September 4, 1838

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Joseph Gales, Jr.

Previously received one hundred copies of a pamphlet, sent by a Mr. Franklin. Only recently had time to revise it, and transmits his corrections. Notes that he will free frank the pamphlets, saving Mr. Franklin the trouble. The Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society at New York recently asked for permission to print an edition of a speech Adams gave the previous summer. Adams notes that since there is no copyright, "it may be reprinted by any one who may think it worth his while."

GLC01194

1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

Book

Title: Uncle Tom's cabin; or, life among the lowly.

First edition, first printing (with Hobart & Robbins on the copyright pages). Rebound, with original cloth binding bound into back. Boston, John P. Jewett & company; Cleveland, Ohio, Jewett, Proctor & Worthington. Two volume set housed together in a book box.

GLC01361

July 31, 1832

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Edward Cornelius Delavan

Adams thanks Delavan for the 5th number of the Temperance Recorder, a publication of the New York State Temperance Society of which Delavan was chairman. He assures Delavan that he will distribute copies of the issue as "may fulfill the humane and benevolent purposes of the New York State Temperance Society, and their Executive Committee."

GLC01409

circa 1873

Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Charles Sumner

Written on her personal stationery, embossed with a "D," to her benefactor and friend, Sumner. Requests him to send certain government publications to her at the Government Hospital for the Insane of the Army and Navy in Washington, D.C. Among these are the 1870 census, from which Amasa Walker had been sending her information, and F. V. Hayden's Yellowstone survey.

GLC02075

9 March 1881

Foster, Abigail K., fl. 1881

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson

Abolitionist and suffragist Foster responds to questions from Robinson who was doing research for her book, "Massachusetts in the woman suffrage movement. A general, political, legal and legislative history from 1774 to 1881" (Boston, 1881). Foster gives autobiographical details, and discusses the split within the abolitionist movement in 1840 when a woman (Foster) was elected to a committee.

GLC02076

6 January 1840

Fillmore, Millard, 1800-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Solomon Haven

Discusses political and social news. Mentions that the state legislature will meet tomorrow and that there is a movement toward legal reform, which he feels in necessary. Briefly comments on national and state debts. Written as member of Congress.

GLC02344

October 1854

Jay, John, 1817-1894

Broadside

Title: Free Democratic Address to the People of the State of New York.

Anti-slavery broadside signed in type by John P. Hale, Hiram Barney and John Jay, the New York Politician and descendant of the earlier John Jay, as a committee appointed by the State Convention of the Free Democracy. Urges support for anti-Nebraska candidates in forthcoming elections. "The Nebraska bill passed the senate at midnight, amid oaths and drunken insolence desecrating that once august chamber...With the passage of the bill that removed the landmark of freedom, and opened our western territories to the curse of slavery..."

GLC02383

22 November 1819

King, Rufus, 1755-1827

Pamphlet

Title: Substance of Two Speeches, Delivered in the Senate of the United States on the Subject of the Missouri Bill

Printed pamphlet written by King as an anti-slavery U.S. Senator from New York. King also signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. King was asked to write the pamphlet, which summarized his two anti-slavery speeches given before the U.S. Senate during the Missouri Compromise debates of 1819. This is the only record of the speeches, as they were not recorded for the official records of Congress. King was the floor leader of the Federalist Party in the Senate during the debates, but his views were held by both Federalist and Republican Party members in the North. The pamphlet's main thesis is…

GLC02384

26 November 1819

Key, Francis Scott, 1779-1843

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Maynadier

Written from Georgetown. Key writes to his uncle about depressed stock prices. He also discusses colonizing 12 captured Africans who are in Baltimore (he does not explain how they came to be there), in reference to his efforts through the American Colonization Society.

GLC02379

2 November 1912

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Typed letter signed

Title: to Timothy L. Woodruff

Writes to Lieutenant Governor Woodruff of New York regarding political reform and democracy. As a candidate for president, he stresses the right of people to rule themselves. In the 1912 presidential election Roosevelt ran and lost under the progressive Bull Moose party. One word has been added in Roosevelt's hand on page two. Written on The Outlook letterhead.

GLC02372

1847-1874

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Header Record

Title: Collection of signed materials, pamphlets and Civil War-related items of Charles Sumner [Decimalized .01 - .41]

Collection of signed materials, books, letters and documents related to the coming of the war, Sumner's career and Reconstruction. Includes: 17 ALSs (30 p.) 1847-1874, 6 AQS on themes of liberty and equal rights, 3 cartes de visite (2 signed), 2 signed checks, clipped signature of Preston Brooks, and 5 major books/pamphlets. Also includes a full set of the Complete Works of Charles Sumner, published by the Negro University Press, located with reference books. Two black and white bust engravings of Sumner included.

GLC02095

December 20, 1856

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry E. Rees

Senator Sumner replies to a letter from Rees. Claims that unless slavery is checked, "the liberty of white as well as black in our country will become a name only."

GLC01574.02

circa spring 1851

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Dr. Stone

Stowe writes from "Woodside Cottage." Says she just received his letter and hopes to see him in Boston next week. Asks him "to make no public mention if you have not, of the Uncle Tom project till I have seen you. Don't mention it at any rate till then." Stowe began writing "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in early 1851. The recipient may be Rev. Thomas Treadwell Stone (1801-1895), a Unitarian minister, writer, Transcendentalist, and abolitionist from Massachusetts. Letter written in spring of 1851.

GLC01584.01

March 20, 1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On its first day of publication in 1852, Stowe sends a copy [not present] of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. Slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833, and Stowe holds Britain up as a model for Americans. Letter written mostly in the third person. Stowe had consulted Horace Mann several days before writing this letter, asking for his advice as to how best to contact Prince Albert and other noteworthy British individuals. Evidently, Mann's advice had proved useful: Despite the "republican simplicity" of this letter to the Royal Consort,…

GLC01585

August 20, 1861

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mr. Laighton

Regrets that he is unable to attend a meeting held at Allston Hall the following Friday, in remembrance of Theodore Parker. Emerson claims, "I do not know that I could add any facts of interest to the recollections of the occasion. Yet Theodore Parkers mind was so lavishly given to the public welfare, that I can easily see how all the new startling events in our politics may associate themselves with his memory. In dark days & amidst sinking men we miss his strength the more, and yet we cannot doubt his relief & joy in the present pronounced state of the Republic, over the so-called '…

GLC01549

5 December 1855

Brown, John, 1800-1859

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Owen Brown

Brown discusses the free state struggle, and reports there are rumors of a free state man being murdered, and that it may lead to more violence. Says "We feel more, & more certain that Kansas will be a Free State." Also discusses family affairs, health, and his plan to stay in Kansas at least until spring. Bottom of the page and all of the second page are written by Samuel and Florilla Adair, with the end of their letter missing. They recount how the murder of the free state man happened, state that it is leading to war, and discuss the buildup of armed forces. The man murdered was…

GLC02454

7 April 1862

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Owen Lovejoy

Sumner, a United States Senator, writes to Lovejoy, a Representative from Illinois. Writes, "Here is Senate Bill 230, which you desired. We shall send you the Freedom Bill, & trust to your good votes & Providence." In a post script, notes that Trumbull will be speaking for emancipation (possibly referring to Lyman Trumbull, a Senator from Illinois who later co-sponsored the Thirteenth Amendment). Year based on content.

GLC02448.15

1765-1874

Various

Header Record

Title: Abolitionists collection: 19 letters and documents [decimalized]

GLC02448

26 June 1847

Birney, James Gillespie, 1792-1857

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Joshua Leavitt

Birney, an abolitionist, writes to Leavitt, a reformer and minister in Boston. Has been asked to write columns for the Herald, a newspaper, and is allowed by the editor to freely express his opinions. Notes that Dr. Bailey (possibly Gamaliel Bailey) will not agree with what he has written. Writes, "I have but little faith in the constancy of some who stand prominent in this vicinity as abolitionists. I would not be surprised if some went off to the Democratic party before long." Remarks that Mr. Chase also contributes to the Herald (possibly referring to Salmon Portland Chase). In a…

GLC02448.02

29 April 1858

Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Reverend Dr. Murray

Recalls receiving a letter from Murray regarding the Cleveland Emancipation Convention one year before. Transmits a circular (GLC 2448.03.02), an account of the organization of the National Compensation Emancipation Society. Asks Murray to read the circular and attempt to "connect yourself with the movement more directly." Invites Murray to speak at the Society's first annual meeting, to be held 12 May 1858 in New York. Also informs Murray he has been nominated as Vice President of the Society for New Jersey, noting that the Society hopes to have a Vice President from every state in the…

GLC02448.03.01

23 August 1851

Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 1810-1903

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Written from "White Hall," Clay's estate. Clay, an emancipationist, replies to a letter from an unspecified recipient. Possibly discussing his run for Governor as an anti-slavery candidate in 1851, writes, "The number of votes cast for the anti-slavery candidates is small- I believe my vote is about thirty five hundred... The causes of my small vote are the inherent difficulties of the movement; Old party organization, and the violent misrepresentations by the Whig party of my views." Declares, "...slavery is the disturbing cause of old partyism everywhere... the time is near if not now-…

GLC02448.05

4 December 1847

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Joseph Ricketson

Accepts Ricketson's invitation to lecture before the New Bedford Lyceum, if his health permits. Exclaims, "Would that U could be an attendant at your anti-slavery meetings, to be held to-day and to-morrow in your place!" Notes that his friend, the bearer of this note, H. C. Wright (possibly Henry C. Wright) will be at the meetings.

GLC02448.06

January 17, 1861

Higginson, Thomas W., 1823-1911

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Higginson, a militant abolitionist, discusses an upcoming meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society: "About the defence of W. P. there is of course no question. All plans for the defence of the meeting must depend on the wish of the Society- they both may prefer to take non-resistant grounds, or rely on the police alone. And at any rate I am opposed to excusing the city & state authorities from the work which is their business. Only we should make such arrangements in advance as will protect the meeting if they do not." W. P. refers to abolitionist Wendell Phillips.

GLC02448.07

20 July 1858

Mann, Horace, 1796-1859

Autograph letter signed

Title: to G. F. Hilton

Mann, abolitionist and President of Antioch College, responds to a letter from Hilton. Of the college, he writes, "We still hold together here, internally & educationally, we have been doing very well; externally & financially, very bad, But we think we have a gleam of better times."

GLC02448.11

circa 15 June 1845

May, Samuel J., 1797-1871

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Marius Racine Robinson

May, a prominent abolitionist and reformer, writes to Robinson, Secretary of the Western Anti-Slavery Society. Robinson had invited May to speak, and May promises to come if he can find a suitable replacement to serve as pastor in his absence (possibly for the Unitarian Church in Syracuse). Circa year based on May's pastorship of the Unitarian Church in Syracuse.

GLC02448.12