Brackenridge, H Enry M Arie (4 results)

Green blindstamped cloth. Covers a bit rubbed, spine sunned and chipped at head and foot, some scattered foxing.

8°, late nineteenth-century half black calf over marbled boards (some wear), smooth spine with author, short-title, and date stamped vertically in gilt. Uncut. Some light foxing. In good condition. iv, 116 pp. *** First edition thus. This is volume III of New Voyages and Travels, consisting of extracts from Brackenridge's two-volume work, Voyage to South America, performed by order of the American government, in the years 1817 and 1818, in the frigate Congress, Baltimore, 1819. The Advertisement (p. iii) states, "[Brackenridge] has presented to the world two luminous volumes on the subject of South America, in which many valuable disquisitions, historical and political, have been mixed with his personal adventures and local observations, - but, in the pages which follow, the former have been rejected, and only the latter preserved." It includes chapters on Rio de Janeiro and Brazil; São Paulo, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande; Montevideo and Buenos Aires (with an interview with the Supreme Director and other high officials); Chile; principal events in Buenos Aires since 1806; and Venezuela and New Granada.Henry Marie Brackenridge (1786-1871), a native of Pittsburgh, was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1806, and set off with Manuel Lisa on a trip up the Missouri in 1811, then sailed to New Orleans, where he took up residence as a district judge and published Views of Louisiana, 1814. When the former colonies in South America were declaring their independence, Brackenridge published South America, a Letter on the Present State of that Country, which was sent to James Monroe. Six years later Monroe incorporated many of its ideas into the Monroe Doctrine. Meanwhile, Brackenridge was chosen part of a commission to sail on the frigate Congress to observe firsthand the situation in Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and Chile. *** Howgego II, 66 (B54). Sabin 7180: calling for 116 pp.; quoting Baron Humboldt, "an extraordinary mass of information, replete with philosophic views." Naylor 28 (calling for 130 pp.; however, the present copy appears to be complete). Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 22790.3. On the Voyage to South America, see Griffin, Latin America: A Guide to the Historical Literature 3633: "very informative.".

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 8vo. pp. 304. contemporary tree sheep, rebacked (some light foxing). First Edition. "Brackenridge gives an account of the fur trade, principally of Manuel Lisa's operations, and describes the expedition to the Yellowstone in 1807, the formation of the Missouri Fur Company, and the expedition to the forks of the Missouri. The second part describes Brackenridge's trip up the Missouri with Lisa to a newly established post of the Missouri Fur Company, upstream from the Mandan villages. Overtaking the Astorian party of Wilson Hunt, they reached the post on June 26. After a brief stay, Brackenridge, in company with John Bradbury, returned to Saint Louis, 'having made 1440 miles in little better than fourteen days'" (Wagner-Camp). The first part of the book is devoted to a description of Louisiana, its discovery, settlement, climate, geography, resources, agriculture, towns and aboriginal inhabitants. "An impartial and careful writer." (Clark) Clark II 136. Graff 379. Howes B-688. Raines p.30. Sabin 7176. Streeter 1776. Wagner-Camp 12:1.

[4], 236 pp. Untrimmed and generously margined. Early leaves margin-spotted; otherwise lightly foxed or dusted, generally in the margins. Very Good in modern quarter calf and speckled pale boards, with gilt-lettered spine title on black morocco. Brackenridge had a remarkable career-- as a lawyer in Maryland and Pennsylvania, district attorney for the Orleans Territory, author of a foundation work on the War of 1812 and other subjects [Howes B684 et seq.], Judge of West Florida and, at the time of his efforts in behalf of the "Jew Bill," a delegate to the Maryland General Assembly. His prefatory Advertisement explains why he published this book: "The struggle in Maryland for the freedom of conscience, is one which at the time excited a deep interest; and every victory of CORRECT PRINCIPLES-- every triumph of FREEDOM, should be carefully recorded in perpetuum rei memoriam." Maryland's 1776 Constitution required, as a condition of holding "any office of trust or profit," that the applicant express a "declaration of belief in the Christian religion." This provision was good for Maryland Catholics but bad for its Jews, who were thus excluded from public office and other activities, such as the practice of law. Article VI of the Federal Constitution prohibited the imposition of any religious test for office; and the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution barred religious establishments. But these limitations bound only the Federal government, not the States. However, the federal clauses were a rallying point for repeal of State religious proscriptions. Repeal efforts began in 1797 and continued for the next generation until, in 1826, the Maryland Legislature passed "An Act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by Christians." It stated, "Every citizen of this state professing the Jewish religion. appointed to any office of public trust [shall] make and subscribe a declaration of his belief in a future state of rewards and punishments, in the stead of the declaration now required." Brackenridge eloquently argued, "An odious exclusion from any of the benefits common to the rest of my fellow-citizens, is a persecution, differing only in degree, but of a nature equally unjustifiable with that, whose instruments are chains and torture. In our land of equal rights and equal pretensions to the dignity and emolument of office, to be subjected to a degrading exception, is by no means a nominal punishment. [I]t was the will of heaven to open here, AN ASYLUM TO THE PERSECUTED OF EVERY NATION! We are placed here to officiate in that magnificent temple; to us is assigned the noble task of stretching forth the hand of charity, to all those unfortunate men, whom the political tempests of the world may have cast upon our shores." The speeches of Brackenridge's allies, William G. D. Worthington and John S. Tyson, are also recorded here. Worthington read the entire correspondence between the Jews of Newport and President Washington, and quoted from letters that were exchanged between the first President and the other Jewish communities. Brackenridge adds several other speeches emphasizing the primacy of Americans' Natural Rights. Rosenbach 312. Singerman 0477. Cohen 3410. 131 Eberstadt 388.