Columbian Centinel Newspaper, Feb. 25, 1826

Benjamin Russell, Boston, 1826; Folio (15 1/2" x 21 1/2"), 4 pages. Benjamin Russell’s Columbian Centinel for Saturday Morning, Feb. 25, 1826, with much official news of the proceedings of both the Congress of The United States and of the Boston legislature, plus national and local news, together with numerous classified and box advertisements. Among the stories are a report on a proposed Constitutional Amendment to change the way the President and Vice President of the United States are elected, with a lengthy dissent by Congressman Henry R. Storrs of New York; a Proclamation by Massachusetts governor Levi Lincoln for a "Day of Public Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer," to take place throughout the Commonwealth on Thursday, April 6, soliciting the cooperation from the clergy and faithful of all religious faiths; a lengthy story on the proposal for a Cape Cod Canal between Massachusetts and Buzzard’s bays; an article on the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the destruction of Lancaster by the Indians; a substantial account of a bill in the Massachusetts legislature relating to usury; a report on the Boston celebration of the birthday of George Washington; and a notice of the death of General James Wilkinson in Mexico on Dec. 28, two months previous. Wilkinson, a distinguished Revolutionary War hero, was a complicated figure who, due to his involvement in a number of political scandals, was reviled by many. President Theodore Roosevelt was reported to have once said of him, "In all our history, there is no more despicable character." Benjamin Russell became sole publisher of The Columbian Centinel, an unabashedly Federalist newspaper, in 1785. He was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and has the distinction of having been part of the military guard that escorted traitor John Andre, cohort of Benedict Arnold, to his place of hanging. He served Boston as an alderman, and in 1820 was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. Very Good, clean, paper supple, not brittle. Partial separation of the spine fold, tiny chip (3/8") along the spine crease about 5" up from the bottom left hand corner, quill pen signature in blank margin at top left. Housed in a special custom-made protective folder which, together with the newspaper, are from the library of James S. Copley (1916-1973), pre-eminent collector of Americana and owner and C.E.O. of Copley News Service.