of the removal of the Indians. Sprague attacks the argument that they should be removed, despite treaties to which the U.S. agreed, because they are "savages." Says Sprague, "Much has been said of their being untutored savages, as if that could dissolve our treaties! No one pretends that they are less cultivated now than when those treaties were made." Sprague goes on to note that the Cherokees' civilization has progressed, pointing to laws, a Cherokee printing press, and further advances. He then concludes by noting that the western lands to which they are to be sent are already inhabited by other tribes who will resist the taking over of their land. Further, there is starvation among these tribes already, an issue hardly to be resolved by placing even more people on the land. Item 134. $45.
Willard Glazier was an unwilling prisoner during the Civil War. He escaped Confederate prisons and was recaptured twice before finding the third escape was the charm. He had earlier been involved in an attempt to tunnel out of Libby Prison but was unsuccessful. After twice being recaptured, he was finally able to escape from Sylvania, Georgia, in December of 1864 and make his way to federal lines in Savannah. His account was given in 1868 in The Capture, the Prison Pen, and the Escape, giving a complete history of prison life in the South... Glazier went on to live an exciting life in the years after the war. According to his obituary in 1905, he rode from Boston to San Francisco on horseback in 1876, being captured briefly by Indians and, of course, being compelled to escape. It says he escaped by taking one of their horses. More notably, Glazier canoed the entire length of the Mississippi in 1881. It was then that he claimed to have discovered the true headwaters of the Mississippi. Henry Schoolcraft had found that to be Lake Itasca in Minnesota, but Glazier found a smaller lake that drains into Itasca. That lake, Elk Lake, which he modestly renamed "Glazier Lake" (it is now again called "Elk Lake"), does drain into Itasca, but the flow is small, another stream also drains into Itasca, and several tiny streams in turn drain into Elk Lake. The result is Lake Itasca is still considered the headwaters of the Mississippi, and Elk Lake is still Elk Lake. Item 168. $65.
The new titles being offered by Arthur H. Clark Publishing cover the Utah War of 1858, steamboating on the Missouri, the journals of Prince Maxmilian from 1832-33, and Oklahoman Billy McGinty. Clark Rare Books may be contacted at 405-307-0088 or info@clarkrarebooks.com.
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2008 Issue
New Acquisitions in Western Americana from Clark Rare Books
Senator Peleg Sprague fought to have the U.S. honor its treaty with the Cherokees.
