Élection

1824 · réf. 62431 — N.p. but likely New York. 1824. Rare Illustrated Anti-Jackson Broadside A very rare illustrated anti-Jackson broadside from the hotly-contested election of 1824 addressed to "manufacturers and mechanics." The presidential election of 1824 was a complicated four-candidate affair with frontrunners Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams trailed by Henry Clay and William Crawford each drawing considerable support in certain districts. In fact the race was so close that no candidate won a sufficient majority of the electoral vote and Adams was elected by the House of Representatives under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment despite carrying four fewer states than Jackson and the glow of the "Era of Good Feeling" was dimmed once and for all. Addressed to "Manufacturers and Mechanics" this broadside focuses primarily on Jackson's economic policies specifically his anti-tariff stance. "If the Jackson Party prevail" the text proclaims "the next Congress will be opposed to the tariff to mechanics manufacturers and domestic industry.The consequence will be that the sound of the shuttle will no longer be heard. Our stores will be filled with British and Scotch ginghams shirtings checks and bed-ticks; and not a place will be found for a yard of American cloth.Don't suffer yourselves to be deceived by stories that General Jackson is your friend.What will his battle of New Orleans avail you if you are thrown out of employment and made beggars" Even Jackson's campaign materials they claim are made from British exports. The text seems targeted at a New York and New England audience pointing out South Carolina and "the southern section of the country" as the fervent opponents of domestic industry and warning readers not to be "the dupes of such men as William Coleman" owner of The New York Evening Post. Throughout the broadside maintains a strong anti-British stance and suggests that Jackson and his supporters including Coleman are better friends of Great Britain than America: "Coleman is the man who exulted when a British fleet lay off the Hook. The Evening Post was received wet from his office on board their ships every day. Nothing but respect for the laws prevented our incensed countrymen from demolishing the press and types that printed the diabolical treason." While the text espouses Henry Clay as the man of the hour "the truest ablest and best friend you ever had" the woodcut illustration places a ship named the "John Quincy Adams of Washington" front and center. It flies banners reading "Free Trade & Sailors Rights" and "No Colonial Subjection" and is flanked on either side by vignettes subtitled "National industry is National Wealth" and "Agriculture is the Source of Prosperity." Ironically the largest controversy in Jackson's presidency a decade later would be over his lack of action against tariffs when his failure to repeal Adams' 1828 "Tariff of Abominations" resulted in the Nullification Crisis and threats of civil war. We locate only one other copy of this broadside at the Library of Congress. A rare and interesting illustrated political broadside from a highly contentious election. Old folds minor splitting at right edge of central horizontal fold. Lightly tanned. Very good. REILLY AMERICAN POLITICAL PRINTS 1824-3. OCLC 299947334. hardcover