19 March 1823

Crowninshield, Benjamin Williams, 1772-1851

Broadside

Title: Nomination and Address of the Essex Republican Convention held at Ipswich

Large campaign broadside for delegates to the Republican Party convention of Essex County, Massachusetts for the election to be held on the first Monday in April 1823. Says at a meeting of delegates held on the 19th of March in Ipswich it was decided to support William Eustis for Governor and Levi Lincoln for Lieutenant Governor. Also supports the following men for State Senators from Essex: Nathaniel Silsbee, John Prince, Nathan Noyes, William Parrot, Aaron Lummus,and Moses Wingate. Printed address by the Chairman Benjamin W. Crowninshield. Contrasts Eustis's career to the "mad ambition" of…

GLC00246.02

1897

Powell, Edward Payson, 1833-1915

Book

Title: Nullification and secession in the United States

A history of the six attempts during the first century of the Republic. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, printed by the Knickerbocker Press.

GLC00267.026

1857

Nott, Samuel, 1788-1869

Pamphlet

Title: Slavery and the remedy; or, the principles and suggestions for a remedial code.

"Fifth edition: with a review of the decision of the supreme court in the case of Dred Scott." First edition published after Dred Scott, with a review of the case. Nott is an apologist for the court. Reminds readers of the possibility of secession if the decision favored the abolitionist cause, and reminds them also of American racism. The rest of the book is a treatise on the reasons for and law of slavery. Published by D. Appleton and Company, New York, and Crocker and Brewster, Boston.

GLC00267.061

November 15, 1860

Bethune, James N., 1803-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Paul Semmes

Discusses the meeting of the legislature in Milledgeville, Georgia on the issue of secession. Writes that the general consensus in Milledgeville is one of resistance. States that Georgia Senator Benjamin Hill is demanding that Lincoln enforce the fugitive slave law. If the laws are not enforced, Hill will "help us dissolve the Union and we will all go together." Informs that "Many prominent men who have been here to force violent Union Men are now openly and strongly for immediate Secession." Written on blue paper. Georgia seceded from the Union on January 19, 1861. Bethune was a prominent…

GLC00572.14

November 17, 1860

Bethune, James N., 1803-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Paul J. Semmes

Informs that the Senate passed a bill calling for a secession convention in Georgia. Mentions the remote chance of war, "Amongst those who are doubtful or timid the feeling is getting out that they must take choice between the remote chance of a fight with the North and a fight at home..."

GLC00572.15

November 24, 1860

Williams, Charles J., fl. 1860

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Paul J. Semmes

Informs that the General Assembly has passed a bill appropriating one million dollars to buy arms for Georgia and that Governor Joseph E. Brown requests his help in carrying this out. Asks Semmes to go to New York or wherever he needs to in order to get the arms. Colonel Hardee will offer counsel. Stresses the urgency of this, stating that, "the importance of prompt action need not be urged on you. Your heart is in this matter of resistance and we must have the means of rigorous defense." Gives instructions for telegraphing reports. Year inferred from content. Williams enlisted as a colonel…

GLC00572.16

December 8, 1877

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to General C.J. Wright

In the letter, Jefferson Davis writes about his political future and Reconstruction. Davis upholds the secessionist notion of the Union: "The word Union implies volition among the members...." The location where the letter was written is possibly Mississippi City or Missouri City.

GLC00578

March 14, 1861

Van Valkenburgh, Gerrit S., 1835-1885

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mollie Van Valkenburgh

Written by Gerrit to his sister Mollie. Attempts to justify his decision, as a transplanted Northerner, to side with the South. Mixes support for his adopted home with love for the family he left in the North. He references her letter of from February 12 and says he will answer it now even though she takes six months to respond to him. Says he is at Warren, Arkansas attending court and collecting money. He reports that people in Warren are getting over the political excitement which has been the absorbing topic of conversation. He claims they are ending the talk and preparing for war. He says…

GLC00686.05

16 November 1860

Semmes, Paul Jones, 1815-1863

Broadside

Title: Southern Guard.

Broadside of the Southern Guard, announcing that Semmes has been elected to the command and will proceed to organize a brigade. Includes a dramatic speech by Semmes praising the South and urging secession. With transmittal letter (see GLC 715.09.02), which is published in the broadside.

GLC00715.09.01

1860

Rhett, Robert Barnwell, 1800-1876

Pamphlet

Title: The Address of the People of South Carolina, assembled in convention, to the people of the slave states of the United States.

Concerns South Carolina seceding from the Union and encouraging other states that enslaved people to join in forming a confederacy. Printed by order of the convention by Evans & Cogswell, Charleston, South Carolina. No wrappers.

GLC00719

January 17, 1861

Kell, John McIntosh, 1823-1900

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Julia Blanche Kell

John McIntosh Kell writes to his wife with postscript that "the Secession Ordinance will probably pass tomorrow."

GLC00684.05

May 1861

Maslin, Thomas, 1808-1878

Broadside

Title: To the People of Hardy County.

Created by Hardy County, Virginia, citizens and officials including S. H. Alexander, J. W. F. Allen, George Fisher, A. A. Inskeep, Samuel McMechen, George McNeill, John C. B. Mullin, A. H. Scott, Alfred Taylor, Joseph Vanmeter, William C. Vanmeter, F. B. Welton, and Edward Williams. Preceding the 23 May 1861 Virginia County state vote for secession, creators of this broadside inform residents: "You may not sympathize with the secession movement, yet we are in the midst of a Revolution, and the only true position of a Virginia patriot, is to cast his vote in such a mode as will secure the…

GLC00724

27 March 1861

South Carolina. Convention, 1860-1862

Pamphlet

Title: Journal of the Convention of 1860-61.

Proceedings of South Carolina's secession convention issued only to the members of the convention. Concerns the secession of other states, General G. T. Beauregard's proposed defense of Charleston, and the roll call of all the delegates. Printed by Evans & Cogswell. No wrappers, stab-sticked.

GLC00726

13 April 1820

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

Document signed

Title: [Preamble and resolution]

Printed petition signed by William Rawle as President of the Abolition Society and [Benjamin] Williams as secretary. Sent to Jacob H. De Witt, member of the House of Representatives from the 7th District of New York. Petition states that the society unanimously passed a resolution for the exclusion of slavery from the Missouri Territory. Written during the Missouri Compromise debates. States "We deem this a proper occasion to declare, that with a deep conviction that slavery is inconsistent with moral principle, national interest, and above all, with the Christian dispensation." Says the…

GLC00777

April 26, 1844

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Amos Kendall

Jackson writes to the former Postmaster General, also Jackson's close friend and biographer. Jackson relates how he learned that nullifiers secretly sent an agent to Great Britain for aid during the Nullification Crisis of 1832. "... the nullifiers of the south having sent a secrite agent to Great Britain to obtain aid in carrying into effect their designs against the Union." He details the source of his information so that it might be enclosed with his papers by Kendall. Without naming his former vice president, John C. Calhoun, Jackson accuses him and other nullifiers of being traitors and…

GLC01025

December 5, 1860

Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867

Printed document signed

Title: [Appointment of a Mississippi commissioner to Alabama]

Mississippi governor Pettus appoints Joseph W. Matthews as commissioner to Alabama to inform that state of Mississippi's upcoming convention "to consider the present threatening relations of the Northern and Southern sections of the United States" and "to express the earnest hope of Mississippi that Alabama will co-operate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for the common defence and safety of the South." Also signed by Mississippi Secretary of State C.A. Brougher. Docketed in pencil.

GLC01064

December 17, 1860

Harris, Isham G., 1818-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas J. Wharton

Harris, Governor of Tennessee, replies to a letter from Wharton, Mississippi's Commissioner to Tennessee. He states that when Tennessee Representatives confer again, they will be pleased to meet with Wharton "as the Representative of a sister state with which we are identified in interest and in the very nature of things must share a common destiny." He declares "There is great unanimity of sentiment in Tennessee as to the necessity of a Conferance of the southern states, for the purpose of assuring upon, and presenting an ultimatum, such as shall give perfect security to the rights of the…

GLC00918

April 23, 1861

Hunt, Henry Jackson, 1819-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Braxton Bragg

Hunt replies to Bragg's earlier letter (GLC00925.01) regarding their long time friendship and their now differing loyalties in the war. "How strange it is! We have been united in our views of almost all subjects, public and private. We still have, I trust, a personal regard for each other which will continue, whatever course our sense of duty may dictate, yet in one short year after exchanging at your house assurances of friendship, here we are face to face, with arms in our hands, with every prospect of a bloody collision. How strange!" He sympathizes with the south and his southern friends…

GLC00925.02

November 1860

Ferrill, Julius A., ?-1861

Manuscript signed

Title: [Resolutions of the Southern Rights Vigilance Club]

Signed by Ferrill with over 25 others. Concerns their opposition to Abraham Lincoln and abolitionism. Resolves to "resist and prevent" Lincoln's inauguration (if elected), to offer their services to any seceding state, to resist anyone who would take office in Savannah under a Lincoln administration, and to join any organization dedicated to "protecting Slave property in the territories." Legal folio with six blank sheets.

GLC00837

January 13, 1861

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: Samuel Milligan

"I look upon secession as being the prolific mother of anarchy which is the next step to despotism. It is political heresy..." (Johnson wrote 1860 by mistake)

GLC07995

20 May 1861 - February 1862

Vance, Zebulon B., 1830-1894

Manuscript document

Title: Journal of the secret sessions of North Carolina with other Confederate states.

Record of the state of North Carolina and its relations with other Confederate states starting from the date it seceded from the Union. "Journal of the secret session of the convention of May 20, 1861 called to consider the relations of the State of North Carolina, with other states, united with her, in a compact of Government, known as the Constitution of the United States."

GLC08035

September 1, 1862

Hughes, Alfred, fl. 1862-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Hughes

More medical advice; adjusting to conditions in the Prison No. 2; propagation of secessionism in the prison.

GLC02166.056

January 14, 1860

Duncan, Stephen, 1787-1867

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Discusses impending trouble between the North and South. Remarks that "the South presents a more united front" than during any other period. Comments extensively on states' rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. Discusses some politicians' aim to break down the Democratic Party, attesting that such men "have no more sympathy for the negro- & no more hatred for slavery, than I have..." Criticizes Northerners for interfering with the issue of slavery. Notes a decline in the price of sugar and molasses. Requests numerous quantities of champagne.

GLC05339.04

February 17, 1863

Ward, Edward K., 1837-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his sister

Ward writes that he's heard from a member of his company, Dave Poston, who was wounded in Perryville. Also writes that he has gotten fatter and has never enjoyed better health. He reports that federal troops are constantly getting secesh families out of Shelbyville and escorting them inside confederate lines. Writes that the men have learned to not get their hopes up for peace any time soon and states that "now we have concluded to place the limit of our trials to the end of Lincoln's administration." However, he writes "our boys are willing to suffer this and more, sooner than give up…

GLC02232.14

February 6, 1860

Stafford, Robert H., fl. 1837-1866

Autograph letter signed

Title: to sister

mentions he has joined a society in college. also speaks of wanting to improve his letter writing.

GLC02618.001