7 July 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: At the meeting of the "Church of Peterboro," held July 7th, 1849, the following Resolutions were passed, without a dissenting voice...

Accuses a clerk and store owner who sell liquor as being "out of...place" for preaching the gospel. A second resolution attests that no members of the Church of Peterboro are guilty of voting for anti-abolitionists or drinking intoxicating liquors. The resolutions are to be read in a public assembly 8 July.

GLC04717.50

20 July 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To the Church of Peterboro

Uses an allegory of a tea, coffee, and liquor merchant to illustrate that "the wickedness in one branch... taints with wickedness every other branch..."

GLC04717.51

9 August 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to Hiram P. Crozier, New York

Defends the Resolutions of the Church of Peterboro, which Crozier criticized. Chastises Crozier for running a store that sells liquor, declaring "iniquity, permitted in one of the branches of the store, stamps the whole store with iniquity." Crozier served as pastor of the church.

GLC04717.52

February 14, 1873

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: A letter from the Hon. Gerrit Smith, to the Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee, New York.

Smith writes, "As I view it, our Government should, long ago, have conceded belligerent rights to the Cubans struggling for freedom from the yoke of Spain and from the yoke of Slavery... The world is too far advanced in a rational civilization and in an all-comprehending fraternal religion, that it should any longer be allowable for the nations to stand still whilst one of them continues to indulge in the horrid crimes of which, if they were ever guilty, they have thoroughly repented." Notes that Samuel Raymond Scottron served as the committee's president, and H. H. Garnet as vice president…

GLC04717.62

4 July 1873

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Let crushed Cuba arise! Substance of the speech of Gerrit Smith, in Syracuse, July 4th 1873.

Smith writes, "In our Fourth of July celebrations there are two events, which, far above all other events, we come together to celebrate. One of these is the deliverance of our country, nearly a century ago, from political despotism, and the other is the practical recognition by our nation, a few years since, of the grand doctrine that 'all men are created equal.'"

GLC04717.63

1 December 1873

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Spain. --- Cuba.

Discusses Spain's history of slaveholding and the role of other nations to end slavery in Cuba.

GLC04717.64

4 January 1850

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to John Cochran, Isaac T. Hopper, Daniel C. Eaton, George H. Evans, and William Kemeys

Smith writes to prominent men he chose to designate the distribution of gifts of land and money among five hundred males and females from New York. Notes that he will not give the females land, but will instead bestow $50 upon each of them. Declares, "Alas, that good men should be so slow to see, that the acknowledged right of every generation, and the whole of every generation, to the use of the earth, as well as to the use of the sea, the light, and the air, is necessarily preliminary to that state of universal comfort... for which good men labor and pray!" Notes that most of the land is…

GLC04717.65

13 March 1871

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: The West Point mob.

Smith discusses recent mob activity at West Point, New York: "Nothing else is so frightful as a mob- that many-headed monster, whose every head refuses to be controlled. Mobs and their dramshop inspiration threaten the ruin of our country. Ours is emphatically the country of mobs. Slavery made it such." Judging from Smith's text, West Point cadets kidnapped and threatened to tar and feather several African Americans.

GLC04717.66

24 May 1844

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: To the persons who derive title from myself or my late father to land in Charlotte River and Byrne's Tracts, in the Counties of Delaware, Otsego, and Schoharie

Discusses the authenticity of land titles, possibly for land he previously gifted to African Americans in need. Suspects that Native Americans told residents that the land titles were inauthentic in order to obtain timber from the property.

GLC04717.69

21 December 1857

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: From the New York Tribune. Mr. Gerrit Smith on the President's message. The currency and the hard times.

Smith writes, "There is nothing in the nature of civil government, and there is nothing in the Constitution, to justify the Federal Government in banking, or in undertaking to authorize it in others." Also criticizes economists' reference to slavery as an institution, or "an essential part of the basis of public and national credit."

GLC04717.70

January 21, 1863

Magie, James K., fl. 1862-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Magie

Writes from Headquarters of the 78th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers. He asks her to write at least once a week. They have received marching orders, but heavy rains made the river rise and they may not be able to move. He spent last night playing a game "with a very pretty young lady. You must not yet be jealous about it, although I begin to think I have some right to go about among the girls as you have almost [quit] writing to me." A runaway slave from Spencer County is employed by the Colonel. He does odd jobs, dances and makes speeches. Plans to stay with the regiment and go back to…

GLC05241.06

February 2, 1863

Magie, James K., fl. 1862-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Magie

Written on board the steamer J. H. Groesbeck. Notes the regiment is bound for Fort Donelson. Says he has comfortable quarters in a cabin with some other officers but the enlisted men are very crowded. Mentions that his colonel is under arrest for refusing to search the boat for escaped slaves. Notes he was put in charge of the contraband cook, who now wishes to go home with "Massa Magie."

GLC05241.09

3 May 1865

Walbridge, Charles E., 1842-?

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Louise Walbridge

Appointed Inspector of the Quartermaster Department for the Department of North Carolina. Reports that there are 3,500 contrabands colonized on the island, and describes a large seminary at Raleigh.

GLC04663.62

19 November 1865

Walbridge, Charles E., 1842-?

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Louise Walbridge

Writes that he is still selling his stock. "[W]ent within ten miles of the Savannah river. I found the country almost a desert, and all the people as poor as rats. Some who formerly had splendid dwellings surrounded by every luxury, are now living in little log cabins formerly occupied by slaves...I know a man in this village who had nearly a thousand bales on hand when Sherman's army entered the place, twelve hours later he had not a single bale. This cotton, if he now had it, would be worth over $150,000." Notes that many people wish to buy his stock but have no money. Writes that…

GLC04663.71

20 September 1839

Grand Jury

Manuscript document

Title: The Grand Jury finds the following fact

Relates details pertaining to the sailing of the Amistad, the mutiny of the captives on board, and the ship's subsequent capture near the coast of New York. Mentions Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney, commander of the brig Washington and other persons involved in the case.

GLC05636.06

November 1839

Manuscript document

Title: [Testimonies regarding the capture of the Amistad]

Possibly given at Connecticut District Court in November 1839. Marked "U.S." at the top. Begins with the testimony of Lieutenant Richard W. Meade, who led an armed party that initially boarded the Amistad, requesting the ship's papers. Includes the testimony of Baldwin, Dart Sharp (on board the USS Washington when it came in contact with the Amistad), and Captain Mather (who "went with Mead made soundings & c.").

GLC05636.11

January 1840

Manuscript document

Title: [Testimonies regarding the capture of the Amistad; includes Cinque's testimony]

Created at Connecticut District Court in 7-9 January 1840 by or for William S. Holabird. Serves as notes of the testimony of Richard Robert Madden (head of the British Anti-Slavery [Mixed] Commission in Havana), Sullivan Haley (on board the USS Washington when it met the Amistad; discusses the statements of Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, two Spanish men found aboard the Amistad) , Dwight P. Janes (abolitionist), James Covey (a Mende native and translator for the Africans aboard the Amistad), Professor Josiah Gibbs (who claimed based on the Amistad Africans' language, they were recently arrived…

GLC05636.13

9 January 1840

Manuscript document

Title: [Testimonies regarding the capture of the Amistad; includes Cinque's testimony]

Marked "&c Cinqué" at top. Appears to be a continuation of GLC 5636.13. Testimony of Cinqué, leader of the Africans aboard the Amistad, continues. Contains the testimonies of Grabbo and Foolaqua, Amistad mutineers. Includes the testimony of Norris Wilcox (United States Marshal for the District of Connecticut), Captain Mather (on board the USS Washington when it came in contact with the Amistad), Professor Josiah Gibbs (who claimed based on the Amistad Africans' language, they were recently arrived from Africa and had not resided in Cuba), Reverend George Day (employed to supervise the…

GLC05636.14

23 September 1839

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Forsyth states: "It is necessary to a just decision on the various points presenting themselves for the President's consideration in the case of the Spanish Schooner 'Amistad,' that the Department should be furnished, with a copy of the ships' papers, together with a transcript of the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry held by the District Judge, on board that vessel, to which you refer in your letter of the 5th instant, and on which the Blacks were imprisoned for the alleged murder of the Captain and Mate..."

GLC05636.17

10 November 1839

Judson, Andrew T., 1784-1853

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Judson, who presided over the district (and circuit) court proceedings of the Amistad, informs Holabird that he has not yet heard from President Martin Van Buren or Secretary of State John Forsyth regarding the case. Suggests Holabird review a similar case, "10th Wheaten 133. The Plattsburgh." Writes "That is a Late case, long since the Spanish Decree of 1817, and yet it turns wholly on the question of fitting out in the U. S. or Cuba. If in the U. S. she was rightfully condemned but if in Spain a restoration is the admitted course. Such seems to me to be the argument in that case..."

GLC05636.04

4 May 1840

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry D. Gilpin

Holabird, United States District Attorney of Connecticut, writes to Gilpin, Attorney General. Relates that the Amistad case did not spend much time at the circuit court level, because "the counsel for the negroes [interposed?] a plea in abatement of the appeal from the decree of the district court, they contended that the U. S. had no interest in the matter, & could not appeal, that by the Treaty with Spain our courts were open to the claimants of the property, or to the representatives of the Spanish Government, that they should appear in person, & not through our Govt. upon this…

GLC05636.05

January 1840

Manuscript document

Title: [Fragment of Antonio G. Vega's deposition given to United States District Attorney William S. Holabird] [incomplete]

Date inferred based on the relation of this document to GLC 5636.08 and .09. States "That he is a Spanish subject, that he resided in the Island of Cuba several years, that he knows the law of [struck: Cuba] that island on the subject of Slavery." Possibly created in Connecticut, where the District Court heard the case.

GLC05636.07

January 1840

Manuscript document

Title: [Antonio G. Vega's deposition given to United States District Attorney William S. Holabird]

States "that the Spanish edict prohibiting the importation of slaves from Africa, was not considered as applicable to that Island and was [inserted: then] wholly disregarded after slaves were landed... that the slaves on the plantations kept their native languages for years... that the ships papers, of the Amistad are... in the usual form, & not necessary to practice any fraud to obtain such papers from the proper officers... that the Barracoons are public markets where all description of slaves are bought and sold-" Mentions the deposition of Richard Robert Madden, British…

GLC05636.08

January 10, 1840

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Document signed

Title: [Antonio G. Vega's deposition given to United States District Attorney William S. Holabird]

Signed deposition read before the court stating "that the court of mixed commissions had no jurisdiction except in cases of capture... that newly imported African Negroes were constantly brought to the Island, & after landed, were bona fide transferred from one owner to an other without any interference by the local authority, or the mixed commission, and were held by the owners, and recognized, as lawful property, that slavery was recognized in Cuba by all the Laws that was considered in force there... " Appears to be a complete version of GLC 5636.07 and an edited version of GLC 5636.…

GLC05636.09

January 1840

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Manuscript document

Title: [Notes of Holabird, United States District Attorney for Connecticut]

Contains testimony of Dwight G. James (an abolitionist), Captain Green (who came into contact with Amistad Africans on shore, prior to their capture), N. Wilcox (Norris Wilcox, United States Marshal for the District of Connecticut), and E. Osborne (who notes the value of the cargo). Wilcox notes the cargo on board the Amistad, and Green identifies persons in the courtroom who he had seen on shore. Possibly created in Connecticut, where the District Court heard the case.

GLC05636.10