Item #20637 An Appeal to the Good Sense of the Legislature and the Community in Favor of a New Bridge to South Boston. BOSTON, A Citizen.
An Appeal to the Good Sense of the Legislature and the Community in Favor of a New Bridge to South Boston

An Appeal to the Good Sense of the Legislature and the Community in Favor of a New Bridge to South Boston

Boston: True and Greene, 1825.

First Edition. 22 pp, complete with original wrappers, but with the stitching perished, so gatherings are loose. Pink staining to front wrapper, edgewear, otherwise very good. Scarce pamphlet criticizing monopolies in general and, more specifically, the factions who opposed a new (toll-free) bridge in Boston because it would be detrimental to the interests of those holding a charter (and collecting tolls) for the existing (Charles River) bridge. Moser's Daniel Webster bibliography attributes this eloquently written pamphlet to Massachusetts State Senator David Henshaw (1791-1852). We have not been able to confirm this, but it seems reasonable, given that he was one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in Boston, belonged to a group of real estate investors who would benefit from population growth spurred by the proposed new bridge, and "represented the growing group of Bostonians who were shut out from the traditionally privileged class" (Haines and Sherwood, Supreme Court in American Government and Politics, p. 32). Daniel Webster was one of the attorney representing the interests of the Charles River Bridge Company, which was incorporated in 1785. Ultimately, in a landmark decision in favor of free enterprise (Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, 1837) the Unites States Supreme Court ruled that the charter of the Charles River Bridge Company did not exclude the state of Massachusetts from chartering another bridge nearby. Sabin 6597.

Item #20637

Price: $225.00

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