Author: PUMPHREY, Stanley
Title: Indian Civilization: A Lecture
Description: Philadelphia, The Bible and Tract Distributing Society, 1877. Hardcover. Introduction by John G. Whittier. Small 4to. Burgundy pebble-grain blind-ruled cloth with gilt front board lettering. 52pp. Large foldout map. Very good. Text block is bright and near fine; binding has been faintly shellacked and shows some wear to head and tail of spine; small hand-lettered paper shelf label at lower left of front board. Scarce first edition of this "Lecture Delivered in Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York.--Fourth Month, 1877." Writes Pumphrey, "In the course of last Autumn and Winter I spent several weeks among the tribes in the Indian Territory and Kansas, which are about thirty in number, and comprehend a fourth of the whole Indiana population in the United States. They include some of the wildest and the worst like the Comanches and Cheyennes, and some of the most civilized like the Cherokees and Creeks, with every shade of barbarism and semi-civilization between." Interesting observations on the Native Americans general state from a white man's perspective -- mostly confirming his opening remark that "I have found the impression prevailing widely that their prospects are hopeless, that our labor in their behalf produces little if any permanent result, and that there is nothing before this unhappy race but extinction at no distant date." The hand-colored foldout map of the Indian Territory is superb and bright, and an appendix contains "Evidence on the Condition of Indians in Canada" by J.T. Gilkison and "Letter to the New York Tribune" by Bishop of Montana H.B. Whipple. At the top of Whittier's "Introduction" is neatly penned "Senator Wm B. Allison" in an unknown cursive hand (Pumphrey's?). Usually seen in wrappers, this is the first clothbound copy encountered. About Pumphrey himself little is known, other than birth and death years (1837-81) and that the essay opening notes he hails from Worcester, England. From the collection of William B. Allison (1829-1908), the powerful Iowa Republican who, as U.S. senator from that state (1873-1908), was one of the "big four" who controlled the Senate; as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee for most of those years, he championed tariff legislation and co-authored the Bland-Allison Act of 1878; as member of the Senate Finance Committee he was often courted by U.S. presidents to hold cabinet positions. Early 20th century bookplate on front pastedown records "This book is part of Allison Memorial Collection Gift of Mrs. Jennie A. Brayton" and until deaccessioned was part of Allison's non-circulating collection at his hometown public library across the street from his Dubuque residence. Notes Leland L. Sage in his 1956 biography "William Boyd Allison: A Study in Practical Politics," Allison owned "hundreds of books on government, economics, history, banking, finance, and the tariff.. An omnivorous reader, Allison doubtless read most of these volumes, if only for relaxation from the strain that accompanied his efforts to solve the many problems facing the Nation.." BAL 21950. .

Keywords: Native American


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