The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

16 x 11 in. printed newspapers. Spotting, minor wear to spines, some toning.

TWO ISSUES OF THE LEGENDARY AMERICAN POLITICAL MAGAZINE WITH FRONT PAGE COVERAGE OF THE NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO THE PRESIDENCY.

Abraham Lincoln was catapulted onto the national stage with his acceptance of the Republican nomination for the presidency on 18 May 1860. Lincoln's nomination proved to be the key factor in his eventual victory, as his well-known opposition to slavery caused the Democratic Party to splinter into three separate factions, with Stephen A. Douglas the Democratic nominee, John C. Breckinridge nominated to the Southern Democratic Party, and John Bell the nominee of the Constitutional Union Party. With the southern vote divided between the three, Lincoln easily swept the Electoral College, gaining 180 electoral votes against 72 for Breckinridge, 39 for Bell, and 12 for Douglas.

Both front cover illustrations used were based off of photographs taken of Lincoln within the previous year, with the 26 May issue based on a photograph taken by Samuel M. Fassett on 4 October 1859 in Chicago and that used for the cover of the 10 November issue based on a photograph taken in New York by Mathew Brady on 27 February 1860 - the same day Lincoln gave the Cooper Union Speech, now widely accepted as having made him a viable presidential candidate.

The 26 May issue features the second part of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, having simultaneously appeared in Charles Dickens's UK publication All the Year Round. The front cover illustration for the 10 November issue was executed by noted American artist Winslow Homer, now considered to be one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century and who at the time was working as a commercial illustrator in New York City.