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“What a Combination! Seward, Greeley, Bennet, Watson Webb, H. Ward Beecher, &c. There can be no doubt that this goodly company will speedily be increased by the addition of Fred. Douglass and his black republicans… The only candidate to arrest this tide of demoralization and sectionalism, is James Buchanan.”

This pro-Buchanan election of 1856 pamphlet attacks the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. Frémont. Quoting from the speeches and writings of William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, Wendell Phillips, Salmon P. Chase, Henry Ward Beecher, William H. Seward, Joshua R. Giddings, this pamphlet ignores distinctions between abolitionists, racial egalitarians, more limited opponents just of the expansion of slavery into the territories, or those who fought the kidnapping of free African Americans under the Fugitive Slave Law. It paints all with the same broad brush as “Black Republican” extreme abolitionists who were willing to destroy the Union rather than remain in it with slaveholders.

Inventory #24482       Price: $750

Excerpts:

[Before Title:] “Read and hand to your Neighbor.”

“We propose showing by indubitable testimony that John C. Fremont’s leading friends are now the open enemies of the Federal Constitution… the enemies of one-half of the States of the Union; the enemies of the laws of Congress; and the enemies to equality of the States.” (3)

“In a speech delivered at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention on the 29^th of May, 1856, by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, we have a flood of light shed on the relation between abolitionism and republicanism, which divests the subject of all doubt or uncertainty.” (4)

“William H. Seward was known at the Abolition Convention, at Philadelphia… as one of Fremont’s warmest supporters. Indeed, it is well known that to Chase, Seward, and Greeley, Fremont is mainly indebted for his nomination: they defeated McLean.” (7)

“Nathaniel P. Banks, Abolitionist and Disunionist, was elected Speaker of the House by a solid sectional vote: he did not get one vote from the South....No man has exhibited such ferocious hostility to the fugitive slave law, to the compromise measures, and to the Federal Constitution. His speeches, full of treason and of war, would fill a volume.” (8 and 9)

“Every leading committee has an Abolition Disunionist for chairman, and a Disunion majority! There some thirty-five committees in the House… Black Republicans monopolized all the great committees. Thus was the work of Disunion formally begun in the Congress of the United States! This monstrous act, unprecedented in all our history, was the deliberate work of the men who now surround Fremont.” (10)

“The reverend agitator, Ward Beecher, is out for Fremont, in the last number of his ‘Independent.’ He is, probably, next to Garrison and Phillips, the most profligate calumniator of the Constitution and the Union.” (19)

“What a Combination! Seward, Greeley, Bennet, Watson Webb, H. Ward Beecher, &c. There can be no doubt that this goodly company will speedily be increased by the addition of Fred. Douglass and his black republicans. Every Black Republican in Congress, from New York, is now the earnest advocate of Fremont.” (20)

“We aver that there is not an Abolitionist or Disunionist in Pennsylvania who is not an active and open friend of John C. Fremont for the Presidency. David Wilmot and William F. Johnston lead the motley crew, both recreants from the Democratic party, because the Democratic party respected the Constitution of the United States, and would not desert its injunctions… The only candidate to arrest this tide of demoralization and sectionalism, is James Buchanan. It is against him and against the Constitution that this combination has been formed.” (23)

“in the South every vote thrown for Mr. Fillmore is more or less an aid to John C. Fremont, to the extent that it may weaken James Buchanan.” (24)

“We would speak of Mr. Fillmore with entire respect. His speech at Albany was patriotic and forcible, but it cannot be denied that out of New York, in the North, all those who pretend to support him will be called upon in the State elections to unite against the Democratic party with the friends of Fremont, otherwise known as the Black Republicans.” (24)

Historical Background

James Buchanan won with 1.8 million votes and 174 electoral votes from 19 states. Fremont received 1.3 million votes, winning 11 northern states with 114 electoral votes. American Party (“Know Nothing”) candidate and former President Millard Fillmore received 873,000 votes, winning Maryland’s 8 electoral votes. Frémont received no votes at all in 10 of the 14 slave states and fewer than 1,200 votes total in the other 4 slave states.

John C. Frémont (1813-1890), “the Pathfinder,” was a legendary explorer who achieved military victories in California during the Mexican War. He entered politics as California’s first senator and then became the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856. During the Civil War, Lincoln removed Frémont from command in Missouri after he unilaterally declared martial law and threatened to confiscate all property, including slaves, of Southern sympathizers. Lincoln gave Frémont command of an army in western Virginia, where he was defeated by Stonewall Jackson in the Battle of Cross Keys. After Frémont refused to serve under General John Pope, Lincoln never again gave him a field command, contributing to a personal grudge. In 1864, Frémont abandoned his third-party campaign for the presidency in September, after Lincoln agreed to remove U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair from office.

Condition

Disbound, minor pin holes, very good.