The Republican Party – Its History and Policy, A Speech by Hon. John Sherman: A check list of the Jeffers collection in the Mary Norton Clapp Library published on the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation.

It was the Presidential Election year just prior to the start of the Civil War, and all political interests were directed towards making their positions known, and in particular their views on slavery and state's rights. The Republican Party was a Northern party, strongly anti-slavery, that advocated the candidacy of Abraham Lincoln. This paper, The Republican Party – Its History And Policy, A Speech by Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, Delivered at the Cooper Institute in the City of New York on April 13, 1860, contains one of many speeches presenting the beliefs of the Republican party. Mr. Sherman ends his speech with the succinct conclusion that "...The republican party will then not only hold in check the now dominant oligarchy of negro slavery, but will show by its firm, patriotic, and constitutional administration of the government that neither the wrongs nor insults of the past and the present can induce it to impair or invade in the least the rights of any State or section of our common country."

The paper, which measures approximately 6 x 9 inches, contains 16 pages of text. The pages, which are string-bound, are very lightly tanned and the text is clear and easily read. There is a handwritten statement on the top of the first page, reading From Hon. John Sherman. It is not clear whether or not this was written by Mr. Sherman. The overall condition of the item is good.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the first page of the paper and a typical 2-page spread of further text.

John Sherman (May 10, 1823 – October 22, 1900) was an American politician from Ohio who served in federal office throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. He was the younger brother of Union genera William Tecumseh Sherman, with whom he had a close relationship. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. Sherman sought the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest in 1888, but was never chosen by the party. [Wikipedia]