Franklin Pierce's Letter To Jeff. Davis [Pierce, Franklin] Americana,Broadside,Civil War,New Hampshire,Presidency

Broadside, 5-1/2" x 8-3/4." A few light fox spots, Very Good. Pierce of New Hampshire was putty in the hands of Southern Democrats during his Administration. Contemptuously considered a "doughface" by his opponents, he supported the proslavery measures that led to secession and war, particularly the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This broadside prints a Letter from Pierce to Davis on January 6, 1860. The Letter, first printed in the Independent Democrat, was discovered when, "soon after the fall of Vicksburg, the library of Jeff. Davis, upon his plantation, near Jackson, Mississippi, fell into the hands of the Union troops." Printed here for all to see, Pierce's Letter "elucidate[s] the secret history of the Slaveholders' Conspiracy which finally culminated in bloody Rebellion, and as serving to show the complicity of Northern Democratic politicians." In the 1860 Letter Pierce denounces "THE MADNESS OF NORTHERN ABOLITIONISM" and abolitionists' "FANATICAL PASSION ON THE SUBJECT OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY." Pierce expresses the hope that Davis will be the Democrats' nominee for president in the upcoming 1860 election. "Men of New Hampshire! Read, compare, and reflect. From this letter, can be seen the encouragement which the leaders of the Rebellion had from the acknowledged leaders of the Democratic Party at the North. . . Not a word of remonstrance against the conspiracy of Jeff. Davis and his fellows, just ripening into rebellion, can be found in this letter of Franklin Pierce, now, as in 1860, the leader of the New Hampshire democracy." OCLC 191233099 [2- AAS, Hamilton College] as of March 2024. Not in Sabin, LCP, or online at NHHS, U NH, Dartmouth, Boston Athenaeum, NYPL, Newberry, Brown.