Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 138

Price Realized: $ 2,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
PARTISAN BICKERING IS NOTHING NEW (CONGRESS.) Palen, Rufus. Diary of a sitting United States Representative. 25 manuscript diary pages, plus 11 memoranda pages including financial memoranda through March 1841. 8vo, original green boards; minor wear. (MRS) Washington, DC, 15 December 1839 to 7 February 1840
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Rufus Palen (1807-1844) of Fallsburg, NY represented New York's Ulster and Sullivan Counties in the 26th Congress. He kept this witty and sarcastic diary toward the end of his first year in office. He was a Whig, in opposition to the president's Democratic Party, as expressed in this sniffy entry: "Paid my respects to President Van Buren and was treated in a truly Democratic way, no wine, no cake, not even a cup of cold water; tho the air was cold enough to make it up. Witnessed the apparently cordial greeting between the great Southern Nullifier [Calhoun] & his majesty. When rogues agree &c" (1 January 1840). He did not seem impressed with most of his fellow legislators: "Dr. Duncan [D-Ohio] then began to read some poetry written by his little son which he said he had sett to music & would sing it if permitted--not permitted. Great business for grave legislators to propose singing the juvenile effusions of every boy in the streets" (11 January 1840). He even saved some rancor for a fellow New York Whig: "Mr. Hunt of Troy occupyed the floor until 4 o'clock (a perfect failure)" (23 January). Abolition was the topic of discussion for several days, most notably on January 24: "Jesse A. Bynum has been engaged all day trying to make political capital out of the abolition question for the southern market, a poor article I should judge from the manufacturer. However, as we of the north send our poorest articles south, it may go there; but will not at the north." The diary is unsigned, but the author identifies himself in the 9 January entry. with--a broadside titled "List of Members of the House of Representatives of the United States, Twenty-Sixth Congress, First Session," worn. Provenance: both items sold at the 1966 Manuscript Society charity auction, lot 66, to the consignor.