The history of the Republic of Texas, from the discovery of the country to the present time; and the cause of her separation from the Republic of Mexico. By N. Doran Maillard, Esq., barrister-at-law, of Texas
“THE MOST VITRIOLIC DENUNCIATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS”
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1842. First edition.
Octavo (8 3/8” x 5 3/8”, 213mm x 136mm): binder’s blank, a8 b4 B-KK8, binder’s blank [$2 signed; –a1]. 268 leaves, pp. i-iii (title, printer, preface) iv-xxiv, 1 2-512. With a lithographed folding map with hand-color in outline excised and framed separately.
Bound in later half-calf over marbled paper. On the spine, 6 panels. Title gilt to black sheep in the second panel. Author gilt to the fourth panel.
Rubbed at the extremities. Chipping to the fore-edge of the text-block, especially to the title-leaf and quires M, O and P (with losses affecting the text in M). An old repaired tear to GG1 (p. 449), the tape yellowing. The map laid down on mulberry paper. Blind-stamp of the Salford Borough Royal Museum & Library throughout, largely unnoticeable.
The claims against the Republic of Texas, which seceded from Mexico 2 March 1836, were widespread, largely concentrated in the northern states — the darkest adumbration of the Civil War — but spreading particularly into Great Britain, where the abolitionist movement had found success in abolishing slavery in the British Empire in 1833. Nicholas Doran Próby Maillard (1810–1880) emigrated from Britain to Texas at the end of 1839, settling in Richmond as working as co-editor of the Richmond Telescope. Traveling around the state under the guise of legal research, he traveled to London in August of 1840 and began to publish denunciations of the Texas Republic in the press, urging against British recognition and diplomatic relations.
Maillard’s tone is certainly personal — he describes Texas as “a country filled with habitual liars, drunkards, blasphemers, and slanderers, sanguinary gamesters and cold-blooded assassins” (206) — his first-hand experience of the young republic gave his account credibility. Jenkins describes the book as above, continuing that the volume is “a compendium of everything bad that could be claimed about Texas and Texans of those times.” Of particular note is the map, which shows the Texas Republic as a very shrunken thing hugging the coast, and several layers (using, unusually, the outline coloring as indication) of various land-claims, including those of Mexico.
Graff 2663; Howes M 2155; Jenkins, Basic Texas Books 132; Raines, Bibliography of Texas p. 144; Streeter, Texas 1422; Sabin 43886.
Item #JLR0690
Price: $12,000