National Era, Prospectus.
PROSPECTUS FOR THE LAST VOLUME OF THE NATIONAL ERA
NEW PROPRIETOR & EDITOR: “ONE OF THE BEST SPECIMENS OF A LADY I HAVE EVER KNOWN.”--
WHITTIER.
[Periodicals] [Bailey, Margaret L. (Proprietor & Editor)]. The National Era, Washington, D.C. Volume
XIV. January 1860. The National Era is a Political, Literary, and Family Newspaper. It is an
uncompromising opponent of Slavery and the Slave Power, an advocate of Personal, Civil, and Religious
Liberty, and friend to the Homestead Bill...[Caption title & beginning of text]. . [Washington: 1860].
Broadside, 13.5” x 9.25,” folded to twelfths; near fine.
Prospectus for the last volume of one of the leading organs supporting the Republican Party. Three
paragraphs of text followed by terms, with space for subscribers’ names (blank) below. WorldCat locates a
single copy, at AAS, with this note: “Prospectus by Margaret L. Bailey, widow of Gamaliel Bailey, editor
and proprietor of the National Era from 1847 until his death on June 5, 1859, explaining that ‘The
melancholy event which transferred its responsibilities to the present proprietor, will make no change in its
character....Mr. D.R. Goodloe, for a long time a contributor, and known to you since last January as
assistant editor, will have charge of the political department, assisted by other able writers.’ ‘Address M.L.
Bailey, proprietor National era, Washington, D.C.’ Includes ‘Terms’ and blank form for subscribers’
names.
This proposed volume, XIV, was the final (partial) volume published, lasting but a few months (Vol. 1, no.
1, Jan. 7, 1847-vol. 14, no. 690, Mar. 22, 1860). Margaret Bailey acted as editor and publisher from the
date of her husband’s death in June, 1859-March 22, 1860.
Margaret also wrote and received letters to/from many prominent persons. Owen Lovejoy spent his last
days (1863) in Mrs. Bailey’s house and Lincoln was a frequent visitor during that period. Whittier called
Margaret “one of the best specimens of a lady I have ever known.” Moncure Conway described her as “a
tall, graceful and intellectual woman.” She stood beside her husband when he confronted mobs intent on
tarring and feathering him. One contemporary commented on her equality in their marriage. She was the
editor of a children’s journal, Friend of Youth (Washington 1849-52).
See Gamaliel Bailey and Antislavery Union, a full biography by Stanley Harrold, published in 1986: “With
Daniel R. Goodloe as political editor, the Era became more forthrightly abolitionist, more conservative on
other national issues, more southern, certainly more racist, and more of an organ of the Republican party
than it had been under [Gamaliel] Bailey’s control....Had threats of violence against the Era in the wake of
John Brown’s October 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia been carried out, a northern reaction might
have saved the paper, but no attacks took place, and Brown’s raid only led to a curtailment of the Era’s
circulation in the border slave states.
“Meanwhile, the possibility that Margaret Bailey, who had always been less reserved about Chase’s
political prospects than her husband, would turn the Era into a Chase campaign paper stymied efforts by
Bailey’s powerful friends to secure congressional printing contracts for it in December. By March 1860 it
was clear than no help was forthcoming from the party, and the costs of maintaining the paper had become
greater than the costs of terminating it, so Margaret, who had a family to worry about, reluctantly
suspended publication.”
Whittier and Chase were prominent contributors, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin was serialized in the National
Era, 1851-52.
(#4655472)
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