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“Let Freemen Read!” Joshua R. Giddings’ Falsehoods Repelled! [opening lines of broadside Ohio newspaper extra].
“Let Freemen Read!” Joshua R. Giddings’ Falsehoods Repelled! [opening lines of broadside Ohio newspaper extra].

“Let Freemen Read!” Joshua R. Giddings’ Falsehoods Repelled! [opening lines of broadside Ohio newspaper extra].


Ohio newspaper extra attacking noted anti-slavery, Free Soil Party Congressman Joshua R. Giddings (1795–1864) of Ohio for abusing his Congressional travel mileage allowance. Cleverly using the words of Giddings’ legal mentor and the man whom Giddings succeeded as Congressman, Elisha Whittlesey—now a U.S. Treasury official, the broadside affirms the allegations of impropriety, “exposing the Falsehoods, the Frauds and Treasury Swindles of J.R. Giddings” and later proclaiming: “The exposure is complete, and the falsehoods of Mr. Galphin Giddings repelled.”

The broadside opens with two brief statements by Giddings; this is followed by a full 2½-column letter by Elisha Whittlesey. Gidding’s strategy was to maintain his innocence and, if wrong-doing was done, to implicate Comptroller Whittlesey in “dereliction of duty” for allowing the improper mileage allowance. Whittlesey’s letter has the last word, however, declaring in this election year: “The people have the power to purify Congress; to send here honest, industrious, intelligent, and faithful Representatives, who will not receive pay for travel they never performed, and for attendance in Congress, when they were at home attending to their own private concerns, or electioneering for a pending canvass. ...I am sorry my character and example had no controlling influence over him.”

This extra does not have a separate entry in OCLC. OCLC 9622944 indicates that of the 8 or 9 institutions that have this serial, only a few have a complete run.


Description: [Elisha Whittlesey (1783–1863)]; [Joshua R. Giddings (1795–1864)]. “Let Freemen Read!” Joshua R. Giddings’ Falsehoods Repelled! [opening lines of broadside Ohio newspaper extra].

[Conneaut, Ohio:] Conneaut Reporter, c.1852. Broadside. Approx. 18½ x 12 inches. Printed in three columns. Folds; some creasing and minor looses at top and bottom; light foxing and some staining; very good.

[3729270]

Price: $450.00