Rare Ephemera Presidential and Congressional Printings
Posted by Richard Gabriel on Tue, May 11, 2010 @ 04:00 PM
Collections of rare ephemera can be built for relatively modest sums of money. The key is to focus on a genre or period of history that interests you and if you are collecting Americana, then Andrew Jackson as a President and the response by the Congress to Andrew Jackson's actions as President are one of the most fluid and interesting areas for collecting.
Jackson is one of those Presidents that if he didn't like you, he would just as soon shoot you and has dueled several times and some say even committed murder. We have a series of Jacksonian writings available on our Ebay page that are rare. OCLC, the library listing services for world wide library collections, sometimes only shows one or two copies of these U.S. Government printed rare ephemera. These printed items were often handed out, free, and often used to light the family fire. They were always printed in short runs of several thousand and for the most popular, additional quantities were printed as may be noted on the front description of the item.
Jackson was by far one of our great leaders, he was incredibly loyal to his friends and family, to the point of self ruination and he survived as a boy and later as a military man and General, numerous situations that no ordinary man could have survived. He was self educated, ruthless, tall and could be courtly and very charming. He and his Vice President, Martin Van Buren, developed the 'Kitchen Cabinet', started the 'Grass Roots' politics and founded the Democratic Party. Jackson truly believed that Government came from the bottom up and not from the top down. He was the common man and woman's first real President and if he felt so inclined he would go to no ends to protect what he believed to be the will of the people. He abolished the Bank of the United States, created the land rush and much to all of our chagrin, started the re-settlement and dismantling of Native Americans from their homes, villages and deeded lands. A incredible 'Black Mark' on Jackson's career as a President. He served two terms in office and would have served three if his health had permitted. An astonishing man.