[RADICAL RIGHT & FASCISM - ANTI-CATHOLICISM - ELECTIONS OF 1896] [AMERICAN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION]

American Citizen. Vol. V., no 28 (April 18, 1896)

Boston: American Citizen Co., 1896. First Edition. Tabloid, 22" x 16"; 8pp. On newsprint, with original horizontal and vertical folds; single small perforation at centerline (without loss); Very Good.

This short-lived nativist news sheet was, if not the official organ, then at least the affiliated mouthpiece of the American Protective Association, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant membership society founded in Clinton, Iowa in 1887. The group played a vocal but not particularly influential role in the Presidential elections of 1896, ginning up as much phony opposition as they could to the nomination of William McKinley, whom they accused of refusing to meet with the APA's delegates and failing to repudiate the Catholic vote. The allegations were generally false, but no matter; this was fake news before fake news was cool, and the group established a playbook that has been adhered to by the nativist Right ever since. The APA's viewpoint on the elections is strongly represented in the pages of the current issue, with numerous articles denouncing the Vatican, McKinley, and the imputed ties between the two. Front page features a derogatory racist cartoon lampooning the political aspirations of Democrat William E. Russell of Massachusetts, who had announced his candidacy a week earlier (and who died, suddenly and unexpectedly, a few months later). A nicely preserved and highly representative single issue of a scarce newspaper. Narrowly represented in institutional collections and not generally seen in commerce.

Price: $85.00

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