Sketch of the Life of Com. Robert F. Stockton
1856
by BAYARD, SAMUEL J.
1856. [BAYARD, SAMUEL J.]. A Sketch of the Life of Com. Robert F. Stockton ... His Correspondence with the Navy Department Respecting his Conquest of California.... New York, 1856. 210, 131 p. + ads. Port. Cloth. Dampstain at the bottom of the first sixty pages, foxed as usual, spine a trifle faded. A better-than-usual copy of a book that is normally found drab and worn. First and only edition. A laudatory campaign biography, written at the time Stockton was being considered as a presidential candidate by the American Party. The work treats Stockton's conquest of California, the defense of Fremont, and his speeches and letters. Bayard was Stockton's Princeton neighbor and cousin, and his portrait is entirely uncritical. However it remains the only full-length published biography of Stockton. For a detailed essay on the book, see Felcone, New Jersey Books (2nd edn.), 79-80. Howes B259; Cowan p. 616; Wagner-Camp 271b. (Inventory #: 24)