Recollections Of The Life Of John Binns: Twenty-Nine Years In Europe And Fifty-Three In The United States

Printed And For Sale By The Author And By Parry And M’Millan, Philadelphia, 1854; First Edition; 12mo (5 1/8" x 7 3/4"); 349 pages; embossed pebbled cloth; gilt titles; engraved frontispiece portrait plate of the author, with guard tissue. Autobiography of distinguished Irish-born American journalist and publisher John Binns (1772-1860), who after repeated jailings in Britain for his political activity sailed for the United States in July of 1801, arriving at Baltimore in September and soon joining Joseph Priestly and Thomas Cooper in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where he published and edited the Argus Republican newspaper (1802-1804), which he was forced to abandon due to inter-party feuding. Upon resettling in Philadelphia, Binns began publication of the influential Democratic Press weekly, which continued until 1829 when party politics again resulted in the closing of his paper. He thence abandoned publishing and devoted himself entirely to his duties as alderman for the City of Philadelphia, an office to which he had been appointed by Governor Heister in 1822 and which he held until 1844. A rich and fascinating chronicle, with a wealth of first hand material on the political landscape in Britain during the French Revolution, the partisan fray in America over the War of 1812, detailed descriptions of the early countryside and towns of Northumberland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania politics, the hostility between the Republican and Federalist parties of the early 19th century, a full account of the 1805 duel between Binns and Samuel Stewart, and considerably more. Binns was a powerful orator, of whom it was said that until almost 60 years of age he never wrote out a speech beforehand, but delivered it entirely from memory. His book, "Binns Justice," a manual of Pennsylvania law, enjoyed a long use and was still in print in 1954. Very Good. Binding tight, square, corners sharp, text clean and bright, cloth chipped at the spine extremities and sunned along the spine and board margins, circa 1912 custom engraved bookplate of historian Frank D. Andrews (1847-1937) on front paste down together with a 19th c. bookplate of one John Roper, whose name is impressed on the first blank flyleaf and three prelims. A fascinating and informative book.