Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Use Restrictions

No physical characteristics affect use of this material

Preferred Citation

Speech of William P. Preston, Esq., 25 October 1856 (SC 0145), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

Richard MacMaster, Gainesville, FL

Alternative Form Available

None

Accruals

2018.0082

Processing Information

Max Arlett and Jack Craig , February 2019

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Born in Virginia, William P. Preston (1811-1880) spent much of his youth in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Preston studied law and by 1839 was practicing in Baltimore. Together with wife Margaret Wickham Smith (1815-1895), he maintained a residence and law office in Baltimore and a farm, Pleasant Plains, near Towson, Maryland. The couple had one daughter, May Preston McNeal (1849-1913).

On 25 October 1856 Preston presented a speech at a Democratic Party political meeting held at the farm of Robert J. T. White (1822-1889), located near the Hillsboro, Loudoun County. In his speech, Preston offers additional insight into the reason he was selected to speak to Loudoun Democrats. He notes that twenty five years earlier, at the young age of 18 he'd delivered his first public oration at the funeral of former President James Monroe (1758-1831) in the village Church at Aldie. The meeting at White's farm was held in advance of the 1856US Presidential election, held on Tuesday, 4 November 1856. In this election, Democrat James Buchanan (1791-1868) defeated Republican nominee John C. Fremont (1813-1890) and American Party nominee Millard Fillmore (1800-1874). Buchanan defeated sitting President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869), for the Democratic nomination. Speaking on Pierce's behalf. Preston urges attendees of the meeting to throw their support behind James Buchanan in the upcoming election in an effort to insure that Pierce's supporters would rally in support of to the Democratic Party's ticket.

Preston ran for Congress in Maryland's third congressional district in 1859. In the run-up to the election, Preston was attacked by a Baltimore street gang, the Plug Uglies, and received a number of head injuries. Unsuccessful in his bid for office, he contested the results of the election, but in the wake of congressional investigations of voter intimidation and other tactics used by his opponent J. Morrison Harris (1817-1898), failed to win the seat.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of a pamphlet of a political speech given by William P. Preston in 1856. Delivered near Hillsboro, Loudoun County, VA, the speech promotes James Buchanan as the ideal nominee for the 1856 Democratic Candidate for President. Preston's speech was printed in a pamphlet by The National Era, a weekly abolitionist newspaper published in Washington D.C that ran from 1847 to 1860.

Arrangement

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Related Material

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Adjunct Descriptive Data

Bibliography

Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. "Franklin Pierce." Accessed February 22, 2019. https://millercenter.org/president/pierce.

The National Era. (Washington [D.C.]), 03 Jan. 1850. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Accessed February 26, 2019.

Preston Family Papers. https://digital.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions. Preston Family papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries. http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1278 Accessed February 26, 2019.

Robert J. T. White. Find A Grave. https://www.findagrave.com

Speech of William P. Preston, Esq. of Maryland, Delivered October 25, 1856, at the farm of Robert J. T. White, Esq., near Hillsborough, Loudoun County, VA.

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Technical Requirements

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