Recent Acquisitions in Americana
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CATALOGUE THREE HUNDRED FOURTEEN Recent Acquisitions in Americana WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue is made up of an assortment of material recently acquired by this firm. None of the items have appeared in previous catalogues. All are related to North America from the late 16th century to modern times, although most items described were published in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are numerous works of natural history, color plate and illustrated books, a substantial group of material on the Civil War and American politics, and a broad variety of unusual and interesting material in books, pamphlets, broadsides, prints, and photographs. Available on request or via our website are our recent catalogues 310 American Manuscript Archives, Journals & Narratives, 311 American Women, and 313 World Travel & Voyages, as well as Bulletins 31 Manuscripts, 32 Western Americana, 33 American Natural History, 34 Adams & Jefferson, 35 American Travel, and many more topical lists. Some of our catalogues, as well as some recent topical lists, are now posted on the internet at www.reeseco.com. A portion of our stock may be viewed via links at www. reeseco.com. If you would like to receive e-mail notification when catalogues and lists are uploaded, please e-mail us at [email protected] or send us a fax, specifying whether you would like to receive the notifications in lieu of or in addition to paper catalogues. Terms Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described and are con- sidered to be on approval. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements are made. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance charges are billed to all nonprepaid domestic orders. Overseas orders are sent by air unless otherwise requested, with full postage charges billed at our discretion. Payment by check, wire transfer or bank draft is preferred, but may also be made by MasterCard or Visa. William Reese Company Phone: (203) 789-8081 409 Temple Street Fax: (203) 865-7653 New Haven, CT 06511 E-mail: [email protected] www.williamreesecompany.com FRONT COVER: 9. Audubon, John James: The Birds of America....New York & Philadelphia. 1840-1844. REAR COVER: 158. [United States Army and Navy]: Regulations for the Uniform & Dress of the Army of the United States.... Philadelphia. [1851]. 1. Adams, John: A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOV- ERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. London. 1787. [2],xxxi,[3]-392pp. Antique-style three-quarter calf and marbled boards. Internally clean. Very good. The true first edition, complete in one volume, of one of the most important and widely read of the many writings of the important Revolutionary figure and second American president. At the time Adams wrote this work he was serving as the first United States ambassador in England, an uncomfortable position for a recent rebel, but he was ever ready to argue the American point of view. Herein he forc- ibly states the principles upon which he perceived the United States to be founded. The book was popular and went through numerous editions, to which Adams added two additional volumes, which contain descriptions of the Italian republics of the Middle Ages as well as a lengthy analysis of “the Right Constitution of a Com- monwealth.” This edition’s issuance as the federal constitutional convention was assembling added to its popularity and resulted in several American reprintings. According to the DAB, “its timeliness gave it vogue.” Later, Adams’ detractors sought to find in it a hidden desire for a monarchy. HOWES A60. SABIN 233. DAB I, p.76. $5000. Presentation Copy from the Former President 2. Adams, John Quincy: ORATION ON THE LIFE AND CHARAC- TER OF GILBERT MOTIER DE LAFAYETTE. DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, BEFORE THEM, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AT WASHINGTON, ON THE 31st DE- CEMBER, 1834. Washington: Printed by Gales and Seaton, 1835. 94pp. Contemporary red straight-grained morocco, ruled in gilt; neatly rebacked with original spine laid down. Leaf tipped in preceding titlepage with presentation inscription from the author (“Gideon Hard from John Quincy Adams”) and further inscriptions by several later owners passing along the book. Very minor foxing and soiling. A good copy. Adams’ speech honors the memory of Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. This copy is inscribed by Adams to Gideon Hard, is in a presentation binding of the sort favored by the Adams family for decades, and is printed on thick paper. John Quincy Adams devoted his entire career to government service. The son of President John Adams, he himself served as the sixth president, as a U.S. Sena- tor from 1803 to 1808, as Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825, and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in the U.S. Capitol in 1848. Gideon Hard (1797-1885) was a lawyer and politician from New York State. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1833 to 1837, and was thus one of Adams’ fellow Congressmen. He later held several New York State political offices. Adams provides a review of Lafayette’s contributions to American independence and his activities in the decades after the Revolutionary War, particularly his involve- ment in the French Revolution and various French governments which followed. In this brief biography Adams reflects “upon the life and character of a man whose life was, for nearly threescore years, the history of the civilized world – of a man, of whose character, to say that it is indissolubly identified with the Revolution of our Independence, is little more than to mark the features of his childhood – of a man, the personified image of self-circumscribed liberty.” An eight-page appendix records Congressional actions related to the death of Lafayette. SABIN 295. JACKSON, p.208. $6750. Early Chicago Anti-Slavery Pamphlet by Adams 3. [Adams, John Quincy]: LETTER FROM THE HON. JOHN Q. AD- AMS, TO THE BANGOR COMMITTEE, ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE WEST INDIES. [Chicago. ca. 1846]. pp.[89]- 96. Dbd. Light soiling and wear. Good. A scarce printed letter from John Quincy Adams to the anti-slavery committee in Bangor, dated July 4, 1843, followed by a report from the Monroe, New York Democrat about Adams’ recent journey through the state. In his letter to the Bangor committee Adams declines an invitation to speak, citing poor health, but contributes a “strong blast at the institution of slavery” (Byrd). “The extinction of SLAVERY from the face of the earth,” Adams writes, “is a problem, moral, political, religious, which at this moment rocks the foundations of human society throughout the regions of civilized man. It is, indeed, nothing more nor less than the consum- mation of the Christian religion” (p.[89]). The letter first appeared in a regular issue of The Liberty Tree (probably the December 1843 issue, according to Byrd) and was most likely printed separately (but retaining original pagination) along with other important documents from the first volume of that publication approximately three years later. The Liberty Tree was a monthly anti-slavery periodical edited and published in Chicago by Zebina Eastman from 1843 to circa 1846. OCLC lists five copies: University of Chicago, Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Brown University, and Princeton. BYRD 1009. $1750. A Wonderful Illustrated Broadside of African-Americana and Native American Imagery 4. [African-Americana]: [Native Americans]: [PARTIALLY PRINT- ED MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE, COMPLETED IN MANU- SCRIPT, FOR THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METH- ODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH]. New York. Nov. 5, 1839. Broadside, 20 x 13¾ inches. Partially printed, completed in manuscript. Minor foxing and toning, manuscript slightly faded. Very good. Handsome pictorial broadside certificate for the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It reads: “This certifies that [Henry Chronise] having paid to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the sum of twenty dol- lars is thereby constituted a Member during life conformably to the seventh article of the Constitution.” It is signed by Daniel Ostrander as Chairman and Francis Hall as Clerk. The top half of the certificate contains a lithograph by Nathaniel Currier depicting a minister preaching to a group of Native Americans, their tee- pees in the background. Freed slaves pray to heaven in the right foreground, their open shackles on the ground nearby, with a scene of fiery damnation in the left foreground, the broken temples of idolaters just behind. An angel trumpets over the whole scene, holding up the Holy Bible. Two copies located, at the American Antiquarian Society and the Smithsonian Institution. $2500. The Elections to the First Continental Congress 5. “Agricola” [pseudonym]: TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW-YORK. GENTLEMEN, IT IS AN IN- VIDIOUS TASK TO BE EMPLOYED IN DETECTING AND EXPOSING THE MANY FALSEHOODS AND ABSURDITIES, CONTAINED IN THE NUMEROUS PUBLICATIONS THAT DAILY INFEST THIS CITY...[caption title and first lines of text]. New York. July 12, 1774. Broadside, 14½ x 10¼ inches. Loss of the “o” and “e” in the first two words of the title. Minor soiling and wear. Tipped to a larger sheet. About very good. Broadside concerning the election of delegates to the First Continental Congress, responding to Alexander McDougall’s “To the freeholders, freemen, and inhabitants of the city and county of New-York” and another broadside entitled “To the freeborn citizens of New-York,” authored by someone signing himself as “A Moderate Man.” There was significant debate over whether or not to elect representatives to the first Continental Congress, followed by further debate over the best method to go about electing those representatives once the idea took hold.