More Rare and Unusual Americana from David Lesser Antiquarian Books

Ultimately, he chooses Democrat Buchanan, though he "was the political enemy and the vilifier of my father." He explains, "I loved my father better than I loved any mortal man, but I love my country more." Clay would be elected to Congress later that year as a Democrat, be offered but decline a ministerial post by President Buchanan, attend the Peace Convention of 1861 in Washington, which unsuccessfully attempted to reach a compromise between North and South, and ultimately support the Confederacy. However, he became too ill to militarily assist the Confederacy and died before the war was over. We don't know what Henry Clay would have done had he lived another decade, but it is interesting to see the route chosen by his son. $250.

Speaking of the Know-Nothings, in 1856 they railed against foreigners in this pamphlet, The Foreign German Vote. They encouraged Americans to vote for Know-Nothing candidate Fillmore because the Democrats relied on "Irish Catholic influence," while the Republicans courted "German foreigners." The pamphlet states that Germans do not support Republican Fremont the way native born citizens do. "They support him as Germans, not as American citizens." Whatever that means. Prejudice is nothing new. $350.

It would take almost a century and a half for the Supreme Court to come around to John A. Graham's point of view. Graham argues his legal point in The Report of Hiram Maxwell's Case, printed in 1823. Maxwell was accused of stealing a horse, and apparently "confessed" to the crime. In a distant forerunner of the Miranda warnings routinely given those charged with a crime today, Graham argues that confessions should not be taken from an accused "without first informing him of his legal rights, thereby protecting the ignorant innocent from being entrapped, or frightened into a confession that often deprives them of liberty, if not of life." The Supreme Court would finally make this the law of the land in 1966. Item 45. $375.

Dr. Andrew Stone offered cures for all types of diseases in 1868 in his The Most Wonderful Cures! Effected by the Newly-Discovered System of Electro-Vital Remedies and Treatment... Among those illnesses he could cure were pulmonary diseases, liver disorders, catarrh, dyspeptic consumption, bronchitis, epilepsy, female weaknesses, rheumatism, laryngitis, asthma, throat diseases, and scrofula. Medicine was much more effective back in 1868. Dr. Stone claimed to be the inventor of the pulmometer, which while it sounds like something a dentist would use, is actually a device to measure lung capacity. Item 104. $475.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books may be found online at www.lesserbooks.com or reached by phone at 203-389-8111.

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