Judge Woodward on the War!

George Washington WOODWARD

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Judge Woodward on the War!

EARLY NEGATIVE POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT AGAINST JUDGE WOODWARD, CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA IN 1863

WOODWARD, George Washington. Judge Woodward on the War! [Philadelphia: no publisher, 1863]. Large broadside on wove stock (19 by 24 inches).

Original political broadside, calling the Democratic nominee for the Governor of Pennsylvania, George Woodward, “a disciple of the extreme Calhoun school of politics, and by far a more dangerous man than Vallandigham himself.”

George Woodward was the controversial Democratic nominee for governor of Pennsylvania in 1863. He had served as president judge of the fourth judicial district from 1841 to 1851 and despite his experience on the bench, was unconfirmed as Polk’s candidate for Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1845, and had lost his bid for the U.S. Senate earlier that year. “Woodward’s controversial support for peace with the Confederacy led many to label him as a ‘Copperhead” (Civil War Pennsylvania). This imposing political broadside may have contributed to Woodward’s poor performance in the 1863 gubernatorial election. It contains negative comments on him by Lemuel Todd, one time Republican representative in the 34th Congress. Todd calls Woodward “a defender of the constitutionality of the doctrine of secession,” and “by far a more dangerous man than Vallandigham himself.” Vallandigham led the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats and “publicly denounced the ‘wicked and cruel’ war by which ‘King Lincoln’ was ‘crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism” (Laurence Vance). A quote from the candidate himself seems to have sealed his doom: Woodward attributed “this unconstitutional Abolition war” to the “malignant fanaticism” of the North.

Some tears along fold lines (affecting a few letters). A scarce political broadside in extremely good condition.

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