8vo (222 x 133 mm). (Spotting and occasional minor soiling throughout). 19th century quarter calf (rubbing to covers and spine, lower portion of rear spine peeled back partially affecting front, damp stains to front free endpaper and preliminary leaves). Provenance: John Wesley Stewart (1822-1899), American lawyer and politician and early Wisconsin pioneer (ownership signatures, name stamped on spine).

Timothy Otis Howe represented the state of Wisconsin in the United States Senate from 1861 to 1879, his election coinciding with that of Abraham Lincoln, whom Howe considered a friend. Throughout his tenure he was considered a member of the Radical Republican faction and became well known for his fiery speeches in favor of the fifteenth amendment, during one of which he proclaimed that charges of racial inferiority of African Americans was "a libel upon humanity, black or white." Howe was ultimately one of 35 senators who voted to convict Andrew Johnson during his 1868 impeachment trial.

BOUND WITH 43 CIVIL WAR-ERA IMPRINTS, INCLUDING:

1) [HUNT, John Warren]. The Wisconsin Almanac and Annual Register, 1856. [Milwaukee: Rufus King & Co., 1855]. The first almanac printed in Wisconsin, owned by one of the framers of the Wisconsin State Constitution.

2) GOODLOE, Daniel R. Federalism Unmasked; or, the Rights of the States, the Congress, the Executive, and the People, Vindicated Against the Encroachments of the Judiciary... Washington, D.C.: Duell & Blanchard, 1860. RARE: We trace no copies at auction since 1914. Sabin 27861.

3) SUMNER, Charles. The Barbarism of Slavery. Speech of...on the Bill for the Admission of Kansas as a Free State. Washington, D.C.: Duell & Blanchard, 1860.

4) DOUGLAS, Stephen A. On the State of the Union. Washington. D.C.: [Government Printing Office], 1861.

5) HARLAN, James. State of the Union. Speech of Hon. Jas. Harlan of Iowa in the Senate, January 11, 1861. Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn's Steam Job Press, 1861. James Harlan was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln's whose daughter, Mary, wed Robert Todd Lincoln in 1868. Henry Polkinhorn famously printed the broadside for the April 14, 1865 performance of Our American Cousin at which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. RARE: We trace no copies at auction.

6) GARFIELD, James A. Speech of...in Reply to the Speech of Hon. Alexander Long in Favor of Abandoning the War and Recognizing the Southern Confederacy. [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1864].

7) BALDWIN, John D. State Sovereignty and Treason. Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn, 1864.

8) JOHNSON, Andrew. Message of the President of the United States Communicating...[the Condition of the South]. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1865.

9) Horatio Seymour's Record. Chicago: Rand, McNally, & Co., [1868]. A pre-fire Chicago imprint against the candidacy of Horatio Seymour, Democratic nominee for the presidency in 1868 who ultimately lost the race to Ulysses S. Grant.

9) Financial Issues of the Campaign. [Chicago: The Chicago Tribune], 1868.

10) PAINE, Albert E. Purchase of Alaska. Washington, D.C.: F. & J. Rives & Geo. A. Bailey, 1868.

And 33 others. Together, 44 works in one volume. A REMARKABLE CIVIL WAR-ERA POLITICAL SAMMELBAND, CENTERED ON THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE GREAT NATIONAL QUESTIONS OF SLAVERY, SECESSION, UNION, WAR, AND RECONSTRUCTION.

John Wesley Stewart served as a Whig in the 5th Wisconsin Territorial Assembly and took part in framing the Wisconsin State Constitution prior to Wisconsin's admission to the Union in 1848. Following the organization of the Republican Party in 1854, Stewart joined the new party and, in 1859, was elected to the Wisconsin Senate. During the Civil War, he devoted considerable time to visiting Wisconsin regiments in the field and assisting soldiers in sending their pay home to their families.