Sparta Democrat - - - Extra. Sparta, Friday, January 15, 1841. "Principles, And Not Men." [Detrich, John E.] Americana,Broadside,Illinois,Missouri,Presidency

Folio broadsheet, 10" x 13-1/2." Each page printed in three columns. Browned. margin-foxed. Small piece missing from blank upper corner. Good. The first issue of this short-lived weekly appeared May 8, 1840. Its predecessor was the Sparta Herald, published by John E. Detrich, who "remained publisher until June 1840, when he relinquished control of the paper, which the new owners renamed the Democrat" [online Papers of Abraham Lincoln Digital Library]. The difficulties encountered in publishing a frontier newspaper are illustrated by the opening sentence: "In consequence of not having an opportunity to get paper from St. Louis, this week, we could only issue an extra. . ." A Democratic paper, this issue discourses at length on the just-concluded 1840 election, which resulted in the Whigs' first presidential victory. Already thinking of 1844, the Sparta Democrat endorses Martin Van Buren and Thomas Hart Benton as the ideal ticket. Benton weighs in, commenting, "I am glad to see that you have hoisted the Van Buren flag for 1844." Detrick analyzes the 1840 election results, noting that a switch of 8,500 votes in four states would have re-elected Van Buren. A mere three lines on page [2] recount an amusing incident in the career of Abraham Lincoln: "'The eyes (I's) have it,' as Lincoln said when he jumped out of the window, and got his eyes full of sand." Lincoln and his Whig friends jumped out of the first floor window of the Illinois House in order to avoid being counted for a quorum. Not at AAS. OCLC locates a few libraries with a few issues; whether this Extra is included among them is something we haven't been able to discover.