(PRESIDENTS 1868 CAMPAIGN) Seymour Horatio Letter by the re

Sale 2517 - Lot 188

Price Realized: $ 281

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(PRESIDENTS--1868 CAMPAIGN.) Seymour, Horatio. Letter by the recently defeated and embittered Democratic candidate. Autograph Letter Signed to German-American newspaper publisher George Saul of Syracuse, NY. 3 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on 2 detached leaves; the second leaf tipped into a mat, the signature being slightly obscured. Utica, NY, 22 December 1868

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

1868 was the first presidential election held by the reunited nation after the Civil War. Horatio Seymour of the Democratic Party openly proclaimed himself as the "white man's candidate," and lost decisively to war hero Ulysses S. Grant. This letter captures his deep bitterness less than two months after the election. "It will take some time and labor to select and explain all the unconstitutional acts of the party in power. . . . A clear and comprehensive statement of the unwarranted action of the general government would do much toward putting the public mind right." He recommends veteran politician and author Ransom H. Gillett of Columbia County, NY for the task, and adds that by next summer, "we shall learn the drift of General Grant's policy, and we can mark out our line of action in the future."