The Van Buren Platform, or Facts for the present Supporters of Martin Van Buren

[Washington, DC]: J. & G.S. Gideon, n.y.. Paperback. 8vo. Self-cover. 8pp. Very good. Lightly age toned; binding traces at margin; contemporary "39" in brown ink at upper right corner of first page. An attractive and clean-edged first edition of this attack on the Democratic eighth U.S. president, undated but certainly published in 1848. After losing his bid for reelection to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in 1840, Van Buren's opposition to Texas annexation in 1844 lost him the vote of pro-slavery Democrats and he failed to get the nomination, and in 1848 the Free Soil Party gave him the nomination. Though his views had become more anti-slavery over the years, this no-holds-barred criticism calls him "the great nucleus of the South, and the greatest enemy of the free institutions of the North" -- among many less tactful labels. Quite a few of his letters are excerpted to show his support of slavery. This pro-Whig piece then warns supporters against being tempted to support Van Buren and stresses the advantages of Zachary Taylor ("the honest man, the true patriot, the frank, intelligent, humane soldier, and the man of the People") over Democratic candidate Lewis Cass ("aggressive wars, the resistance of the popular will, the constant exercise of the veto, the one man power, the extension of slavery"). Too secondary to warrant inclusion in Wise and Cronin. Not in Sabin.