Printed broadside (20 1/2 x 30 5/8 in.; 520 x 778 mm). Text within elaborate wood engraved border by Joseph H. Brightly, inscribed by Buchanan to Jameson Glossbrenner in lower margin, and dated 18 July 1861; a few scattered stains, not affecting legibility, and some closed tears to margins, not affecting text or images, expert paper repairs to verso.

James Buchanan displays his solidarity with the Irish "...Irishmen! shrink not! Fear not! the time is near at hand when a consolidated UNION like that of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION will be organized, throughout the Land, and the insulted majesty of a people will rise and defend the glorious standard of EQUAL JUSTICE, EQUAL LAWS, AND EQUAL REPRESENTATION...”

James Buchanan signed this 1849 Irish political protest broadside to Jameson Glossbrenner, the son of his former secretary, Adam Glossbenner. The broadside features an Irish harp crowned with two angels framing the text. The angels hold scrolls with the names of protesting Irishmen, including John Mitchel, T. R. Meagher, Wm. S. O’Brien, and C. G. Duffy. A portrait of Irish martyr Robert Emmet appears above the text with the legend: “Let no man write my epitaph till Ireland is free!” Joseph H. Brightly, a Philadelphia and New York wood engraver, prepared the elaborate engraving for the broadside.

The present broadside at length condemns the British government, charging it with the suppression of the Irish press, Catholicism, and the Irish people. Many Irish-Americans were enthusiastic supporters of Irish independence. Buchanan was himself of Scotch-Irish (or Ulster Scots) ancestry, and the former president once proclaimed, “My Ulster blood is my most priceless heritage.”