Rare confederate civil war in 1865.....

RICHMOND WHIG, Richmond, Va., Feb. 14, 1865.
 
* Rare confederate Richmond Virginia rebel periodical with Sic Semper Tyrannis emblem in 1865

A folio-size singlesheet with a one column masthead on the front page that has Sic Semper Tyrannis in the engraving (see inset). These are the same words shouted by John Wilkes Booth moments after he shot Abraham Lincoln at Fords Theater. Translated these words mean: Thus ever to tyrants. Also on the front page: From The United States The Peace Mission--Lincolns Message Communicating All The Correspondence--Secretary Sewards Statement, Etc. Various correspondence includes two items each signed in type: Jefferson Davis, and three items signed in type: A. Lincoln or Abraham Lincoln and one by U.S. Grant. The reverse has a report: The Way Yankees Treat Helpless Women And Old Negroes and a Proclamation By the President appointing a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, with Thanksgiving, signed in type: Jefferson Davis. Has a very small hole at the fold-juncture, plus archival mends to a few tears in the left and right margins, also an archival mend to a tear in unrelated text, and an non-archival mend to a margin tear on the reverse, reverse has two inked stamps in the upper margin, lite edge wear, some lite foxing in the margins.

 

Historical Background: Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always to tyrants" or "Thus ever be to tyrants". It is the state motto of Virginia in the U.S. (and also that of the USS Virginia). The Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia shows Virtue, sword in hand, with her foot on the prostrate form of Tyranny, whose crown lies nearby. The Seal was designed by George Wythe, who signed the Declaration of Independence and taught Law to Thomas Jefferson.

Recommended by George Mason to the Virginia Convention in 1776, the phrase is attributed to Brutus at the assassination of Julius Caesar. According to some witnesses and an excerpt from John Wilkes Booth's diary, he shouted it after shooting United States PresidentAbraham Lincoln in 1865. In his mug shot following the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh wore a shirt with a picture of Lincoln on it and "Sic Semper Tyrannis" written below.