AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE AGAINST THE BULLY AND CONVICT POWER. TO THE DEMOCRACY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

[New York?, 1853. 16pp, caption title [as issued]. Disbound, bit of loosening. Else Very Good.

This rare pamphlet illustrates the hatred between the two factions of New York State's Democratic Party: Hunkers and Barn-Burners or, as they were also known, Hards and Softs. Hunkers supported the National Democratic Party. Barn-Burners were anti-slavery Democrats, alienated by the Party's southern domination, support of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act. The dispute presaged the dissolution of the National Democratic Party at the 1860 presidential elections.
At the 1853 State Convention in Syracuse the conflict erupted into violence. This (truncated) pamphlet presents the Hunker side of the story, their victimization by "an organized body of desperate men" who are "notorious in the city of New-York, their acts of disorder, the outrages in which they habitually share, and of which several of them stand convicted." This "bully power, with brazen front and foul brutality," created a "theatre of violence and outrage" in Syracuse.
Not in Sabin, Eberstadt, Decker, LCP. Not at online AAS, but Harvard owns a copy. OCLC 1370300280 [1- FL Atl.], as of May 2024. (Inventory #: 25248)