Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Lowell, J. R.; et al. The United States Magazine and Democratic Review. New Series, Volume XII. 1843. New York: J. & H. G. Langley, 1843. First Edition. [9412]
Six issues bound, January - June, 1843. Full leather, outer hinges fine, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches, spine dark with crazing & light surface loss, black leather title & volume no. labels in gilt. iv., 668 pp., tight. With six engravings. Good. Leather bound.
The engravings are of J. C. Calhoun; Silas Wright, Jr.; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire; O. A. Brownson; Crawford's Orpheus; and Albert Gallatin.
Contents include
The Angels' Search, by Mrs. Jane L. Swift; Brahmin and the Crystal Drop, by Mrs. Jane L. Swift; Buds and Bird-Voices, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Celestial Railroad, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; William Ellery Channing, by George Bancroft; The Community System, by Orestes A. Brownson; Cousin Frank, by Miss Sedgewick; The Death of the Prophet: To the Memory of Channing, by Miss Ann C. Lynch; Democracy and Liberty, by O. A. Brownson; Egotism, or the Bosom Serpent, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Gallows and the Gospel; Human Sacrifice, by J. G. Whittier; The New Adam and Eve, By Nathaniel Hawthorne; Ode to the New Year, by G. H. Colton; A Parable, by J. R. Lowell; The Procession of Life, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Sabbath Worship in the Forest, by Rh. S. S. Andros; Sonnet to Martin Van Buren; Ballad of Cassandra Southwick, by J. G. Whittier; Synthetic Philosophy, by O. A. Brownson; The Spectre Bridegroom, by A. H. Everett; Wordsworth's Sonnetts.
The United States Magazine and Democratic Review was published from 1837 to 1859, it's motto "The best government is that which governs least" has been erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson. The ideals of Jefferson were promoted by the periodical, with its support of Jacksonian Democracy being built on that foundation. It was a counterpart to the North American Review, a Federalist/Whig periodical. It was outspoken in the topics of the Mexican War, slavery, states' rights, and Indian removal. It was in this periodical that the term "Manifest Destiny" was first used. It was edited by Jon L. O'Sullivan and Samuel D. Langtree. The volumes of this series are a brilliant presentation of literature and politics in the years before the American Civil War.
The Magazine promoted American writers, printing some of the earliest writings of such luminaries as Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, J. G. Whittier, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, H. W. Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell.