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[Philadelphia]: R. G. Berford, 1844. Illustrated broadside, 11” x 9.125” plus margins. CONDITION: Very good, some very slight foxing and occasional spotting, two 3/16” tears at left margin.

A scarce illustrated campaign broadside for Whig candidate Henry Clay, published in Philadelphia and outlining his decades of achievements as a public servant.

A detailed biography of Clay appears in two columns at the center, covering his humble beginnings and rapid rise in politics; his role in “rous[ing] the people to rise up in defence of their country’s rights” in the War of 1812, as well as in bringing it to a close with the Treaty of Ghent; his ongoing championship of American manufacturing and his “successful efforts to calm the tempest…on the Missouri question” by promoting the Missouri Compromise; his introduction of the Compromise Tariff of 1833 to “save the American System from destruction,” and more. The text is surrounded by four ornamental and eight vignette engravings, the most prominent of which is a portrait of Clay himself within an ornamental border. The others, typical of American bank note engraving of the day, signal American peace, strength, and prosperity under Clay’s leadership, showing Lady Columbia with an Eagle, the bounty of American manufacturing (allegorical figure with a spinning wheel) and agriculture (a farmer behind the plough); mercantile ships in full sail; and an Eagle gripping two arrow-tipped American flags, the Federal shield, and an olive branch in its talons. Clay, who had run for President in 1824 and 1832, lost again in 1844 to Democrat James K. Polk.

Richard George Berford operated a publishing firm in Philadelphia between about 1840 and 1844. He later partnered with Loring L. Lombard in New York City in a news- and book-publishing venture. In 1844 Berford also published Nathan Sargent’s Life of Henry Clay.

OCLC records a single example at the New York Historical Society; we locate two others, at the Library of Congress and Mississippi State University.

Item #9371

Price: $1,250.00