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"The less Government is felt and seen the better for all concerned...."

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:275.00 USD Estimated At:550.00 - 650.00 USD
 The less Government is felt and seen the better for all concerned....
Excessively rare commercial-propaganda cover, larger 3 3/4 x 6 1/2 size, with runaround text both sides, in Christmas red. Printed 1866 or '67 by American Free Trade League, William B. Scott, Treas., 44 Pine St., N.Y. Detailed globe logo on flap, with clasped hands. To Everard Palmer, Buffalo. Scott #65, rose family, perfed off-center with part of stamp below. Curiously postmarked at destination, Buffalo, Jan. 1. Imprinted: "The League protests against the 'paternal' interference of Government with private pursuits, being convinced that the less Government is felt and seen the better for all concerned...Men should have the right to exercise their industry...to buy whatever and wherever they please...'Protection' to the producer is robbery to the consumer, with the added hypocrisy of pretending to look after the latter's interest...'Alas! we have tried everything - when shall we make trial of the simplest thing of all - Liberty?...'--Bastiat." Far from a group of fringe eccentrics, the League's early members included John Quincy Adams (fils), William Cullen Bryant (an early Pres.), John A. Dix, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cyrus Field, William Lloyd Garrison, Draft Riot-era Mayor George Opdyke, James Roosevelt, and other luminaries. 1 1/4" tear at flap, touching edge of globe, small triangular fragment lacking at flap, light edge toning and wear, else fine. The only other example located appeared in the Jarrett Collection of Propaganda Covers, Robert A. Siegel, in 2009, termed "a rare and desirable propaganda cover," notwithstanding that stamp covering two blocks of text, ours nicely affixed. Items of any description relating to the League are elusive.