The Latest from Bauman Rare Books

By Michael Stillman

The latest collection of New Acquisitions has arrived from Bauman Rare Books of New York and Philadelphia. Bauman specializes in upper tier, important books and documents. This newest catalogue offers 182 items covering a wide range of material -- historic, literature, artistic, autographed, posters, just about anything. The common thread with Bauman material is the importance of the work. Here are a few samples of what may be found in the latest acquisitions from Bauman Rare Books.

It was probably the most important single event leading up to the American Revolution. On March 5 of 1770, a crowd gathered in Boston, expressing its displeasure toward a group British soldiers. The British perhaps panicked, shooting into the crowd. Three Bostonians died immediately, including Crispus Attucks, long considered the first casualty of the American Revolution. The "Boston Massacre" became a rallying point for those unhappy with British rule, and hardened the anger among those who would become known as America's patriots. The British and the their American colonists were now going down a road from which there would be no return. A week later, Boston Town Meeting appointed a committee, including James Bowdoin, to issue a report on the event. Item 10 is Bowdoin's report, A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, Perpetrated in the Evening of the Fifth Day of March 1770... Most of the pamphlet consists of witness interviews, 94 out of 96 of whom blamed British soldiers or officials. This particular edition carries a London imprint but was actually printed in Boston. The British had banned its printing in Boston, so in order to spread the word to the colony, Bostonians printed it, but used London as the imprint location to mimic the English printing which was not illegal. Priced at $21,000.

America was careening toward her worst internecine battle on June 26, 1857, when Abraham Lincoln rose before an audience in Springfield, Illinois, to respond to a speech a few weeks earlier by arch-rival Stephen A. Douglas. The Dred Scott Decision, which effectively declared Blacks non-people, had just come down, Kansas was in bloody confrontation, and Utah was in something of a rebellion. Lincoln spoke forcefully on the issues of the day, setting out the differences between the new Republican Party and those of the Democrats. First, Lincoln threw Douglas' popular sovereignty principle, which would have allowed new states to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery, in Douglas' face by asking whether Utah could choose for itself whether to permit polygamy. He next attacked Douglas on popular choice in Kansas, noting that to vote in that territory, one had to be registered, but many favoring freedom had been prevented from registering. However, he saved his heaviest fire for Douglas' acceptance of Dred Scott. Lincoln distinguished the parties by saying, "Republicans inculcate that the negro is a man, that his bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the field of oppression ought not to be enlarged. The Democrats deny his manhood; deny or dwarf to insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; [and] so far as possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite hatred and disgust against him." Item 124 is the Speech of the Hon. Abram Lincoln, in Reply to Judge Douglas, the only recorded separate edition of this speech. $8,500.

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