James K. Polk as a Slave Dealer??: A Great 1844 Campaign Broadside!...

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James K. Polk as a Slave Dealer??: A Great 1844 Campaign Broadside! This 12" x 19.5" broadside is datelined Philadelphia, September 25, 1844, and is titled "Outrageous Forgery & Libel $100 Reward." It charges the United States Gazette, a Whig newspaper of Philadelphia, with libeling the Democratic candidate for president, James K. Polk, as "... a dealer in slaves, who had branded forty-three negroes, with his name on their shoulders, for the purpose of marking them as his property." The Whig paper had supposedly failed to check their sources, as it claimed the information came from a travel book (which didn't exist), gleaned from an unnamed western newspaper. Accordingly, the Democratic Executive Committee is offering a reward of $100 to "... any person who shall give them such information as may lead to the conviction and condign punishment of the perpetrator of the said forgery and libel..." Although the tariff and the possible annexation of Texas were the key issues of 1844, slavery was a strong undercurrent. Both major party candidates were Southerners who favored slavery, although Henry Clay promoted colonization as a means to its eventual extinction. This provocative broadside is in excellent condition with some scattered areas of minor loss at top and bottom, professionally restored, and a small stain in the bottom left corner.