Saturday Morning, November 16, 2024
We the People...in Order to form a more perfect Union...
King! That's all he wants. Look at him! Listen to him! The cry roared from the pages of the press. Rhetorical rhetoric from the mouth of opponents. Boastful. Fearless. The vitriolic venom flowed.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Most coveted real estate in America.
Published by J.F. Jarvis, Washington, D. C. Auction includes selection of D.C. cabinet cards, ca. 1880. Compliments of Representative John H. Starin.
↓ New State Department, ca. 1880's. A growing nation was about to take a seat at the world's table.
The response was immediate. But look at you. Coward in War! Never served! Your followers walk in rags and sleep in filth. Garbage! The American presidential election season. An experience bordering on a sideshow with a heavy dose of feigned frankness. Publicity bought. Votes sold. Classless. Most certainly. Tasteless. Yes indeed. How did our democracy devolve into this? What has gone wrong with society, with humanity? Look how we treat each other. What is wrong with us? Triumphant winners. Whining losers. Can we save this day or will our blessed democracy evaporate into history? Oh, an untimely death. The greatest political insult in history echoing through time will quell you fears.
A derogatory statement with burning condemnation, tagged to the words above. He's having an affair with one of his slaves!
Insure domestic Tranquility...promote the general Welfare
Welcome to the 1796 American Presidential election. Thomas Jefferson, representing the newly formed Democratic-Republican party, versus John Adams, candidate of the Federalist party. The former favoring state's rights, the latter promoting a strong central government. This election foreshadowed the birth of our multi-party political system and faced the first test of the Electoral College.
Original Corcoran Gallery of Art, 17th & Pennsylvania Avenue. Endowed by banker William Corcoran. His fortune was made selling bonds for the Mexican War, earning him one million dollars.
A chance photo surviving one hundred years. Noted on reverse - Penn State, circa 1920's. Hand numbered jerseys and small pads insured many bruises.
The perfect training ground for a career in politics. 4 ½" x 13".
President George Washington, our first two-term president, served with no opposition, such was the love and respect awarded him. But enough was enough. He sought retirement. At his 1796 Farewell Address to the nation, he condemned this emerging behavior but the rancor was so loud, who could hear him?
US Treasury Building, ca. 1880's.
Also gifted as a compliment from John H. Starin
The electoral system in this period was applied differently. Both presidential and vice-presidential candidates ran on the ballot independently. The first two with the highest electoral votes won the presidency and vice-presidency respectively. In 1796, John Adams became president and his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, vice. In the 1800 election, both ran once again. This time Jefferson won the presidency and Adams the vice. Polar opposites. Politics do make strange bedfellows indeed. When the dust settled and the candidates assumed their duties. The freshman Constitution survived.
Old Hickory, Nuts
The 1824 presidential election, won by John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, was equally bitter and corrupt, perhaps worse. With the electoral vote tied, the final decision was sent to the House of Representatives. Ironically, all candidates were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, the Federalist party now demised. The horse trading among politicians pushed Jackson out creating a political firestorm. Insider corruption in the voting was apparent to all fueling an animosity for the presidential election of 1828. It was here the repeat candidates added a new twist. Attacks were no longer restricted to the candidates, but now included spouses.
Signed appointment by President Andrew Johnson, 26 February 1866. Businessman Andrew Jamieson had earned his spot as Collector for Customs in the District of Alexandria, Virginia, a lucrative position. 13" x 16"
Campaigning became slanderous, mudslinging at every intersection. Where Thomas Jefferson was accused of sleeping with his slave Sally Hemings, Andrew Jackson was attacked as an adulterer with his wife, Rachel, the adulteress. A societal black eye. Rachel had been married before and assuming the divorce was finalized, married Andrew. But her first husband never completed the paperwork confounding Rachel.
Andrew Jackson, despite the hateful rhetoric, won the election. Before his inauguration, Rachel died of a heart attack, Jackson forever blaming his misfortune on his opponents, the societal limelight so intense, it sent her to an early grave. Jackson lashed out, destroying Biddle's central bank, returning control of the currency to the people backed by gold. Interesting to note, campaign opponents labeled Jackson as a tyrant, his ascendancy signaling the end of the young Republic. He won the election in a landslide winning 56% of the popular and the most electoral votes.
United States Post Office.
At the end of his term, the political taste had shifted and Jackson returned home, to his Hermitage in Tennessee. He was the first president elected outside the northeast colonial block. A true Democrat for the people. And surprise, the Constitution held.
R.I.P.
In the past six presidential elections, the same warning has been uttered. If you don't vote for me, this will be the last election ever in the United States of America. Baloney. A democracy is not static. It is a living breathing entity swaying and shifting to voter consensus. Our founding fathers were ingenious geniuses, designing such a system. Their goal? To deny any person or power block autocratic control. A system of checks and balances keeps the scale level.
Smithsonian Institute.
Where history goes to rest.
But look, the president has control of Congress and the Supreme Court. If you truly believe you have never heard this before, well, try reading your history books, not Hollywood scripts. No one has ever had complete control. No one. Our founders understood greed, avarice, and the aphrodisiac power promises. Despite today's rhetoric against them, we are forever indebted to them. In 1897, a visiting English journalist heard the rumor Mark Twain had died. Reaching out for conformation, he found Twain residing in Manhattan. When asked about this rumor, Mr. Clemens, ever the master of quips, responded. Tell them, the report of my death has been greatly exaggerated. As the destruction of our government has for the past 224 years. As long as we remain a free people, protected by our Constitution and Bill of Rights, we shall thrive. This demise, raised by so many presidential campaigns, has too been greatly exaggerated. And the Constitution still stands.
Doors open at 8 AM. Auction starts at 9 AM. PA AU 1265L [bb]