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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 16, April 15, 2001, Article 7 VOTE THE LAND FREE Dave Bowers submitted the following excerpt from his research notes relating to the "Vote the Land Free" counterstamp discussed last week. He links this and another counterstamp ("Land Limitation") to the National Reform Association. The phrase “Vote yourself a farm,” is said to have originated with the association in 1844. For more information on the National Reform Association (not to be confused with the modern National Reform Party of Ross Perot and Gov. Jesse Ventura), see this web page: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Quad/6460/dir/844nra.html LAND LIMITATION • 1844 cent • Counterstamped by: National Reform Association advocates. • Location: NY, New York City • Category: Political statement. • Stamped: LAND and LIMITATION, each in a curved logotype punch. • F-15 Land Limitation {Commentary} Issued by advocates of the National Reform Association (NRA), formed by George Henry Evans from the membership of the Locofocos, National Trades Union, and the Workingmen’s Party. On March 13, 1844, a meeting of working people, under the name of National Reform Party, was held in New York City at Chatham and Mulberry streets. A committee was appointed to investigate “a depression of labor, and a social degradation of the laborer.” The committee filed a report which was accepted at the next meeting. The National Reform Association resolved to use the “land question” as the prime element in its political statements, and laid out three objectives: 1. Homestead legislation by the federal government to allow workers and others to acquire public lands free of charge. 2. Legislation to be enacted by various states to exempt land such as farms from seizure in debt collection. 3. Land limitation (precise wording) to restrict the ownership of large amounts of land by wealthy individuals and other entities, so that land would become more easily available to the general population. In the following year, 1845, the NRG joined with advocates of the Fourierist movement to schedule the first of a series on annual National Industrial Congresses. • It is likely that the National Reform Association was also involved in 1844 with the issuance of the VOTE THE LAND / FREE counterstamps (see listing, which reiterates much of the present commentary and adds more). Similar to the LAND LIMITATION counterstamp, it is known on at least one cent (listed below) and on Spanish-American silver two-reales coins (1797 and 1812 in the present instance). VOTE THE LAND FREE {Commentary} Per conventional wisdom as reiterated in many numismatic texts, the VOTE THE LAND FREE stamp was applied in 1848 by advocates of the Free Soil Party, which advocated free soil; that is, the admission of new states to the Union under the proviso that all should be free, and no slavery would be allowed. However, in long-term research relating to the Free Soil Party I have never been able to match the VOTE THE LAND FREE slogan with any slogan used by that group, although the sentiment is correct. Also, in studying the availability of coins with this counterstamp, I have never personally seen any piece dated after 1844. Russ Rulau and Gregory Brunk list several stray pieces dated 1845- 1848, but upon queries to them, March 2001, each replied that he had neither seen an actual example with a post-1844 date nor a photograph of one. After noticing in my own collection the large cluster of cents dated 1843 and earlier, and a solitary 1844, I thought it worthwhile to investigate if an issuer could be found for early in the year 1844, by which time 1844 cents would not have been widely distributed, but 1843 and earlier cents would be in great abundance. As these words are being written, the National Reform Party, discussed earlier under the Land Limitation heading and repeated below, seems to be a strong possibility. My own cluster of 1843 and earlier coins (see inventory below) is reinforced by the latest listing supplied by Dr. Brunk (including the “stray” post-1845 pieces which, as noted, he has not personally verified): Cents: 1812 (2 examples), 1816, 1817 (2), 1818 (2), 1819, 1824, 1825, 1827, 1829 (2), 1833, 1834, 1835 (2), 1836 (3), 1837 (4), 1838 (2), 1839, 1840 (2), 1841 (8), 1842 (3), 1843 (8), 1844 (3), 1845, 1846, 1848, and 5 of unknown dates (presumably, worn smooth); 1843 quarter dollar; 1826 English halfpenny; Spanish-American two-reales: 1811, 1813, 1819. The National Reform Association (NRA), formed by George Henry Evans from the membership of the Locofocos, National Trades Union, and the Workingmen’s Party. On March 13, 1844, a meeting of working people, under the name of National Reform Party, was held in New York City at Chatham and Mulberry streets. A committee was appointed to investigate “a depression of labor, and a social degradation of the laborer.” The committee filed a report which was accepted at the next meeting. The National Reform Association resolved to use the “land question” as the prime element in its political statements, and laid out three objectives (quoted under “Land Limitation” above). The NRA newspaper, the Working Man’s Advocate, July 6, 1844, included this (a sample from a much larger amount of material in print): “In this Republic, all that the Creator designed for man’s use is ours—belongs, not to the aristocracy, but to the people. The deep and interminable forest, the fertile and boundless prairie, the rich and inexhaustible mine.? We regard the public lands as a capital stock, which belongs not to us only, but to posterity.? The first great object, then, is to assert and establish the right of the people to the soil; to be used by them in their own day, and transmitted — an inalienable heritage — to their posterity.? This fundamental principle shall be established as the paramount law, with the least possible delay.?” The slogan, “Vote yourself a farm,” is said to have originated with Evans in 1844, after which it caught on and was used by others, including in the 1860 presidential campaign. However, I have not come across the specific slogan, “Vote the land free,” in this or any other context of the era save for the counterstamped cents. In the 1844 election, both political parties included the disposition and proceeds of public land in their platforms. The Whigs, who met in convention in Baltimore on May 1, 1844, nominated Henry Clay as their candidate. The Democratic Party met in Baltimore on May 27, and after three days of tumult and in-fighting the delegates named James Knox Polk, a “dark horse,” after better-known contenders, including Martin Van Buren (who was the odds-on favorite early in the convention), Lewis Cass, James Buchanan, John C. Calhoun, Levi Woodbury, and two others had been considered. In 1845, the National Reform Association joined with advocates of the Fourierist movement to schedule the first of a series on annual National Industrial Congresses. By 1848, the member of the NRA had been absorbed into other political movements, especially those broadly advocating abolition, including the Free Soil Party and Free Democratic Party. Counterstamp theory: I suggest that VOTE THE LAND / FREE counterstamp was applied by members the National Reform Association in spring 1844, soon after its March meeting, thus accounting for the date distribution of the cents involved. By the end of May 1844, other parties had come to the fore in the public eye, with the November presidential election in the offing. A fertile area for study might be New York City newspapers of the March-May 1844 period. If any later coins can be found with this stamp, I suggest that these are stray pieces either produced casually or in 1848 when someone sensed that the Free Soil Party had what seemed to be similar sentiments (actually, a study of the two groups reveals many differences). However, one might think that if the Free Soil Party had engendered these counterstamps they would not have changed key words, and instead of VOTE THE LAND / FREE the stamp would have read VOTE THE SOIL / FREE. Moreover, the LAND / LIMITATION counterstamp (described earlier) has the exact wording of a resolution of the National Reform Association, uses the word land, and indicates that counterstamping coins was practiced by the NRA in 1844, providing a reasonable segue to the issuance of VOTE THE LAND / FREE pieces at the same time."

Wayne Homren, Editor

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