Progressive Tracts (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Sammelband. Twelve pamphlets bound into one volume. 12mo. Approximately [625]pp., paginated variously. Bound without wrappers into leather-backed maroon textured cloth with spine gilt and edges sprinkled. Some pamphlets with margins trimmed. Spine with light wear and slight loss at the head, some pamphlets with age-toning, pamphlet 11 with a tiny chip at the base of the spine throughout, still a tight, near fine copy. A collection of 12 rare, late-19th Century American political pamphlets, most published in the run-up to the 1896 Presidential election. Themes include the exploitation of labor (particularly farmers) and the evils of plutocracy, bimetallism, the virtues of individualism and Prohibition, the tariff question, and the nationalization of the railroads. Highlights include a pamphlet with over 30 political cartoons by the noted socialist illustrator Ryan Walker, and an 1896 Oklahoma imprint published by long-time abolitionist and populist James Vincent, Sr. Six pamphlets appear to be unlisted in *OCLC*, and all but one are known in less than 10 copies. As of March 8, 2021, none of them are available in the trade. A list is below: 1. Trumbull, Gen. M.M. *Thomas Jefferson: The Father of American Democracy. His Political, Social and Religious Philosophy*. Chicago: George Schilling, [circa 1890s]. [3] 4-20pp. A paean to Jefferson and individualism. 2. Ervin, Clark. *Peril of the Republic*. Chicago: W.L. Raynolds, June, 1896. *American Politics*, Vol. 2, No. 2. [2] 3-62pp. Perils include: foreign invasion, a moneyed aristocracy, American anarchists, and various "minor but destructive" dangers. Copyright 1891; this edition with a 10-page appendix. *OCLC* appears to locate no copies of this title, and shows about 22 copies (of only five titles) of *American Politics*, published by Raynolds. (N.B. The margins are trimmed close on this pamphlet, with only a single page losing one letter per line at the foredge. One leaf is folded vertically near the foredge [it stands a bit proud otherwise] in order to accommodate the text on the verso.) 3. Thompson, R.S. *Money: Its Nature, Function, and Power*. [Likely Springfield, Ohio: New Era Co.], August, 1894. [1] 2-96pp. *The Question*, Vol. 4, No. 8. An address delivered before the Springfield, Ohio, Trades and Labor Assembly, Friday, April 27, 1894. *OCLC* appears to locate no copies. Issues of *The Question* in general seem to be uncommon, with *OCLC* returning only a couple of copies in various formats. We've pulled likely publication information from there. 4. (Bennett, Hon. M.V.B.). *What Shall the Harvest Be?* [Likely Springfield, Ohio: New Era Co.], April, 1895. [1] 2-52pp. *The Question*, Vol. 5, No. 4. A speech delivered at Otterbein, Indiana, February 11, 1895. *OCLC* appears to locate no copies; see above. A speech on the exploitation of the American farmer and the tariff question, from the perspective of the Prohibition Party. A lawyer, preacher, Civil War veteran, and lifelong Midwesterner, Martin Van Buren Bennett lectured for 18 years with the State Temperance Union. His 1913 obituary in the Norton, Kansas, *The Champion* was titled "Kansas' Great Orator Dead," and we aren't going to question the accolade. In his closing, he calls the men who seek to lead labor astray "dishonorable enough and mean enough to steal the silver quarters from off the eyes of a dead man, and then kick his body because the quarters were not five-dollar gold pieces!" 5. (Various). *The Plutocrat, and Eleven Other Orations*. Springfield, Ohio: The Inter-Collegiate Company, 1893. [3] 4-90 [6 blank] pp. Delivered at the National Contest of the Inter-Collegiate Prohibition Convention at Harvey, Illinois, June 30, 1893. Speeches by named college students, whose topics go beyond Prohibition into the arenas of politics and civic virtue. Includes a history of the Inter-Collegiate Prohibition Association. *OCLC* locates two copies (U. Illinois, Ohio History Connection). 6. (Wilson, Jas. W.). *Farm, Field, and Fireside's Financial Catechism*. (Chicago: Howard & Wilson Publishing Co.), [1896]. 27 [1] pp. An appeal for the American farmer to vote in favor of bimetallism. *OCLC* locates seven physical copies. 7. [Machen, E.C.]. *The New York Farmer and Our Financial System*. [New York: J.S. Ogilvie Publishing Co., 1896]. [1] 4-28 [2 blank] pp. This copy bound in lacking a blank and without author or publication information, but the footer does state "New York, 1896." It also matches the number of pages of the seven physical copies (under a couple of records and a few slightly different titles) we locate in *OCLC*. 8. Vincent Sr., James. *"What is the Matter?": Some Timely Inquiries Into What is Pinching the American PeopleHinted Answers.* Guthrie, Okla.: Representative Print, 1896. [3] 4-32pp. Title page states Vincent, Sr. hails from Tabor, Iowa, and is the founder of the "Nonconformist." *OCLC* locates no copies. The Vincent family pops up in several books and papers on the Populist and radical agrarian movements of the late 1800s. According to Lawrence Goodwyn's *The Populist Movement: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America* (Oxford, 1978), Vincent, Sr. was a "radical egalitarian, abolitionist, and free thinker," who was a western correspondent for Greeley's *New-York Tribune* and William Lloyd Garrison's *Liberator*, and at one time operated a school and stop on the Underground Railroad at Tabor, Oklahoma, where this pamphlet would be published years later. According to Harold Piehler, who wrote a paper on James's son Henry, the aforementioned *Nonconformist* was founded in 1879 and dedicated to "Emancipation from Slavery to Bond-holders and Railroad Corporations." His five sons would spread out across the Midwest as radical journalists and publishers; a family certainly worthy of more study. 9. [No author]. *The Little Clincher*. [Likely Kansas City, Missouri: Appeal to Reason, circa 1895]. [18]pp. With an illustration by Ryan Walker and another by "S.