Harry Bumm's Bottom Comes Home
Fig. 1. The Modern Democratic Creed (Philadelphia, 1863), from the John A. McAllister Collection.
The John A. McAllister collection of Philadelphia Civil War ephemera includes over a hundred political broadsides for federal, state and local elections during the war years. Lots of waving flags, screaming eagles, big bold type and vitriolic mudslinging. For example, the two broadsides for the campaign for city treasurer in 1863, pitting Democrat John Brodhead against Union (i.e. Republican) Party candidate Harry (actually Henry) Bumm. One broadside, The Modern Democratic Creed, quotes an alleged letter from Brodhead to then-Senator Jefferson Davis seeking an appointment as Minister to Nicaragua. “I should like to go to that country and help open it to civilization and Niggers,” he wrote. “I am tired of being a white slave at the North, and long for a home in the sunny South . . . Mrs. Brodhead joins me in sending kind remembrances to Mrs. Davis and yourself.” And that’s it, no rallying cry to “Vote For . . ,” just this pie-in-the-face presentation of Brodhead’s own words condemning him as a proslavery toady.
Fig. 2. City Treasurer (Philadelphia, 1863), top half of a broadside from the John A. McAllister Collection.
Another broadside from the McAllister Collection was a puzzle, but no more. Brodhead’s letter appears on a huge broadside (27” x 44”) under the heading “City Treasurer!,” accompanied by a large woodcut of a shack and a family of whites, with an overseer whipping a slave. Missing is the last line of Brodhead’s letter, his name, and, again, no “Vote For. . .” If not Brodhead, who? Clearly, something was missing.
Enter serendipity. Chief of Reference Phil Lapsansky, who’s worked extensively on the McAllister collection over the years, was browsing an auction catalogue and spotted a small illustration of a broadside with the name in big bold type, Harry Bumm. We have other Bumm campaign items, and the name, a burr on the brain, is hard to forget once seen. The broadside includes the last line of Brodhead’s letter beneath an illustration of white family groups off to a picnic aboard the American Mechanics Association excursion train, with the rallying cry “Mechanics, Working Men, Patriots, Democrats, all Men who despise meanness and servility, mark this Slanderer of Honest Labor by Voting for the National Union Candidate, Harry Bumm!” Phil realized he was looking at the bottom portion of our broadside, actually a huge item printed on two sheets which, when joined, would be nearly five feet tall.
Fig. 3. Bottom half of the broadside, purchased at auction, June, 2006.
Our now-complete broadside is a stunning example of the intense partisan passion of Civil War politics in Philadelphia. The image and text hark back to the Free Soil Republicans of the 1850s as defenders of free labor–“white slaves” in Brodhead’s letter was the pro-slavery politicians’ term for free white workers. The images contrast the oppressed slave to happy white families of “Mechanics,” and “Working Men” off to enjoy a day at the sea shore. One hundred and thirty three years after this graphic behemoth screamed from the walls of Philadelphia, top and bottom are together again to recreate this bold artifact of Civil War politics in Philadelphia.