Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, Abraham and Stephen A. DOUGLAS. Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. In the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois. Including the Preceeding Speeches of Each, at Chicago, Springfield, Etc.; Also the Two Great Speeches of Mr. Lincoln in Ohio, in 1859. Carefully Prepared by the Reporters of Each Party, and Published at the Times of their Delivery . Columbus: Follett, Foster & Co., 1860. Tall 8vo, 232 x 155mm. (9 1/8 x 6in.), original publisher's dark brown cloth, covers decoratively blindstamped "DEBATES of LINCOLN and DOUGLAS"; the spine faded, corners and head and foot of spine rubbed, text foxed (as usual), flyleaf browned at gutter margin and neatly reinserted, half red morocco folding protective case, gilt spine, FIRST EDITION OF THE LINCOLN_DOUGLAS DEBATES, 4-pp. of publisher's advertisements preceding titlepage. Howes L388; Monaghan 69 (conforming to Monaghan's second issue); Harry E. Pratt, "Lincoln Autographed Debates" in Manuscripts , vol. 6 no. 4 (Summer 1954), p.198; Sabin 41156. A EXTRAORDINARY COPY, INSCRIBED BY LINCOLN TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, ALEXANDER H. TODD, A CONFEDERATE OFFICER, LATER OWNED BY JOSHUA F. SPEED, LINCOLN'S INTIMATE FRIEND FROM EARLY SPRINGFIELD YEARS Apparently the only copy of the first edition of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates inscribed by Lincoln to a member of his or the First Lady's family. In 1858, Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, campaigning for a Senate seat from Illinois, met in a series of high-profile public debates on the critical issues facing the nation, particularly the legality of slavery. These acrimonious and closely argued exchanges first projected Lincoln into national political prominence and led directly, in the next national elections, to his selection as the Presidential nominee of the newly-formed Republican party. The text of these celebrated debates was printed in book form in 1860, during the Presidential campaign, and Lincoln, who received 100 copies from the printers, presented a handful to friends and political supporters with carefully written presentation inscriptions on a front flyleaf. Pratt's now outdated census of copies inscribed by Lincoln records only 18 copies, all but one inscribed, like this one, in pencil (an additional copy with ink inscription was part of the H. Bradley Martin collection sold at Sotheby's, 31 January 1990, lot 2528, and another, inscribed to Dr. Canissius, was sold at Superior, July 1995, lot 264). But this remains THE ONLY COPY LINCOLN INSCRIBED TO A FAMILY MEMBER. CENTER THIS: MARY TODD LINCOLN'S FAMILY AND THE WAR Lincoln's complex, contradictory wife, Mary Todd, was raised in a prosperous banking family of Lexington, Kentucky. Her father, Robert Smith Todd, an ardent supporter of Henry Clay, married twice, fathered a large family, and like many of Kentucky's own gentry, owned a few slaves as household servants. The extent to which the Civil War split families, pitting father and son, brother and brother, and, in some cases, brother and sister, against each other is proverbial. (These rifts were especially acute in border states like Kentucky.) Mary Todd's large Kentucky family is an epitome of these deep and painful divisions. While Mary's eldest brother Levi and half-sister Margaret Kellogg remained staunch Union supporters, two other half-sisters, Martha White and Elodie Dawson, were married to Confederate officers. Mary's youngest brother, George, and three half-brothers Alexander, Samuel, and David, all joined the Confederate Army. Her beloved half-sister Emilie married a West Point graduate, Ben Hardin Helm. At the new President's invitation, Ben Helm visited Lincoln and Mary at the White House in early 1861. As Ben prepared to return to Kentucky, Lincoln handed him an envelope containing an offer of the post of U.S. Army paymaster and a commission as a Major in the Union Army. Lincoln and Helm shook hands solemnly, and Helm rode away. Later, Mary heard from family that Helm ha