DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGNER, Sacramento, California, Aug. 14, 1852 

* Franklin Pierce's presidential campaign
* Extremely rare old West publication 

Beyond being a campaign newspaper, which by nature was short-lived, existing only until the November election, this is also a very early newspaper of any kind for California.
This is the volume 1, number 2 issue of a title promoting the campaign of Franklin Pierce for President. The subscription notice on page 2 mentions it will publish weekly until the November election. It is not listed in Gregory.
Four pages, never bound nor trimmed, nice condition.

Background: Published on August 14, 1852, in Sacramento, California, Volume 1, Number 2 of the Democratic Campaigner represents a remarkably rare artifact from both early Gold Rush-era publishing and 19th-century presidential politics. Printed just two years after California achieved statehood in 1850, this short-lived ephemeral campaign newspaper was specifically created to mobilize regional voters and promote Franklin Pierce in his successful 1852 presidential bid against Whig candidate Winfield Scott. Because partisan campaign papers operated on a strictly temporary subscription schedule—ceasing publication immediately following the November election—surviving copies are exceptionally scarce. Its historical and bibliographic weight is further underscored by the fact that it is not listed in Gregory (American Newspapers 1821–1936: A Union List of Files Available in the United States and Canada), indicating an unrecorded piece of print history that offers a raw, primary-source window into how local partisan media operated on the American frontier.