Modern battles of Trenton : being a history of New Jersey's politics and legislation from the year 1868 to the year 1894

John L. Murphy, Printer, 1895. First Edition. hardcover. Good. 0x0x0. Hardcover. Good binding and cover. Burlington County NJ Library stamps and markings. 501 pp., illus. w/ b&w plates. "Sackett, William E. (b. May 23, 1848, d. Nov. 18, 1926). Journalist. Sackett, the son of William and Josephine Findlay Sackett, was educated at the Anthon School and the New York Free Academy. Originally intent on becoming a lawyer, he worked for three years (from 1865 to 1868) in the law office of Chester A. Arthur, who later became president of the United States when James A. Garfield was assassinated. A veteran reporter for the New York Times and New York Herald, Sackett is perhaps best known for his delightful two-volume work aptly titled Modern Battles of Trenton. The first volume, which chronicles New Jersey politics from 1868 to 1894 ranks as a classic in muckraker literature. The second volume, published in 1914, covers the gubernatorial administrations extending from George Werts to Woodrow Wilson. Although there is much hearsay and exaggeration in both volumes, they offer an invaluable chronicle of the state politics from just after the Civil War to World War I. A reform democrat disillusioned with machine politics and political bossism, Sackett made a futile attempt to seek his party's nomination for governor in 1913 during the high noon of progressivism." Sackett, William E. Modern Battles of Trenton. 2 vols. Trenton: J. L. Murphy, 1895–1914.