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

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

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

29 November 1854

Ripley, George, 1802-1880

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George J. Gardner

Thanks him for his recent letter. Requests that in February he send the latest statistics on the manufacture of salt in Syracuse, "to be incorporated into our article on salt." Ripley was a minister, literary critic, journalist, and a leading figure in the Transcendentalist movement.

GLC02453.30

13 March 1852

Channing, William Ellery, 1817-1901

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Roberts

Was much affected by his editorial today on barbarism. Questions the veracity of the piece and suggests that if Roberts can provide evidence to his readers, this would create such indignation that it would "put an end to these atrocities." In a p.s. he warns him: "you will make no reference to this communication in your paper." Recipient is possibly the George Roberts who edited the Boston Times from 1852 to 1855.

GLC02509.04

22 March 1848

Parker, Theodore, 1810-1860

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Signore Mancinelli

Hopes that Mancinelli remembers him. Writes to introduce Dr. Loring, who is visiting Rome. Congratulates Mancinelli "on having so noble a Pope. Protestants as we are, we will all shout, Viva Papa Pio IX." Supposes that Mancinelli knows his American acquaintances now in Rome, including Mr. Cranch, Mr. Story, and Margaret Fuller. Pius IX ruled from 1846 to 1878. Loring is possibly George Bailey Loring, M.D.

GLC02509.08

1902

Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891

Header Record

Title: The anti-slavery papers of James Russell Lowell.

First edition. No. 141 of a Limited edition of 525 copies. Uncut and unopened. Published by Houghton Mifflin and Company.

GLC00267.013

1839

Channing, William Ellery, 1780-1842

Pamphlet

Title: Remarks on the slavery question, in a letter to Jonathan Phillips Esq.

Attacks colonizationists like Senator Henry Clay, "who dream of removing slavery by the process of draining it off to another country; a process about as reasonable as that of draining the Atlantic." He also argues that colonization confirms racial prejudice implicit in race-based slavery. Published by James Munroe and Company, Boston. Printed by Folsom, Wells, and Thurston, Cambridge. First edition.

GLC00267.052

1855

Parker, Theodore, 1810-1860

Book

Title: The trial of Theodore Parker for the "misdemeanor" of a speech in Faneuil Hall against kidnapping, before the circuit court of the United States...

(title continues)... at Boston, April 3, 1855. With the defence. Published for the author. Other works by Parker are listed on the last two pages.

GLC00267.096

1854

Clarke, James Freeman, 1810-1888

Pamphlet

Title: The rendition of Anthony Burns. Its causes and consequences. A discourse on Christian politics, delivered in Williams Hall, Boston, on Whitsunday, June 4, 1854.

Concerns the extradition of Anthony Burns, an enslaved person who was captured in Boston and returned to Virginia, while seeking emancipation. The case demonstrates the wide-held belief that the "Slave Power" of the South could control the North and cause Northerners to allow this to happen. Printed by Crosby, Nichols & Co., and Prentiss & Sawyer, Boston. Clarke was the Minister of the Church of the Disciples.

GLC00267.151

May 28, 1854

Furness, William Henry, 1802-1896

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas Dawes Eliot

Reverend Furness, a prominent abolitionist and Unitarian clergyman, thanks Congressman Eliot for a speech he gave. Writes about a fugitive slave (possibly Anthony Burns, who was arrested on May 24, 1854 in Boston): "That Slave must not be sent back. I don't like the volunteer companies coming out for the accursed Fugitive Slave Law which violates the fundamental laws & liberties of the noblest Commonwealth on God's Earth, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is to be obeyed first before the U.S. God save her! If she goes down then Hope for a season bade the World farewell..."

GLC00468.01

July 21, 1834

Brougham and Vaux, Henry Brougham,, 1778-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

The letter introduces Harriet Martineau. Martineau was a British author and transcendentalist.

GLC00496.133

February 16, 1856

Parker, Theodore, 1810-1860

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nathaniel P. Banks

Congratulates him on his "success in helping achieve the first victory which the North has won over the South since 1808, when the slave trade with Africa was abolished. I might better say, the first victory of freedom over Slavery since the Declaration of Independence -- for there was no fight in 1808." Banks was a member of Congress from Massachusetts. In 1856 he declined the presidential nomination of the American party.

GLC02509.10

1861-1877

Stuart, Frederick T., 1837-1913

Print

Title: Engraving of George Ripley.

Adhered to scapbook mount.

GLC02453.43

February 26, 1891

Brown, John Jr., 1821-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to F.B. Sanborn

Acknowledging that his father, John Brown, sometimes offered remarks from the audience at religious assemblies, but refuting accounts that his father ever preached. Also discusses his brothers Jason's attempt to sell Sanborn's biography of their father.

GLC08250

20 November 1863

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882

Autograph letter signed

Title: to General Ethan Allen Hitchcock

On retaliation for treatment of Union prisoners at Libby Prison: "I read her [Mrs. Horace Mann] opinion against retaliating in kind, and said 'Certainly that is right.' I read her proposition to shoot or hang a number of selected officers as a retaliation; I said 'that is better, certainly, than to starve all, or any part of them. But no; it will not do.' ...I suppose this killing of our men by hunger was incidental, not designed. There was famine in Richmond...& the prisoners suffered first...Without clearest evidence of malicious purpose on their [the Confederates] part, it would be…

GLC09115

circa 1860

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882

Autograph quotation signed

Title: [So near is grandeur to our dust...]

"So near is grandeur to our dust, / So near is God to man, / When Duty whispers low, Thou must, / the youth replies, I can." Accompanied by a tinted photogravure (GLC05508.098.02).

GLC05508.098.01

February 22, 1880

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

Thanks him for the books he sent, offers to send him "curiosities" from California, such as plants. Praises him for his friendship with and appreciation of Thoreau.

GLC03007.09

31 July 1887

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

One letter addressed to Alexander Ross from Anne Brown Adams dated July 31, 1887. Mentions the health of her children and reading The Life of Frederick Douglass. Does not find truth in Douglass's account of meeting John Brown. Believes that Uncle Tom's Cabin is a suitable work to teach her children about slavery. Recounts that there was a false narrative in the biography which led her children to be skeptical of Frederick Douglass's biography.

GLC03007.15

19 October 1887

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

Discusses the Alcott family in Concord and her approval of sick patients eating very little. Inquires after the Alcott family, with whom she used to live. Mentions Louisa May Alcott. States her firm belief that underfeeding sick patients can be good for them, and that overfeeding them is harmful. Ends with "As ever a friend of liberty, truth, and progress."

GLC03007.16

7 January 1893

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

Discusses various men who have inquired about John Brown. Some seek relics, others want stories from her. Is disappointed with Franklin Sanborn and what he has written about her father. Also mentions Sanborn's plans to write a book about John Brown and give the proceeds to her sister Ruth. Talks of her own hardships, a bad storm, and thanks Ross for a gifts, including some that will help feed her poor family.

GLC03007.36

January 10, 1894

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

Discusses Mary Stearns and a fund to help her family. Explains that Mrs. Stearns liked her father, but not his family, recounts a story of her unkindness, and wonders if Stearns has become infirm in her old age. Adams claims to hold no grudge against her. Also discusses a fund set up by John Brown's wealthy supporters to help his family. Says the money was misspent, and she received very little from it, and that much due only to the work of Franklin Sanborn. Says she has been very ill lately, and apologizes for inconveniencing him with news of her troubles.

GLC03007.38

January 16, 1897

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

Encloses a letter from Franklin Sanborn, to see if he knows anything about "the Dr. McLain mentioned therein."

GLC03007.43

1894 circa

Adams, Anne Brown, 1843-1926

Autograph letter

Title: to Alexander M. Ross [Incomplete]

Defending her father, John Brown, against what appear to be statements that he took money and used it for personal needs. Concludes that Mary Stearns' "mind must be disordered" with age due to statements that she made. The statements seem to imply that she gave John Brown money which he then put to personal use. Refutes these statements, citing Franklin Sanborn's "Life and Letters of John Brown" for support. Recounts the event under debate. Also mentions others who gave her father money, and says it was always used for the greater good. Also upset that Frederick Douglass "never wrote a…

GLC03007.50

March 18, 1885

Brown, John Jr., 1821-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Franklin B. Sanborn

Brown critiques Sanborn's book for having too many of John Brown's personal letters. He read part of Sanborn's manuscript for "The Life and Letters of John Brown" out loud to his brother Owen. They both worry readers may get bored of so many letters and personal details about John Brown, and also note these letters were intended only for his family.

GLC00929.02