The Charge of Ignorance Misrepresentation Proved Against Rev. Cheever

1833. From the Salem Gazette. Salem: S.n., 1833. From the Salem Gazette. Salem: S.n., 1833. A Copy of a Notable Nineteenth-Century Libel Case Owned by a Fellow Minister and Antislavery Activist [Upham, Charles W. (1802-1875)]. The Charge of Ignorance and Misrepresentation Proved Against the Rev. George B. Cheever. From the Salem Gazette. Salem: S.n., 1833. [16] pp. Text in parallel columns. Octavo (9-1/2" x 6"; 24.13 x 15.24 cm). Stab-stitched pamphlet in self-wrappers, untrimmed edges. Light soiling to exterior, minor wear to spine ends, owner signature (of Charles Lowell) to head of front wrapper, light toning to text, faint spotting to a few leaves. $750. * Only edition. Cheever, a Unitarian minister, social reformer and Temperance advocate, published a thinly disguised portrayal of John Stone, a well-liked Unitarian deacon in Salem who owned a distillery. It was first published in 1835 as a newspaper article in Salem and as an illustrated broadside. Cheever's neighbors, one of them Upham, were outraged by this slanderous text and he was soon convicted for libel, imprisoned and publicly whipped. A case that attracted a good deal of attention, it brought Cheever national fame, which led to several job offers and several more editions of his controversial tract. This copy was owned by Charles Lowell [1782-1861], a fellow Unitarian minister and notable antislavery activist. Renowned as an orator, Lowell spoke alongside Frederick Douglass at a rally protesting the Fugitive Slave Law and raised funds for the Boston Vigilance Committee. He was also a persistent advocate for the participation of clergy in the abolitionist cause. OCLC locates 11 copies, none in law libraries. Collison, "Anti-Slavery, Blacks, and the Boston Elite: Notes on the Reverend Charles Lowell and the West Church," The New England Quarterly 61, no. 3 (1988): 419-29. Not in McCoy. Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America 98032.