[Illinois]: [May, William L.]:

$6,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[THREE RARE ILLINOIS BROADSIDES REGARDING THE BITTERLY-CONTESTED 1834 CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION BETWEEN WILLIAM L. MAY AND BENJAMIN MILLS]. An early example of the potential for viciousness in American politics. These broadsides pertain to the 1834 Congressional election in Illinois' 3rd District. William L. May ran against Benjamin Mills for the seat left vacant by Joseph Duncan, who had resigned to become governor. Abraham Lincoln, who was first elected as an Illinois State Representative in August of this same year, served as a clerk for the election in the Springfield house of William F. Barry, and voted for May, a Democrat, who received seventy-two votes, against only three for Mills. In 1844, Lincoln and then-former Congressman May purportedly engaged in a heated, three-day debate on the tariff at the Main Street Presbyterian Church in Peoria. May, a lawyer and mercantilist, served variously as Justice of the Peace, a state and federal legislator, and mayor of Springfield. He went to California during the Gold Rush and died in Sacramento on September 29, 1849.Further details on the broadsides are as follows:1) Fellow Citizens: Some weeks since I was most bitterly and rancorously assailed, by an anonymous writer in the "Illinois Patriot," who...published a tissue of falsehoods [beginning of title]. [Springfield: Journal Office, 1834]. Broadside, 16¾ x 11 inches. Printed in three columns, approximately 2,200 words. Two corners chipped, toned, foxed. Contemporary note recordi

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