The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

13 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. printed broadside in two columns. (Small scattered losses, some staining, pinholes at corners, uneven toning.)

CONTROVERSY AT THE 1860 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

The National Republican Platform of 1860 was drafted by the Platform Committee, chaired by Judge William Jessup of Pennsylvania. Controversy arose when the proposal of Ohio Representative Joshua Reed Giddings to include the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence in the platform was rejected, prompting Giddings to walk out. The matter was hastily reconsidered, the lines were added, and the platform was approved in its entirety. The 17 declarations of principle included numerous mentions of slavery, chief among them the notion that while the president could not officially abolish the institution, he could use Constitutional authority to prevent its spread into states newly admitted into the Union. Other provisions included the establishment of a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, the enactment of the Homestead Act, and various improvements to national infrastructure.

[With]: The Republican Platform. [Chicago: N.p.], 1860. 2 pp., 8vo (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in). Circular printing of the above. (Minor soiling.)