An extremely rare and impressive patriotic display broadside, issued in 1812 as a deeply-divided United States was rushing headlong into war with Great Britain.

“A large central framework incorporates a small “Temple of Freedom” surmounted by a small Liberty figure, and containing the words “The Federal Constitution.” On each side are oval bust portraits of Presidents (left to right) Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Above them are small vignettes representing (on the left) Agriculture and Domestic Manufactures, the “immoveable pillars of the Independence of our country,” and (on the right) Commerce, “a strong support to our national edifice.” In the upper section of the framework are the seal of the United States and a listing of the names of the seventeen states with their 1810 census figures. Various quotations and brief texts are included, the longest of which are an account of George Washington’s resignation of his commission, a description of the geography, government, and people of the United States, and the song “Columbia” written by “Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College.”” (Library of Congress)

The “Temple of Freedom” is printed in red from a separate woodblock, making this a strikingly early and ambitious example of American color printing. The effect is dramatic and transforms what might otherwise have been a dense didactic broadside into an eye-catching patriotic display object.

The broadside was first copyrighted on January 15, 1812, but this example is a later issue, with “Eighth Edition” and “June 1812” added in the upper margin. It was thus published in the very month the United States declared war on Great Britain, giving this example a particularly charged historical context. The example recorded in Shaw-Shoemaker lacks those additions and is plausibly the first edition; there, the Temple of Freedom is printed in green rather than the red seen here. I find no record of any intervening editions.

The broadside is signed by one Jonathan Clark of Albany, who likely also wrote Life of General Washington, Late President of the United States (Albany: Printed by Packard & Van Benthuysen, 1813). Other than this second publication, I have found absolutely no definitive biographical information for him.

A republican empire
The title is central to the broadside’s meaning. It pitches the United States not merely as an independent republic but as an expanding continental power, fueled by shared and deeply-held republican values; a fast-growing population; and a well-balanced economy reliant on a blend of agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce.

In early 1812, that expansive vision aligned closely with the politics driving the nation toward war. American outrage at impressment and British restrictions on trade was real enough, but the coming was was also shaped by a struggle for power in the interior of North America. Many Americans, particularly the so-called “War Hawks”, believed that British power in Canada and British influence among native peoples on the northwestern frontier obstructed westward expansion. War thus promised not only the vindication of national honor, but the breaking of British power in the West and possibly even the conquest of Canada itself.

In that context, the broadside offers an image not of what the nation was, but of what many Americans believed—or hoped—it could be. In reality, whatever the country’s destiny, at the time it was deeply divided, and the declaration of war was hotly contested, particularly by the commercial interests of the Northeast. The War of 1812 saw a few stunning naval victories and Jackson’s triumph at New Orleans but was otherwise a shambles, the crowning humiliation coming with the burning of Washington, D.C. in 1814.

References
Shaw-Shoemaker 25079 (recording only the presumed first edition). OCLC 299947315 (Library of Congress, Williams College) and 58784997 (American Antiquarian Society (“mutilated”), New York Historical Society); and 191264530 (Princeton). Others are held by the National Portrait Gallery, the Huntington (badly mutilated), and the Albany Institute of History and Art.