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Details
IZARD, Mark W. Annual Message of Mark W. Izard, Governor of the Territory of Nebraska. Addressed to the Legislative Assembly. December 18, 1855. Omaha City: Sherman & Strickland, 1855.
12o (228 x 145 mm). 12 pages. Sewn in original pale orange-pink printed paper wrappers (hint of foxing to front wrapper, a few minor stains to back wrapper, otherwise in excellent condition for this extremely fragile book); quarter green morocco slipcase.
FIRST EDITION. The first printed message of the Governor to the territory's legislative assembly, only 18 months after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The tone of Izard's message predicts a brilliant future for "our infant Territory," where prosperous and populous cities are springing up as if by magic, all along our eastern border." The foundations for the state Capitol building have been laid, a territorial library is to be delivered in the Spring, and "the great Territorial Road from Omaha to Fort Kearney" will soon be surveyed. When complete, this road "is destined to be not only the great thoroughfare for western travel, but also the forerunner of the projected railroad to the Pacific." He discusses the establishment of new forts to protect settlers from Indian depredations, some of which he details. Izard recommends that some tribes, the Omaha, Pawnee and Ottoe tribes "should be at once permanently settled upon the lands assigned them." He alludes to the rising tide of sectionalism over the issue of slavery, praises the "holy spirit of union and fidelity to the Federal Constitution," and deplores the "odious spirit of localism and sectionalism." It was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which applied the principle of popular sovereignty to the slavery issue which touched off a bitter struggle between abolitionists and pro-slavery elements, particularly in Kansas which bordered slave-holding Missouri.
A SUPERB COPY OF AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE NEBRASKA IMPRINT: no copy is noted in Nebraska Imprints Inventory, not in Streeter, Wagner-Camp, or Sabin. This is reportedly one of only two extant copies and the only one with the original wrappers intact.
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FIRST EDITION. The first printed message of the Governor to the territory's legislative assembly, only 18 months after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The tone of Izard's message predicts a brilliant future for "our infant Territory," where prosperous and populous cities are springing up as if by magic, all along our eastern border." The foundations for the state Capitol building have been laid, a territorial library is to be delivered in the Spring, and "the great Territorial Road from Omaha to Fort Kearney" will soon be surveyed. When complete, this road "is destined to be not only the great thoroughfare for western travel, but also the forerunner of the projected railroad to the Pacific." He discusses the establishment of new forts to protect settlers from Indian depredations, some of which he details. Izard recommends that some tribes, the Omaha, Pawnee and Ottoe tribes "should be at once permanently settled upon the lands assigned them." He alludes to the rising tide of sectionalism over the issue of slavery, praises the "holy spirit of union and fidelity to the Federal Constitution," and deplores the "odious spirit of localism and sectionalism." It was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which applied the principle of popular sovereignty to the slavery issue which touched off a bitter struggle between abolitionists and pro-slavery elements, particularly in Kansas which bordered slave-holding Missouri.
A SUPERB COPY OF AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE NEBRASKA IMPRINT: no copy is noted in Nebraska Imprints Inventory, not in Streeter, Wagner-Camp, or Sabin. This is reportedly one of only two extant copies and the only one with the original wrappers intact.