MR. CLAY'S SPEECH, Delivered in the City of Raleigh, N.C., April 13, 1844. [Caption title]

N.Y.: Greely & McElrath, Tribune Office, [1844. Imprint at base of p. [1].] 12 pages. Self-wraps; stab-stitched (perhaps added). 22 x 13.5 cm. Removed from a bound volume. Small paper remnant on the gutter of the first page (from later plain wraps, removed and retained). Else good only. Short closed tear to first and final leaves, affecting one word with no loss; scattered foxing and soiling; tiny hole to margin of one leaf. Provenance: Small printed bookplate of Joseph Keith Newell (1837-1895), Springfield, Mass., who served in the Civil War as a captain of Co. I, 10th Massachusetts. He later wrote the regimental history, “Ours:” Annals of the 10th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers (1875) and was a merchant and councilman in his native city. Newell's bookplate appears on the aforementioned later wraps. (The wraps also bear later library treatments and are crudely bound in a library folder, but there are no marks to the pamphlet itself). EARLY EDITION, PERHAPS THE FIRST. There were several contemporary editions of this speech, including another New York edition (stated as the fourth) and two editions without imprints, priority unknown. All are scarce. Clay delivered the address before a large crowd of supporters in Raleigh during the presidential election campaign of 1844. This was Clay's first visit to North Carolina. "On the morning following his arrival in Raleigh, CLAY GAVE A MAJOR SPEECH ON WHIG PRINCIPLES FROM A PLATFORM AT THE CAPITOL, AFTER WHICH HE ATTENDED A BARBECUE WHERE HE WAS ACTUALLY MOBBED. In desperation, he made for a tree and braced his back against it. Then he turned to the mob, his wit at the ready. `Ah! you have tree’d the old coon at last!' he cried, to which the happy and inebriated crowd responded with repeated cheers for the `old Coon,' the `Bright Star of the West'." --Remini, “Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union,” p. 638. The following day, beneath what is now known as the "Henry Clay Oak," he wrote his famous letter opposing Texas annexation that is credited with his loss of the 1844 election. OCLC locates only two copies (Williams College & Huntington Library); American Imprints adds the Univ. of Chicago copy. American Imprints 44-1463. See Thornton 2364 and 2365 (other editions). See Haynes 3532 (fourth edition).�