REPLY OF JOHN T. STUART, TO AN ANONYMOUS HAND BILL, SIGNED "A CITIZEN OF SANGAMON" [caption title]. This item is unavailable.REPLY OF JOHN T. STUART, TO AN ANONYMOUS HAND BILL, SIGNED "A CITIZEN OF SANGAMON" [caption title]

Broadside, 16 1/4 x 11 inches. Printed in four columns. Old horizontal fold. Slight chipping at edges, a few dark ink spots. Contemporary manuscript annotation on rear bleeding through. Moderate tanning and scattered light foxing. Good plus. A scarce broadside response that was part of a bitter political fight between Archer Gray Herndon and John Todd Stuart, soon to be Abraham Lincoln's new law partner in Illinois. Much of the text, which totals approximately four thousand words, is occupied by Stuart's defense of his conduct while serving during the Black Hawk War in 1832. Stuart, a Kentucky-born lawyer, Illinois politician, and cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, became Lincoln's partner in 1837. In 1834, Stuart was campaigning for a second term in the Illinois House on the Whig ticket. An earlier broadside had attacked Stuart for allegedly feigning illness at a crucial time during the Black Hawk War, and accused him of voting against extending credit on school lands, and other political shenanigans. He believed Herndon (whose son coincidentally would also become Lincoln's partner in law after Stuart), a powerful local Democrat, to be behind the attack, and personally addressed this printed rebuttal to him. A vivid rebuttal of a potentially debilitating smear during the 1834 Illinois state election campaign. Byrd and OCLC together locate only two copies, at the Illinois State Historical Society and the Lincoln Presidential Library. BYRD 200. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 26969.