Is Davis a Traitor; Was Secession a Constitutional Right Previous to The War of 1861?
Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1907. 8vo, brown cloth, gilt titling to cover and spine, 263 pp. First published in 1866. Bledsoe’s work that argues that Jefferson Davis and the South were not guilty of treason because the states had a legal right to leave the Union. Bledsoe claims the Constitution was a pact among sovereign states, so secession was lawful, not rebellion. The book became a major defense of the Confederate cause after the Civil War. This copy with a detailed previous owner's inscription to front pastedown, from Virginia Lawyer Cornelius Hite Fauntleroy to a friend: "For my friend William Baer. This book presents an unanswerable argument for, and defence of the action and view, both before and during the war Between the States, of the high minded, patriotic, and chivalrous people of the Southern United States, who furnished the Hero who won our Independece, and the representatives who wrote the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence. Cornelius H. Fauntleroy". With an additional inscription, dated 1943, to front endpaper, by Lanier Merritt of Nashville, possibly Tennessee poet and humorits Dixon Lanier Merritt. Finally, this copy bears a presentation stamp front Mrs. Virginius Newton, on the occasion of a 1907 Confederate reunion in richmond. A good copy with binding cracked between front endpapers, toning to pages, wear and chipping to corners and spine tips. Item #14363
Price: $200.00