THE SOUTHERN ORATOR Judge, J.J. [Jonathan J. Judge] Philosophy,US History

Rare first edition of this school reader and manual of Southern values, self-published by a teacher in Montgomery, Alabama. THE SOUTHERN ORATOR was compiled by a teacher based in the new state capital, published locally by the official state printers of the time. While the state capital was moved to Montgomery in 1846, the census records that less than 5000 people lived there in 1850. In the context of the small-but-growing new capital (its population nearly doubling twice over two decades), this anthology is more than a simple textbook on rhetoric: it's perhaps better viewed as a conduct book, an all-purpose collection of dialogues, essays, poems, songs, political speeches, and more on subjects that impress upon young Alabamans how to act, and what it means to be Southern. Topics include the immortality of deceit, advice on matrimony, an argument against dueling, an essay criticizing "profane swearing," and a dialogue warning that the California gold rush has not turned out exactly as advertised. The collection mixes famous works, such as Richard Henry Lee's eulogy on George Washington, with original pieces by locals, such as a poem on temperance by an otherwise unknown Alabama woman. Already legendary figures from the Revolutionary period are frequently held up as examples of wisdom and honesty (and sometimes of caution): Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, Washington, and more. More recent political figures also receive patriotic praise, among them the powerful Southern statesmen Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. As an antebellum Southern production, it also includes a couple politically strident pieces in favor of slavery, some like "A Missouri Political Speech printed in local white dialects ("bid defiance to the universal Yankee nation, by shoutin' the terrific watchword, 'who's afeard?'"). Yet one of the last pieces is a gallant speech in praising the Union: "UNITED, WE STAND DIVIDED, WE FALL." The work is notably not directed only towards boys and, indeed, includes a number of pieces by or for girls (one inclusion is a poem "by a little girl"). An essay on female education argues, "we can justly boast" of famously erudite women "a Warren, a Morton, an Adams": "Happily for the fair daughters of America, the thick mists of superstition and bigotry are vanishing away, and the sun of science begins to beam upon our land and to irradiate the female mind." Exceptionally scarce, with only three institutional holdings located via OCLC (plus one more at the Library of Congress) and no auction records. A striking snapshot of the cultural, moral, and technical education of small-town Southerners before the Civil War. 7.75'' x 4.75''. Original brown cloth with modern brown goatskin spine. Errata slip tipped onto rear blank. viii, 9-400 pages. Juvenile ink and pencil owner name and a few notations of F.W. Jackson, Montgomery, Alabama, dated 1867. First few leaves significantly browned, otherwise only lightly foxed. Some bumping and light reinforcement to corners. Firm.