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Lot 447
[POLITICS]. 'Boy' Lost! Left Washington DC...Answers to the name of "Little Giant." N.p.: N.p., ca 1860. Anti-Stephen Douglas broadside.
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$500 - 700
Price Realized
$2,500
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Lot Description
[POLITICS]. 'Boy' Lost! Left Washington DC...Answers to the name of "Little Giant." N.p.: N.p., ca 1860. Anti-Stephen Douglas broadside.

14 x 20 7/8 in. (old folds, minor toning); framed to 19 x 26 in. (not examined out of frame). Signed (anachronistically) in type by August Belmont of New York and Willis A. Gorman of Minnesota.

An anti-Stephen Douglas broadside published during the hotly contested four-way 1860 presidential election, the piece lampoons the fragmented Democratic Party. Written as though issued by the Democratic Party Chairman August Belmont and prominent Democrat and former Minnesota Territorial Governor Willis A. Gorman, the text proclaims "'Boy' Lost!" with a list of various cities, all in the North, where he had been seen. It continues: "From some expressions he has dropped, it is feared that he has become insane upon a subject he calls 'Popular Sovereignty.'" The lambasting continues with an unflattering description of his physical appearance and his personality: "Answers to the name of 'Little Giant.' Talks a great deal, and very loud; ALWAYS ABOUT HIMSELF. HAS AN IDEA THAT HE IS A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY."

Possibly issued by Southern Democrats who refused to acknowledge the pro-Union Stephen Douglas as the Democratic nominee and put forward John C. Breckinridge as their own candidate.

RARE: Johannesen quotes the text on p. 781, Stephen A. Douglas, however, no other copies were located at the time of cataloguing. 

Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana, and Historical Documents
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