Search Results: CATHOLIC from David M. Lesser, Fine Antiquarian Books LLC

Nashville: G.C. Torbett and Company, 1856. 22pp, disbound. Light inner margin wear, else Very Good. The Republican Party made its presidential debut in the 1856 campaign. Brown, Tennessee Democratic Governor and Representative, did not welcome this event. A staunch Democrat and supporter of Buchanan, who later made him Postmaster General, Brown says the Republicans and the American Party are "at open war with the Constitution." The 'Black Republicans' refuse "to restore the fugitive from labor, on the lawful demand of his owner," on the ground of "'some higher law' than the Constitution." And the American, or Know Nothing Party, led by ex-President Millard Fillmore, would proscribe Catholics from participation in the body politic, although "Religious toleration-- absolute and unbounded toleration, is the great feature of our American Constitutions, both State and Federal." FIRST EDITION. Sabin 8429. Not in Allen, LCP, Eberstadt, Decker.

[Philadelphia?, 1856. 16pp. Caption title, as issued. Pinned, untrimmed, lightly worn. Good+. Bigler had just completed his term as Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, and had begun his service as United States Senator. His July 4 oration doubles as a presidential campaign message. "Whatever others may do, as for me and my household, we shall vote for Buchanan and Breckinridge." He asserts the entitlement to the presidency of Buchanan, "a distinguished son of our own great State." The Kentuckian Breckinridge "is all that we could desire." On the other hand, Fremont, the candidate of the new Republican Party, represents "sectional or Black Republicanism." Bigler warns of "the dangerous tendencies of geographical parties." Ex-President Fillmore is the candidate of "national Know-nothingism," whose anti-Catholic bias Bigler opposes. Senator Bigler rails against Republicans' "overdrawn pictures of what they term the national sin of African servitude," and cites their conduct on the Kansas Question to… Read More

New York: Baker & Godwin, 1863. 16pp, stitched but loosened. Lightly dusted and worn, Good+. This is the first [and only] issue of an intended series of anti-Catholic propaganda, curiously focusing on a papal conspiracy centered in Austria. The anonymous author focuses on "Abraham Lincoln and the British Minister at Washington, and the Crown of Great Britain; the People of the United States, and the People of Great Britain." The restoration of the Bourbons to France, he explains, "was followed by the so-called Holy Alliance, the secret object of which was... the perpetuation of absolutism and the Roman faith everywhere." The Catholic Church has exploited "the incompatibility of Northern and Southern institutions." Northern free labor had steadily established its superiority over slavery. When Calhoun-style nullification created a crisis of the Union, "the Austro-American influence lent its aid to intensify this resistance," intending to weaken free institutions and support Slavery. Irish emigrants… Read More

Boston: Fleet, 1778. 12mo, disbound and tanned uniformly. 39, [1 blank] pp, but without the half title. Else Very Good. An uninhibited attack on Roman Catholics and their Church, reflecting the contemporary revolutionary temper that opposed authority imposed from abroad. Wigglesworth, Harvard's Hollis Professor of Divinity, says he is "exposing the idolatry of the Romish Church, their tyranny, usurpations, damnable heresies, fatal errors, abominable superstitions," etc. Evans 16171.

[Philadelphia, 1856. Broadside, 9.25"x 12". Printed in three columns. Horizontal crease through center, some darkening at mid- and upper-center, and a bit of minor edge wear. Good+. A broadside illustrating the fluidity of political alignments in the turbulent 1850's, as the Sectional Crisis exerted stresses on the Whig and Democratic Parties. The Executive Committee explains to fellow Whigs its endorsement of the Native American ticket for local and State offices. Disclaiming support for "the proscriptive measures which it is alleged are advocated by them" [i.e., hostility to Catholics and immigrants], the Committee emphasizes that Native Americans oppose the Pierce Administration's perpetration of "the shameless outrages on the rights of freemen in Kansas; and the innumerable injuries involved in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise." This is a significant demonstration of the "disorganized" condition and impending collapse of the Whig Party as a national political force. Not in Sabin,… Read More

New Orleans: Printed by L. Graham & Co., 73 Camp street, 1875. Original printed title wrappers [dirty]. Stitched. 36pp, with tipped-in errata slip. Good+. "The want of plain, short and Catholic instruction on great, practical truths, occasions the present alarming increase and progress of speculative views in religion, of novel doctrines, and dangerous theories. Definite knowledge in relation to what is fundamental, is a safeguard." Percival's church eliminated pew rents, which had excluded people from Church attendance. Not in Thompson. OCLC records fifteen institutional locations as of August 2020.

Philadelphia: Printed by Richard Folwell, 1795. 32pp, stitched and loosening. Some pencil scribbles on blank verso of title page. Toned, chip at title page lower blank forecorner. About Good+, with the original marbled rear wrapper. Thayer was the first American-born New Englander ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood [XIV Catholic Encyclopedia 556]. Educated at Yale and a Congregational Clergyman, he attracted notoriety for his conversion. As "the first converted American divine" [DAB], he was known as 'John Turncoat.' Protestants, especially in New England, viciously attacked him. Evidently Thayer gave as good as he got: he was well-known, as the Catholic Encyclopedia puts it, for "his erratic and contentious temper." Because of it, "he failed as a pastor" to the Catholic Church in Boston. This rare pamphlet defends the infallibility of the Catholic Church and points out various defects in the doctrines of his erstwhile Protestant colleagues. Reverend Lesslie naturally disagreed:… Read More

New York: Harper & Bros, 1851. 32pp, disbound, minor foxing, else Very Good. "While popery may be compared to a decrepid, nervous, and wrinkled old man...Protestantism is strong, and active, and zealous, and enterprising, and attractive, and looking to the future." Murray "felt that his Catholic upbringing peculiarly fitted him to expose the evils of Popery." Billington at 253. FIRST EDITION. Sabin 51539n. Billington, The Protestant Crusade 1800-1860, p. 471.

Lexington, KY.: Printed and Published by James W. Palmer, 1823. v, [6]- 106, [1 errata leaf] pp. Unbound, scattered foxing. Old rubberstamp in blank portion of title leaf. Good+. Bishop David [1761-1841], born in France and an early Catholic Bishop in Kentucky, defends the Church against the "errors," "false reasonings," and "misrepresentations" of a Presbyterian Minister's attack on Catholic Doctrine. David's mission: "tearing off the hideous mask with which calumny and misrepresentation had covered the fair face of Christ's spouse, the holy Catholic Church; and exposing to my brethren of other religious denominations, her real sentiments and genuine practice. Catholics are no idolaters in the use they make of the memorials of Christ and his Saints." Parsons 787. Pierson [Lexington Imprints] 180. Not in Coleman or Jillson. AI 12328 [5]. OCLC 80162125 [9] as of January 2023.

Boston: Printed and Sold at Greenleaf's Printing-Office, in Hanover-Street, 1774. 68pp, disbound and lacking the half title. Light to moderate foxing, Good+. Cooper spent his career at the Brattle Square Church in Boston. He "was active in the cause of American freedom and intimately associated with its leaders" [DAB]. On the eve of Revolution he expresses keen anxiety that Roman Catholicism will destroy the liberties for which the Colonists were risking England's wrath. A second edition was printed by Mills and Hicks, in Boston, also in 1774. In the "Popish colony" to our North, civil freedom has been "perverted...Popery is incompatible with the safety of a free government. It sets up a sovereign head, superior to all civil rulers; a spiritual power that reaches to every thing upon earth, and can brook no control. Trampling upon the rights of conscience, and assuming an authority to absolve every sacred obligation, what pledge can it possibly leave us, for the security of civil freedom?" DAB… Read More

Boston: New-Englands: Printed and Sold by Edes & Gill, 1761. [3]-43, [1 blank] pp, lacking the half title. Disbound, early leaves lightly foxed. Good+. A single-line errata statement at the end of page 43. George II was "an excellent king, whom every good British subject was habituated to consider rather under the amiable and endearing character of a father, than the more awful one of a sovereign." Sometimes nations choose a bad king-- like, for example, James II, "an open, professed, and bigotted roman-catholic" who sought "to despoil the British nations of their ancient liberties, and to entail upon them the two-fold curse of popery and slavery." Mayhew rejoices in the Declaration of Rights, which secured "the public liberty" and ended notions of an "indefeaseable hereditary right." Evans 8925. ESTC W20183.

Philadelphia, 1842. 123, [1] pp. Disbound and lightly dusted, Good+. This version of the "discussion" was probably prepared by Berg who, in a 'NOTE!' on the final page, denounces "Priest Steinbacher" for his "perverted and ex parte representations" of their colloquy. Steinbacher defends, and Berg thunders against, the Roman Catholic Church, for its "preposterous fables" and "great apostacy." Sabin 91199. AI 42-4663 [5].

[np, 1852. 24pp, disbound, scattered spotting. Good+. This was the Whigs' third presidential try with a war hero: they won with Harrison and Taylor (and without platforms), but struck out badly in 1852 against the Democrat Franklin Pierce. Scott, "inept and pompous" [Potter, Impending Crisis 142], clumsily sought to woo Irish voters, assuring them that he "loved to hear that rich Irish brogue." But the "Irish, one imagines, took one look, saw the British and the Puritans on one side, and knew they must belong on the other. Whatever caused them to do so, they went overwhelmingly with the Democrats" [Id at 244-5]. This item skewers Scott on the anti-Catholic issue. FIRST EDITION. Not in Miles. Sabin 78419 (incorrectly dating this 1848). OCLC records a number of institutional locations.

Engraved broadside, 11-3/4" x 15-1/2". Old folds and light soil, Very Good. Elaborate, fine engraved image, drawn by G. Muller and engraved by Bonar & Cumming, depicting masses of heathen-- including Indians, Africans [one holding a spear], Middle Eastern types, and others-- lining up to be converted to Christ. The engraving is captioned, "Come Out of Her My People." An organization devoted to attacking Roman Catholicism and converting unbelievers-- particularly foreign-born Irish immigrants-- to Protestant Christianity, the American Protestant Society was founded in 1844 as the Know-Nothing Movement was growing exponentially, especially in eastern cities to which those immigrants had flocked. De Witt, its President, like other Know-Nothings, believed that the hierarchical structure of Roman Catholicism was incompatible with republican institutions. Col. Darius Branch [1767-1851], a native of Lenox, Massachusetts, moved to Bennington, Vermont, as a young man. He settled in Castleton, Vermont, and… Read More

Philadelphia: Published by Wm. Smith... Looking Glass, Portrait & Picture Frames of every description, 1877. Folio broadside, 14" x 17". Printed in three columns: the first, an 'Address of Hon. R.T. Conrad'; second, 'Fireman's Address. Written at the request of the Association for the Relief of Disabled Firemen,' by 'Hon. Robert T. Conrad'; third, 'Address of Philip S. White, Esq.' Very Good. The ceremony seeks to make amends for Philadelphia's long history of antipathy to Irish Catholics. Conrad had been elected Mayor of Philadelphia on a Know-Nothing platform that capitalized on anti-Irish sentiment. But he says here, "Whatever prejudices may have existed in regard to fireman [sic] have disappeared before the favorable evidence of the past and present conduct and character." Also a poet and writer, Conrad composed a poem for the occasion, printed in the second column. Praising the Company in column three was a leading temperance advocate, Philip S. White. The Hibernia Company was responsible for… Read More

Boston: Redding and Company, 1845. 32pp. Stitched in printed salmon wrappers. Very Good. According to the Preface, dated April 1845, the pamphlet is an "unrevised fragment, found among the papers of the late Rev. Sydney Smith." It proves that all his "efforts were exerted for the promotion of religious freedom." Smith was an Anglican minister who urged religious toleration and religious and political freedom for Catholics. AI 45-6014 [5].

[Indianapolis?, 1856. 16pp, disbound. Scattered foxing. Good+. A Democratic presidential campaign pamphlet. It charges that during the brief time that Fremont, "the Black Republican candidate for the Presidency," was a U.S. Senator his votes-- opposing the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia-- showed him "to be a most ultra pro-slavery man." The hypocritical Republicans "use the language of patriotism and of love for the Union...whilst their votes, their acts, and their organization, lead only to a dissolution, and all the evils that must follow." The Know-Nothings are just as bad: they "have waged a cruel and relentless war upon foreigners and members of the Roman Catholic church. These classes have been proscribed..." Moreover, "Abolitionism and Know-nothingism were allies." FIRST EDITION. LCP 3837. 112 Eberstadt 150(d). Not in Sabin, Decker, Miles.

Lima [Peru]: Imprenta Real Calle de Palacio, 1772. 6" x 8". [74], 127, [1] pp. Bound in contemporary vellum [dustsoiled and spotted, two chips, large piece of back cover torn off], endpapers pasted to insides of covers. Title page printed in red and black inks. Occasional light foxing, else quite clean. Wormed, affecting letters or portions thereof in early and late leaves. Lower outer corners dogeared and worn. Good+. This is the first edition of a book on the controversy over the Doctrine of Probabilism. "In Latin America, the Jesuits introduced and were mainly responsible for propagating the probabilism across the region..." Forment, Democracy in Latin America, page 64 [2003]. The doctrine met fierce opposition; it was outlawed in Peru in 1767. The Jesuits' advocacy of it led to their expulsion from Latin America in 1767, a few years before the publication of this book. Sabin 72495. Palau 139857. Medina, Lima 1347.

[St. Louis, 1837. 15pp, stitched, uncut. Untitled. Clean and Near Fine. The rare printed will of this American Catholic philanthropist, an immigrant from Ireland who made a fortune buying and then selling cotton during and after the War of 1812. Mullanphy settled in St. Louis, where he endowed many Catholic charities; and established a trust for poor emigrants passing through St. Louis to settle in the West. Among many provisions, he provides for "a mulatto child called Fanny," age about four years and living with him, freeing her at age 18. He solemnly swears that she is not his daughter. Mullanphy found time to sire fifteen children, one of whom became Mayor of St. Louis. Under two accession numbers, OCLC records copies only at the Huntington,Duke, and Notre Dame. Not in Missouri Imprints Inventory, Sabin, American Imprints.

Albany: Hoffman & White, 1834. 12mo, original cloth with paper spine label [a bit of wear]. pp [10], 314. Scattered light foxing, about Very Good. Southwick, writing in the last years of his life, "became a religious and moral enthusiast." DAB. Herttell, a well-regarded New York City lawyer and assemblyman who favored a wall of separation between Church and State, had argued against the appointment of Chaplains to minister to the State's legislature. Southwick warns of "the dark cloud of INFIDELITY, which has lately made its appearance in our political horison," and which will destroy America unless religion-- and chaplains-- prevail, and the influence of Herttell, Fanny Wright, and Robert Owen is diminished. FIRST EDITION. AI 26884 [5]. Sabin 88643. Cohen 6043. Singerman 0592. Not in Eberstadt, Decker, Marvin, Harv. Law Cat., Marke.