🗞️ HARPERS WEEKLY · April 28, 1860
Complete Issue · New historically extraordinary issue combining the Democratic National Convention at Charleston in three comprehensive illustrations — delegates departing the hotel, the convention hall, and the full session in a double-page centerfold — with what is likely one of the earliest published advertisements for a baseball rulebook in the American press. A primary document of the convention that split the Democratic Party and made the Civil War inevitable, combined with a primary document of early baseball publishing THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION AT FRONT PAGE — "DELEGATES TO THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION LEAVING THE CHARLESTON HOTEL"
A front-page illustration of Democratic delegates leaving their hotel in Charleston — a vivid street-level primary document of the most consequential political convention in American history. The Charleston Democratic Convention of April 1860 was the moment the Democratic Party — and the American Union — began to irreversibly fracture. Northern delegates under Stephen Douglas wanted a popular sovereignty platform on slavery in the territories; Southern fire-eaters under William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama demanded a federal slave code. When Douglass platform passed, the Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina delegations walked out. The convention adjourned without nominating anyone after 57 ballots. The departure of those Southern delegates — the men whose shoes are visible in this very front-page illustration — was the first formal rupture of the national Democratic Party, the event that guaranteed Lincolns election and Southern secession. This street scene of delegates leaving their hotel captures the human reality of that historic moment.🏛️ HALF PAGE — CONVENTION HALL AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
A half-page illustration of the Charleston convention hall — the physical setting of the most consequential political gathering of the Antebellum era, where the Democratic Party tore itself apart over the question of slavery in the territories.🎯 DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — THE CHARLESTON DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION IN SESSION
A magnificent double-page centerfold of the full Democratic National Convention in session at Charleston — delegates, galleries, and the full sweep of the convention floor at the moment of American political historys most dramatic fracture. Combined with the front-page street scene and the half-page convention hall illustration, this issue provides the most comprehensive illustrated documentation of the Charleston convention in the American press — three separate views capturing the convention from the street, the building, and the floor. A primary document of the event that made the Civil War THE BASE BALL PLAYERS POCKET COMPANION — EARLIEST BASEBALL BACK PAGE ADVERTISEMENT — "THE BASE BALL PLAYERS POCKET COMPANION" — MAYHEW & BAKER, BOSTON — 25 CENTS
A back-page advertisement for "The Base Ball Players Pocket Companion" — available for 25 cents from Mayhew & Baker, Publishers, Boston — containing "the latest Rules and Regulations for both the Massachusetts and New York Games" with illustrations. This is one of the earliest published advertisements for a baseball rulebook in the American press — a primary document of the moment when baseball was still divided between the Massachusetts Game (a regional variant played on a square field without foul lines) and the New York Game (the precursor to modern baseball, whose rules the National Association of Base Ball Players had codified in 1858). The fact that a Boston publisher was selling a rulebook covering both games in April 1860 — just months before the Civil War would spread the New York Game across the continent via Union Army camps — makes this advertisement a significant piece of early American baseball publishing and sporting history. A primary document of baseball at the exact moment of its national THE HENRY CLAY STATUE — NEW ILLUSTRATION — "STATUE OF HENRY CLAY, AT NEW ORLEANS"
An illustration of the Henry Clay statue in New Orleans — the great Whig statesman and "Great Compromiser" whose statue in the city that had been his political base is a poignant piece of Antebellum memorial history, published as the compromises Clay had forged were finally collapsing at the very convention being documented in the same photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and dont hesitate to ask any questions — Im happy to provide additional detail or close-up shots of any page, illustration, or area of concern before you ········ Harpers Weekly
Date ··············· April 28, 1860
City ··············· New York
Format ············· Illustrated newspaper, complete in 16 SHIPPING & Stored in an acid-free protective bag and flat-shipped in a padded envelope with heavy cardboard reinforcement
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