Harrison, William Henry

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

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Description

Inaugural Address of President Harrison. National Intelligencer .... Extra. Thursday, March 4, 1841. [Washington: March 4, 1841].
paper, ink, leather

Folio broadside (24 x 19 1/2 in.; 610 x 495 mm). Text in 5 columns, divided by single rules.

Catalogue Note

Very rare first printing of Harrison's inaugural address: the longest in United States history and what many believed caused his death after only thirty-two days in office, the shortest tenure of any American President.

On a cold and wet March 4, 1841, newly-elected President William Henry Harrison famously delivered this address without coat or hat. His anti-Jackson/Van Buren, pro-Whig agenda took over two hours to deliver. In the days following the address and the inaugural balls, Harrison caught a cold. The cold lingered, and pneumonia and pleurisy set in. Harrison would die on April 4, 1841, on his thirty-second day in office -- the shortest tenure of any American President -- becoming the first President to die in office.

We could locate only five surviving examples of this broadsheet extra, with none in the Library of Congress.