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[President Polk and His Congress 1845–1847. An Album of Autographs.]

[Washington, D.C., ca. 1845]. Sm 8vo (7.5” x 6”), embossed leather covers. 204 signatures on 41 leaves, additional blank leaves. CONDITION: Covers detached, spine perished, leaves broken into sections, all leaves clean and otherwise well-preserved.

An autograph album created by someone advantageously positioned and possibly working in the Polk government, consisting almost exclusively of signatures obtained directly from each signer.

Included in the album are the signatures of President James K. Polk (and below his the signature of Joseph Knox Walker, Polk’s nephew and private secretary), Vice President George Mifflin Dallas, and about 200 sitting members of Congress organized by members of the Senate first, followed by those of the House. Other signatures include those of John Quincy Adams, the former President; Daniel Webster (the only clipped signature in the album); Thomas Hart Benton; Lewis Cass; Stephen A. Douglas; Alexander Stevens; Andrew Johnson; David Wilmot (of Wilmot Proviso fame); Hannibal Hamlin; Robert Toombs, and many others. Most of the signers have followed their names with the name of their state or town and state.

Laid in the album are twenty-eight pages of biographical notes by collector Raymond Fellows on most everyone in the album. Fellows was the chief justice of the Maine Supreme Court. He purchased the album at Swann Auction Galleries on June 24th, 1943. The catalogue description is affixed to front pastedown. For George Evans, Rep. and Senator from Maine, he includes the quote: “He perjured himself like a gentleman”; for Jesse David Bright, U.S. Senate 1845–62, he notes: “expelled from Senate because he wrote letter recognizing Jeff Davis as ‘Pres of Confederate States’”; for David Atkinson, “He was the President of the U.S. for one day…as Gen. Taylor not sworn in until the next day.”

A rare autographic representation of the government under Polk, featuring the signatures of a number of consequential figures of an era that would see Texas join the Union, the Mexican War, and the resolution of the Oregon Question.

Item #9978

Price: $5,500.00

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