July 30, 1912

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Typed letter

Title: to The State and County Chairmen of the National Progressive Party

One letter from Theodore Roosevelt to The State and County Chairmen of the National Progressive Party date July 30, 1912. The letter is regarding woman's suffrage, with many handwritten corrections and notations.

GLC07818

February 23, 1866

Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Bradford R. Wood

Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post, replies to a letter from Wood, former Representative from New York. Discusses Black suffrage: "I utterly detest the narrow principles of that party which denied equal rights to any of our fellow men on account of race. The right of suffrage is the due of the negro as well as of the white man... But it does not follow from this, that we may employ any means we choose in conferring this right." Regarding Black suffrage, advocates the opinions of Trumbull and Fessenden (probably Senators Lyman Trumbull and William Pitt Fessenden) as opposed to the…

GLC06631.01

11 July 1865

Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893

Letter signed

Title: to F. A. Angell

General Butler writes to Angell in Brooklyn, New York. "A mans right to self government is inherent and inalienable. It does not depend on the degree of his intelligence or on other accident. It is the correlative of self defence. Is the negro a man? But it is said that the negro will vote as his late master directs, and thus increase his master's political power. Be it so... I do not see how he or we are worse off if the negro votes with him [the master]... we gain and can loose nothing by giving the negro the right of suffrage."

GLC06660

20 May 1829

Marshall, John, 1755-1835

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Mercer Garnett

Written by Marshall as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to Garnett, the well-known Virginia politician and agricultural enthusiast and pamphleteer. Recipient inferred from Marshall's reference to "your" pamphlet "Reply to the Enquiries of a Freeholder," which was written by Garnett. Marshall states his private belief that the right to vote must be tied to land ownership. Says not all rights that Americans speak of are natural rights. Remarks that some "rights exist in a state of nature, but are surrendered, as it seems to me, when he enters into a state of society, in exchange for…

GLC06682

1838

Grimke, Sarah M., fl. 1838

Book

Title: Letters on the equality of the sexes and the condition of woman.

Title continues: "addressed to Mary S. Parker, president of the Boston Female Anti-slavery Society." First women's rights pamphlet published in United States. Examines the present state of inequality of women, its causes and possible solutions. First edition, in original boards, cloth spine and with pasted front-board label.

GLC06552

25 November 1900

Willett, Grace, fl. 1900

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sylvia Willett

Discusses women suffrage in Wyoming in the election of 1900. Comments that turnout among women was high, but "their voting does not help purify politics." Willett supported the candidacy of Williams Jennings Bryan. Also comments on bad weather, money available to send, illness in the family, and playing music professionally.

GLC06594

1886

Pamphlet

Pamphlet

Title: "Mormon" women's protest.

Title continues: "an appeal for freedom, justice and equal rights. The ladies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints protest against the tyranny and indecency of federal officials in Utah, and against their own disfranchisement without cause. Full account of proceedings at the great mass meeting held in the Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah, Saturday, March 6, 1886." This is a record of the protest held when it was apparent that the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 would withdraw the right of suffrage from Utah women. Printed in Salt Lake City by the Deseret News. Flake, C.J. Mormon bib…

GLC06609

1917

Catt, Carrie C., 1859-1947

Book

Title: Women Suffrage by Federal Constitutional Amendment [inscribed]

Inscribed to Congressman Robert Crosser. First edition published by National Woman Suffrage Publishing. Inscribed "To Congressman Robert Crosser, Compliments, Carrie Chapman Catt"

GLC06891

1842-1843

Dorr, Thomas Wilson, 1805-1854

Header Record

Title: Thomas Dorr papers, relating to Dorr's rebellion [decimalized]

GLC05757

circa 16 June 1842

Dorr, Thomas Wilson, 1805-1854

Autograph manuscript

Title: The People's Constitution

Editorial by Governor Dorr maintaining the importance of supporting the People's Constitution in Rhode Island, even though they failed to take the arsenal on 18 May 1842. Argues that any state would defend itself and its constitution if they were attacked by those who wished to overthrow the government. "So if the People's Constitution in Rhode Island have been rightfully adopted, and put in operation by the election & action of its Legislative, or other departments, is still a valid subsisting instrument, and has not been disposed of by the fate of arms, by the respiration of officers…

GLC05757.01

4 December 1855

Houston, Sam, 1793-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John H. Houston

Houston writes that if the American Party (Know-Nothing Party) is to succeed they must admit Protestant naturalized citizens, but not Catholics because of their allegiance to foreign powers [i.e. the Pope]. He writes that they cannot jeopardize their principles for Louisiana, which is the only Catholic state.

GLC05508.134

1867

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902

Pamphlet signed

Title: Address in favor of universal suffrage, for the election of delegates to the constitutional convention.

Title continues: "Before the Judiciary committees of the Legislature of New York, in the Assembly chamber, January 23, 1867, in behalf of the American Equal Rights association." Inscribed Horace E. Smith, compliments of the author." In the original wrappers.

GLC05170

1898

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902

Book signed

Title: Eighty years and more (1815-1897). Reminiscences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Inscribed to Mr. and Mrs. Thadeus Wakeman, New York, "Progress is the victory of a new thought over an old superstition." Inscription dated 11 March 1898. Tipped-in is a 6 August 1902 postcard from Stanton's secretary addressed to Wakeman, as editor of the Torch of Reason in Silverton, Oregon. Stanton's secretary asks if the Robert Ingersoll essays published in the Torch of Reason had been collected into a volume. First edition.

GLC05171

17 November 1868

Anthony, Susan B., 1820-1906

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Campbell

Regarding a petition to Congress for women's suffrage. Written on "The Revolution" printed stationery, listing their platform. Written at the time when New York state was revising its Constitution (the revisions were rejected).

GLC05178

January 24, 1963

Kennedy, Robert Francis, 1925-1968

Typed letter signed

Title: [Report to President John F. Kennedy regarding civil rights]

A signed carbon copy. Robert Kennedy, Attorney General, describes 1962 as "a year of great progress in civil rights, in large measure because of the responsibility and respect for law displayed by the great majority of the citizens of the South." Summarizes civil rights from the standpoint of the Department of Justice. Cites voting as the most significant civil rights issue, due to a lack of local compliance during federal investigation of voting procedures in specific areas. States that lawsuits were filed in Louisiana and Mississippi "challenging the constitutionality of the state voter…

GLC05630

January 15, 1866

Semmes, Raphael, 1809-1877

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Andrew Johnson

Letter draft written in prison by the former commander the CSS "Alabama" to the President defending himself against all charges. Discusses the surrender agreement at Greensboro, the definition of treason, the United States Constitution, and his unlawful imprisonment. "The commerce of half a world was at my mercy, and the passions of men North and South, were tossed into a whirl wind by the current events of the most bloody and terrific war the human race had ever seen." Extensive corrections throughout. President Johnson in May 1866 directed that Semmes, while unpardoned, could not hold…

GLC05590

1867

United States. Congress

Pamphlet

Title: Acts of Congress, general orders, and instructions for the guidance of boards of Registration, in the third military district, (Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.)

Acts of Congressional reconstruction, centering on the registration of freedmen to vote, beginning with two Acts "to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states," signed in type by Schuyler Colfax and Lafayette Foster; a second Act signed in type by Colfax and B.F. Wade. With supplementary reconstruction acts of Congress passed 19 July 1867. First edition.

GLC00349

15 August 1865

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Broadside

Title: Andrew Johnson on Negro Suffrage

[Title continued] His letter to Gov. Sharkey of Mississippi. Reconstruction era printing of Johnson's letter commending the governor's convention to amend the state constitution. In the letter, Johnson also attacks the radical Republicans.

GLC00269

1844

Copeland, Alexander, ?-1845

Pamphlet

Title: Address to the people of the state of New-York by the General Executive Committee of the American Republican Party of the City of New York.

Uncut. Published by the General Executive Committee. Contains a list of Committee members. Address delivered by Copeland, President of the Republican Party. Requires that "the Naturalization Laws shall be so altered as to make it necessary for all person of foreign birth to reside twenty-one years in the United States, before they shall be entitled to the privilege of the elective franchise." Contains two large numerical stamps on front page: "15" and "136." Bottom edge worn and fragile.

GLC00267.184

October 26, 1879

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Emily Collins

Douglass offers his home as a place to stay during her attendance at the eleventh annual meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association, to be held in District of Columbia in early January 1880. Emily Parmely Collins worked for women's rights in New York, Louisiana, and Connecticut.

GLC01197

May 20, 1842

Tyler, John, 1790-1862

Letter signed

Title: to Elisha R. Potter

Written at the height of the Dorr controversy, when Thomas W. Dorr's followers who wanted to put a new Rhode Island state constitution in place to expand suffrage, illegally elected Dorr the governor. Tyler explains his response to the affair, his desire for amnesty, peace, and to undercut public sympathy for the Dorrites who invoked the right of rebellion. Concedes that "Dorr's recent proceedings have been so extravagant a character as allmost to extinguish the las hope of a peaceable result." Notes that the developments make it difficult for Rhode Island Governor Samuel Ward King to yield…

GLC01131

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

May 1912

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Printed document signed

Title: [Sample ballot card for the 1912 Republican National Convention]

Printed by Allied Printing. Inscribed "to little Miss Mabel" and signed by Roosevelt. The pro-Roosevelt campaign document explains how William H. Taft's managers "denied you the right to vote your preference for president" and instructs how to write in their vote for Roosevelt's nomination.

GLC01487

August 27, 1916

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Miss Treadwell

On his Sagamore Hill letterhead, Roosevelt thanks Treadwell for her letter to him and his wife. Written from, or just after a trip to France during World War I: "your letter brings vividly before my eyes the terrible suffering and high heroism of France, and the joy in service felt by you and the men and women like you. This war has shown that the right type of woman can do her full share of the work of war just as the right kind of man does his." He closes by condemning all pacifists as German collaborationists, and adds, "if I had my way I would disenfranchise all the pacifists of both…

GLC01518

June 6, 1865

McCaleb, Edwin H., fl. 1844-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: To T.P. Chandler, Esq.

McCaleb thanks Chandler and his family for their kindness while a prisoner of war in the North. He writes that "All good citizens deeply deplore the assassination of Pres. Lincoln... Mr. L -- was a great man and more than that was a good man and countryy [sic] could ill afford to lose his services at this important crisis...." He expresses his concern with Andrew Johnson's use of military courts to try citizens and feels he is "overstepping his oath of office." He protests that turning an ignorant Black person into a self reliant citizen will stump the growth of the South. Finally, he defines…

GLC01594