JEFFERSON DAVIS "FOR PRESIDENT" 1861 FIRST CONFEDERATE ELECTION BALLOT.
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Winning Bid:
$214.17
(Includes 18% Buyer's Premium)
Bidding Ended:
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 9:00:00 PM (20 Minute Clock Begins At Tuesday, July 26, 2022 9:00:00 PM)
Item Description
4x6.25" on thin paper. Listed in Hake as Third Party #3014. Text of note "Election, Wednesday, Nov. 6th 1861/For President/Jefferson Davis/Of Mississippi/For Vice President/Alexander H. Stephens, Of Georgia" w/additional text below naming electors and "For Congress Roger A. Pryor." A single tiny spindle hole at center and reverse ink signature of voter "A.G. Ryland." Age toning along left edge, corner bend at bottom right, scattered age and edge handling. Fine. Scarce.
Pryor, who was elected to the US House in 1859 was an adversary of Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican abolitionist, and once challenged Rep. John F. Potter to a duel. Potter, having the choice of weapons, chose Bowie knives at which point Pryor backed out stating that Bowie knives were not civilized weapons. The incident found widespread publication in the northern press which saw the refusal as a coup for the North - humiliation of a Southern "Fire Eater." In early 1861, Pryor argued for immediate succession of Virginia, but the state convention did not act. He then went to Charleston in April, to urge immediate attack on Fort Sumter. On April 12, he accompanied the last Confederate party to the Fort before the bombardment (but stayed in the boat). Afterward, while waiting at Fort Johnson, he was offered the opportunity to fire the first shot. But, despite his earlier rhetoric, he declined saying "I Could Not Fire The First Gun Of The War." In 1861, Pryor was re-elected to his congressional seat, but owing to the succession of Virginia, he did not sit in the U.S. Congress. Instead, he was elected and served in the provisional Confederate Congress in 1861, and in the first regular Congress (1862) under the Confederate Constitution.
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