"FREEMEN OF THE UNITED STATES! READ, MARK, WEIGH, RESOLVE, AND VOTE!": SCARCE 1864 LINCOLN PLATFORM BROADSIDE, “FOREVER PROHIBITING THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY WITHIN THE UNITED STATES”

LINCOLN, Abraham. The Platforms. No place, after August 29, 1864. Broadside printed in double columns, measuring 8 by 10-1/4 inches; p. 1. $3500.

First broadside side-by-side publication of the Democratic and Republican platforms for 1864 election year (Lincoln v. McClellan), clearly referencing slavery as the cause of the Civil War.

Shortly following the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Union Party (i.e. the Republic Party, temporarily renamed) circulated this clearly pro-Republican analysis of differences between the two platforms—the main difference being that "the Union Platform regards Slavery as the inciting, guilty cause of the Rebellion—the Democratic is silent in terms as to Slavery." Headed "Baltimore" and "Chicago," the site of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the broadside sets the party platforms against each other in double-column format. The Democrats had been generally conciliatory toward the South and adopted a state's rights platform. Indeed, the party included many Copperheads, who wanted to settle a peace treaty with Confederates. By contrast, the Republican Party was committed to the Emancipation Proclamation, the preservation of the Union, and honoring Civil War veterans. "We are in favor," the Republican Platform reads, "of an amendment to the Constitution, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of Slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States." Sabin 63348. Not in Monaghan.

Faint browning along folds, Tiny chip to top corner, two small tape repairs to verso. Near-fine condition.