Harrison & Morton Club of New York, New York, 1888 by Manuscript; Harrison & Morton Club of New York - 1888

1888. Elite Members of the New York City Bar Establish a Club to Promote Benjamin Harrison's Presidential Campaign [Manuscript]. Harrison & Morton Club of New York. [Harrison & Morton Club of New York (Cover Title)]. [New York, 1888]. 61, [4] pp. Quarto (9-1/2" x 7"). Limp calf, club name gilt-stamped to front cover, all edges gilt. A few light scratches to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities with wear to spine ends, bookseller ticket to front pastedown, front hinge cracked, a few cracks to text block, a few leaves loose or detached. Light toning to interior, occasional light soiling and finger smudges. Text in neat hand on ruled leaves. 6-1/2" x 4-1/4" cabinet-card photograph of Harrison, with light edgewear and faint spotting to image, laid-in. Items housed in archival enclosure. $2,500. * This club was founded after the 1888 Republican National Convention to support the presidential campaign of Benjamin Harrison and his running mate, Levi P. Morton of New York. The first pages of its membership book contains the club's constitution, in handsome calligraphy, which states: "We the undersigned, members of the Bar of the City of New York, being desirous of giving expression to our political convictions, in the pending campaign, through an organization, similar to those already formed by the Merchants and the members of the various Exchanges, hereby organize The Harrison and Morton Club of The Bar of New York." The constitution is followed by the signatures of 694 elite New York City attorneys and judges. Among these signers are Charles Evans Hughes [1862-1948], later chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Benjamin H. Bristow [1832-1896], U. S. secretary of the treasury under President Grant, Chauncey Mitchell Depew [1834-1928], attorney for Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad interests, president of the New York Central Railroad System, and U.S. Senator from New York, 1899-1911, Henry Day [1820-1893], partner of the prominent New York City law firm Lord, Day & Lord, and Elihu Root [1845-1937], U.S. secretary of state under President Theodore Roosevelt, secretary of war under Roosevelt and President William McKinley and recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1912. With the exception of 13 tipped in autograph signatures (likely clipped from letters supportive of the club and the Harrison/Morton ticket), all of the membership signat.