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Rare war-related newspaper that lasted but three issues...
Rare war-related newspaper that lasted but three issues...
Item # 701624
March 30, 1861
THE PALMETTO FLAG, Philadelphia, March 30, 1861
* Very rare pre-Confederate Northern publication
* Pro Southern secession - Civil War about to start
An exceedingly rare newspaper as only three issues were published, this being issue #1. This is just the second issue of this title we have encountered in our 50+ years.
As the title might hint, this was a newspaper that sympathized with the Southern cause of the war which was just then beginning (Fort Sumter battle was April 12). It's title is a salute to South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union. The content of this newspaper so incensed the people of Phil. that they mobbed the office and put it out of business with its April 13 issue.
The: "First Address" by the editors on page 2 recognizes the danger of a copperhead newspaper in the North. It begins: "We are not unaware of the importance of this our first address, under our significant title, and of the responsibility that devolves upon us, to be guarded in our expressing, calm in our judgment, rigid in adherence to facts, and zealous in the cause we have undertaken to advance...".
Four pages, folio size, some small & older mends at margins, archival strengthening at the spine, minor foxing, good condition.
AI notes: The Palmetto Flag was a short-lived, strongly Southern-sympathizing newspaper published in Philadelphia in 1861, remarkable precisely because it promoted secessionist sentiment in the largest Northern city just as the Civil War began. Launched in the tense months surrounding South Carolina’s withdrawal from the Union, it adopted the imagery and rhetoric of the Southern cause—its very title invoking the palmetto emblem associated with South Carolina—while attacking Lincoln’s policies and defending states’ rights. Its presence in Philadelphia provoked intense hostility: Unionist citizens and Republican editors denounced it as treasonous, and its offices reportedly faced threats and mob pressure. Under this environment of public outrage, legal scrutiny, and wartime patriotism, The Palmetto Flag survived only briefly before shutting down, remembered today as a rare and controversial example of open Confederate advocacy operating behind Northern lines in 1861.
Category: The Civil War
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$780.00
