4 June 1775

Hewes, Joseph, 1730-1779

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Samuel Johnston

Mentions Captain Gilles, who transmitted previous correspondence between Hewes and Johnston. Discusses the Colonies' (specifically North Carolina's) ability to finance and sustain a military conflict. Writes "I fear we shall be obliged [text loss] Promise for our Colony much more than it [can?] perform, perhaps, more than it is able to bear, when a Country loses its [hade?], when its Ports are all shut up and all exportation ceases, say, will there be value enough found on that Country to bear heavy Taxes with patience suppose a Country under such Circumstances was to raise an Army, how is…

GLC04790

1822/08/28

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Richard Keith Call

Advises Call that on what he must do first if he wishes to succeed in politics, including making a good name for himself. Also counsel's him to mend a feud between Captain Easter and Judge Brekenridge. Then explains that he will never run for office, unless the majority of the people demand it, but explains what he would do if elected. "I never have been an applicant for office, I never will, I solicited retirement and to be candid with you I do not expect that, that retirement I have selected for myself, will be disturbed by the...call of a majority of the people. If in this I should be…

GLC04792

31 August 1779

Brice, James,1746-1801

Manuscript document signed

Title: to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer

Document certifies that Daniel St. Thomas of Jenifer, a futuer signer of the U.S. Constitution, took the oath called for under the "An Act to resrict the Deleages of this Sate in Congress from enegaging in any Trade either foreign or domestic." Signed by Brier "of the Council." List of numbers is added up on verso.

GLC04795

3 November 1779

Jenkinson, Charles, 1727-1808

Letter signed

Title: to William Phillips

Written by Jenkinson as Secretary of War in Lord North's ministry in London to Major General Phillips as the ranking officer of the Convention Army, which consisted of prisoners of war from the Saratoga campaign. The army was being barracked in Massachusetts. Marked duplicate. References Phillips's letters of 20 March 1779, 30 May 1779, and 3 June 1779. Tries to alleviate the worry that Convention Army officers have about being passed over in rank. Says Phillips must have gotten the idea from the newspapers. At issue was a resolution by the House of Commons that each regiment was to have two…

GLC04796

9 November 1797

King, Rufus, 1755-1827

Letter signed

Title: to Timothy Pickering

Written by King as American Ambassador to Britain to Secretary of State Pickering. Written in numeric cipher, probably concerning the implications of XYZ Affair. Letter was unable to be uncoded at this time. Cipher could possibly be in the Rufus King Papers at New-York Historical Society.

GLC04798

November 10, 1828

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jeremy Bentham

Lafayette confirms that he has settled on his farm at La Grange and indicates that he is studying Bentham's philosophy. He discusses standing armies and the role of the militia in defending the United States. Also discusses "the impeachment of ministers" and labels himself "a disciple of the American School," and includes commentary on the French Revolution.

GLC04801

11 May 1778

Laurens, Henry, 1724-1792

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Caesar Rodney

Written by Laurens as President of the Continental Congress to Rodney as President of Delaware. Says he sent a packet on 9 May 1778 by General William Smallwood. Says it contains 20 copies of an address by Congress on the regulation of armed vessels. Hopes Rodney will distribute them as he sees fit.

GLC04804.01

16 October 1778

Laurens, Henry, 1724-1792

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Congressional resolution denying the flag of truce to British Peace Commissioners]

Denies the use of flags of truce to "nefarious" British peace commissioners who abused the privilege to disseminate "under the sanction of a Flag certain seditious Papers under the name and title of Manifestoes...with a view to stir up dissentious animosities and Rebellions among the goode Popele of these States."

GLC04805

24 November 1777

Lee, Richard Henry, 1732-1794

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Roger Sherman

Discusses the surrender of John Burgoyne, Cornwallis' movements, and the loss of Red Bank, among other activities in the Revolutionary War. Also mentions international relations and naval activities. Supports the Articles of Confederation, comments on the need for the states to compromise with each other, and discusses other issues pertaining to the formation of the United States. With a long signed postscript that updates his comments on the war.

GLC04808

2 August 1858

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to C.W. Michael and William Proctor

Replies concerning Stephen Douglas, "Judge Douglas considers my presence at his appointments as an intrusion; and so I have concluded to not be present at them." States that if they can assure him an audience at Lewistown on the 17th, he will try to be there. Written during his campaign against Stephen A. Douglas for his Senate seat. Note on the verso by a previous owner stating the letter is the property of Mary Laura K. Wright of Canton, Illinois.

GLC04812

1855-1860

United States War Department

Book

Title: [Reports of explorations and surveys for a railroad route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean]

Thirteen volumes bound as twelve. Volumes 1 through 11 were issued in the Congressional series of U.S. public documents as 33d Cong., 2d sess. House ex. doc. 91, and also as Senate ex. doc. 78. Volume 11 was issued also (1861) as 36th Cong., 2d sess. Senate ex. doc. [no number]. Large folio volumes with modern leather binding.

GLC04963

24 June 1865

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Broadside

Title: [Proclamation lifting restrictions on trade west of the Mississippi River]

Printed signature of President Johnson and Acting Secretary of State William Hunter. Proclamation will "restore unrestricted commercial intercourse between and in the several States ... and Territories west of the Mississippi river." Opens all trade except that in arms, ammunition, all articles from which ammunition is made, gray cloth, and property purchased by agents of the former Confederate forces. Says customs agents will supervise trade and that they shall receive any captured or abandoned property that should be confiscated by law.

GLC04973

17 July 1868

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Document signed

Title: [Pardon of Nathan B. Forrest for rebellion]

Pardon for ex-Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest of Tennessee. The pardon includes a provision against Forrest attempting to enslave people, and that he claim no property or the proceeds of any property that has been ordered sold by court of law. Accompanied by a Free Franked envelope. (c/s by William H. Seward). Features embossed seal on verso.

GLC04977.01

10 August 1868

Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 1821-1877

Document signed

Title: Receipt of pardon form. [N. B. Forrest]

Partially printed receipt of pardon form sent by William H. Seward to Nathan B. Forrest along with his pardon. Forrest, as per the specifications of the pardon, returns the completed form to Seward.

GLC04977.02

6 August 1868

Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 1821-1877

Document signed

Title: Acknowledging receipt of presidential pardon [for Nathan B. Forrest].

GLC04977.03

24 June 1853

Pierce, Franklin, 1804-1869

Manuscript document signed

Title: Pardon of Albert Mortimer, convicted of burglary.

Mortimer, convicted of burglary; sentenced to 14 years. (c/s William L. Marcy)

GLC04991

21 May 1866

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Pardon of Thomas H. Howard by Andrew Johnson]

Pardon for a burglar who pled guilty to three charges. Countersigned by William H. Seward.

GLC04992

1 January 1842

Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell), 1782-1850

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Grayson

Recommends a friend, Elias Brown, for the post of clerk of the court for Carroll County, [Maryland]. Informs that the Senate has the Exchequer scheme under consideration. Says that the Clay Whigs (Henry Clay) are against it. Mentions that they are also against President John Tyler and his administration especially Secretary of State Daniel Webster. Comments on the division in Whig ranks, "The division in their ranks can never be healed; and if it could, they can never rise under their present name, nor on the measures they support."

GLC04995

1788

Lloyd, Thomas, fl. 1788

Book

Title: Proceedings and debates of... Pennsylvania [with] Debates... on the Constitution

With contemporary ownership signature of Francis Shallus. Convention debates are printed in vols. 1-2 while PA Assembly debates are printed in vol. 3.

GLC04955

1858

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Pamphlet

Title: Speech of... [House Divided speech] [first separate printing, unique variant]

Apparently an unrecorded variant of the first separate printing by O. P. Bassett. The two other recorded copies have an imprint reading the "True Republican Office" with "Printer" abbreviated to "Pr."; the GLC copy omits the word "True" in the imprint and has "Printer" in-full. Like the two other extant copies, this copy prints the second "r" in "Territory" on page 13 upside down.

GLC04957

October 31 1774

Dawe, Philip, fl. 1750-1785

Print

Title: The Bostonian's Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring & Feathering

Engraving attributed to Philip Dawe, with hand-coloring. Shows the Boston Tea Party in the background, a "Liberty Tree" with a paper "Stamp Act" affixed upside-down, with five unsavory Bostonians forcibly pouring a pot of tea into the mouth of a tarred and feathered tea excise collector. Printed for Robert Sayer and J. Bennett, October 24, 1774. Dawe was a British mezzotint engraver.

GLC04961.01

4 July 1833

Everett, Edward, 1794-1865

Pamphlet signed

Title: An address delivered before the citizens of Worcester.

Discusses the consequences of dissolution of the Union in the immediate aftermath of the Nullification crisis. Written during the Nullification crisis. "I know, indeed, that the dissolution of the Union would be the source of incalculable injury to every part of it; as it would, in great likelihood, lead to border and civil war, and eventually to military despotism" (page 9). Describes the Union as a pillar of American independence. Speaks of celebrating the Fourth of July and remembering the founding fathers and the Revolutionary War. Details the history of the United States from…

GLC04972

25 April 1863

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

Letter signed

Title: [Message to the Confederate House of Representatives vetoing an act for investigating committees].

Vetoes "an act to aid committees of Congress in the investigation of matters referred to them and to punish false swearing before said committees" passed by the Confederate Congress. Davis believes that conferring upon the Congress the power to fine and imprison those appearing before it without trial would be unconstitional. Such powers are reserved for the judicial branch. The fourth leaf has a purple stamp which has been obliterated, possibly a Rebel War Archive stamp.

GLC04974

6 August 1868

Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 1821-1877

Document signed

Title: to William H. Seward re: accepting the conditions of his pardon

Forrest accepts the conditions of his presidential pardon and amnesty oath, with all the conditions specified. Certified at bottom by Isaac Morrison, U.S. Commander for the District of West Tenn.

GLC04978

17 May 1788

Pemberton, James, 1723-1809

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Moses Brown

The letter is written in traditional Quaker fashion without reference to the pagan names of months, and instead uses numbers for dates throughout. Written by Pemberton, a Quaker merchant and philanthropist in Philadelphia, to Brown, a well-known Quaker merchant in Providence, Rhode Island. References Brown's letter of 9 May 1788. Says he is getting the act of the Massachusetts Assembly (probably a law on the slave trade) republished in the newspaper with the most extensive circulation in Massachusetts. Sends along information and new publications on the anti-slave trade crusaders in Britain.…

GLC04980