The Emergence of Modern Presidential Campaigning in the Mudslinging 1828 Election

Philadelphia: Printed by William Stavely, August, 1828. First edition. 8vo. 22 pp. Printed stab-sewn self-wrappers, creasing along spine and in corners; spotting and soiling to text; pencil notation at top of front wrapper ("Dup N.H."); in red cloth fall-down-back box. Sabin 60789; Shaw & Shoemaker 33747

Rare pro-Andrew Jackson 1828 presidential campaign pamphlet, by Pennsylvania lawyer and Democratic party politico John Kintzing Kane (1795-1858). Kane graduated from Yale in 1814 and began practicing law in Philadelphia in 1817. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1824 to 1825 and left the waning Federalist party before the end of his term, disgusted by the so-called "corrupt bargain" between President John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay following the presidential election of 1824. By 1828 he had aligned himself with Andrew Jackson and campaigned heavily for him.

The 1828 election is remembered as a watershed moment in American politics. Its divisive and bitter nature was unlike any before or after, and its use of organized campaigning helped foster the emergence of the two-party system, in which this pamphlet played a part. As such, this pamphlet, "contrasted the self-made man and national hero Jackson with the elitist Adams. Distributed nationally, Candid View helped create a new type of campaigning through the popular press and pamphleteering." (Grow, "Liberty to the Downtrodden" Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer, 2009, p. 5).

According to RBH, this is the first copy to ever be offered at auction. OCLC locates only four other copies, in the Pennsylvania State Library, the Library of Congress, the American Antiquarian Society, and the John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Shaw & Shoemaker locate further copies at the Maryland Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and at the Library Company of Philadelphia.