77
●
(CIVIL WAR—CALIFORNIA.)
A Powerful Appeal for Peace by the
Champions of War.
Letterpress broadside, 22
3
/
4
x 14
1
/
2
inches; folds, minor wear.
Archivally matted; not examined outside of frame.
[San Francisco?, circa May 1861]
[3,000/4,000]
The anonymous author of this broadside argues against war, and for reconciliation with the
Confederacy, in an effort to “save what remains of the Republic from wreck and ruin, from
grinding taxation and an inevitable military despotism.” The argument is done quite cleverly
by quoting a series of Republicans from the pre-war period, and using their own words against
them. The first half of the broadside quotes San Francisco’s three Republican newspapers, the
Bulletin, Times, and Alta California. The author then takes us “cross the mountains” to “see
what the New York Tribune, the most potential and approved organ of the Abolition Party of
the states has said.” Next come a series of quotations from California’s Senator Milton
Latham. Finally comes a 1848 quote from Abraham Lincoln: “Any people anywhere, being
inclined, and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing Government,
and form a new one that suits them better.” The concluding question: “Now, fellow-citizens, are not
these clamorers for war convicted out of their own mouths?”
The latest source quoted here was an 11 April San Francisco Times article, and the context
suggests that open hostilities had scarcely begun. The broadside was done to shore up support
for the “Democratic Peace Party of California,” possibly in advance of the September 1861
gubernatorial election. No other copies have been traced—not in Greenwood’s California
Imprints, or OCLC, or at auction.
