15 December 1911

Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930

Document signed

Title: [Presidential pardon of Charles L. King, convicted of Army desertion on 23 April 1908 and sentenced to two and one half years at Fort Leavenworth]

Sentence published in General Orders, No. 65, Department of the East, 30 April 1908. Secretary of War recommended pardon, which was granted by William H. Taft. Partially handwritten. With James Finch (signed), pardon attorney, warrant for pardon. Countersigned by George W. Wickersham, Attorney General.

GLC07318

2 May 1828

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Document signed

Title: [Patent for Silas Hyde's improvements in the bedstead]

Signed by Adams as President. Countersigned by Henry Clay as Secretary of State and William Wirt as Attorney General. Docketed and signed by Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents. Sealed and bound with bright red ribbon.

GLC07324

13 June 1848

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Document signed

Title: [Patent for Jordan L. Mott's improvement in the process of chilling castings]

Signed by Buchanan as Secretary of State. Countersigned by Edmund Burke, Commissioner of Patents. Mott's written description of his improvement is signed by Edward Lewis and M. D. Van Doren as witnesses. Contains a one-page diagram of Mott's invention. Sealed and bound with faded white ribbon.

GLC07325

17 June 1926

Coolidge, Calvin, 1872-1933

Document signed

Title: [Presidential commutation for Arthur Franzblau, convicted of mail fraud 24 February 1924 in New York]

Arthur Franzblau was convicted of using the mails in a scheme to defraud in the U.S. District Court of Southern New York and sentenced to one year in the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. He appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on 2 February 1924 where his case was still pending. Coolidge commuted his sentence to one day in the custody of a U.S. Marshal; no reason given. Countersigned by William D. Mitchell, Acting Attorney General. Printed document with blanks filled in with type.

GLC07326

29 May 1835

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Document signed

Title: [Patent for Nathan Currier's improvements in a machine designed to excavate and remove earth]

Signed by Jackson as President. Countersigned by [Adam?] Birkins as Acting Secretary of State, and Benjamin Franklin Butler as Attorney General. Sealed and bound with mauve ribbon.

GLC07327

16 August 1808

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Document signed

Title: [Patent for John Templeman's improvement in the chain bridge]

Signed by Jefferson as President. Countersigned by James Madison as Secretary of State and Caesar Augustus Rodney as Attorney General. Templeman's written description of his improvement is signed by Thomas Corcoran and John Oto as witnesses. The final page, signed by Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, contains a written description of several diagrams of Templeman's invention. Sealed and bound with faded white ribbon.

GLC07328

13 August 1868

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Manuscript document signed

Title: Pardon of Leonhart F. Reik, convicted of a violation of Internal Revenue laws.

Convicted of violating Internal Revenue laws; sentenced to pay a $1000 fine and to be imprisoned until fine is paid. Pardoned after spending some months in prison and proving entirely unable to pay the fine due to poverty, and by recommendation of the U.S. District Attorney, A.S. Ridgby, the Mayor of Baltimore, most of the jury who convicted him, and many respectable citizens. (c/s William H. Seward)

GLC07329

15 July 1816

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Document signed

Title: [Patent for Schuyler Fisher's improvement in the Hatter's Plank Kettle]

Signed by Madison as President. Countersigned by James Monroe as Secretary of State and Richard Rush as Attorney General. Fisher's written description of his invention is signed by Samuel Fisher and Aston Peren as witnesses.

GLC07330

1952

Mays, David John, fl. 1952

Header Record

Title: Edmund Pendleton (1721-1803); A biography by David John Mays

Printed by Harvard University Press.

GLC07302.01

10 April 1865

Humphreys, Andrew Atkinson, 1810-1883

Document

Title: [Farewell address to 2nd Army Corps]

One day after Lee's surrender, General Humphreys issues a circular letter congratulating his men on having "done your full share in the Grand Closing scene." Issued as major general commanding; verified as official by Adjutant General Daniel Hart. Lists their achievements including pursuing General Robert E. Lee's army while they were in retreat toward the end of the war, the capture of prisoners, ammunitions, and supplies, and their victorious efforts at Petersburg. Thanks individual officers. On verso, additionally confirmed as official by another aid with his pencil signature.

GLC07307

6 January 1864

Couthouy, Joseph Pitty, 1808-1864

Letter signed

Title: to David Dixon Porter

Couthouy, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant commanding the U.S.S. Chillicothe, expresses his mortification at seeing the U.S.S. Osage, a ship formerly under his command, listed as having failed to comply with General Order No. 31, which required monthly reports of contrabands. Informs Navy Rear Admiral Porter that no list of contrabands was sent after August 1863 because Couthouy had been "instructed that freed blacks, regularly enlisting in the Naval Service of the United States, ceased thereupon, to be regarded as 'Contrabands.'" States that Lieutenant Commander Frank M. Ramsay, Commanding the…

GLC07308

3 January 1866

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John A. Andrew

Writes to the Governor of Massachusetts that he believes Massachusetts did its share in the Civil War. "The physical battle has been fought and a new one of ideas has begun. In this your state is preeminently gratified to take a leading part ... during the war I was constantly with Massachusetts men who are imminently practical, moral and useful citizens ... " Assures Andrew that he will do whatever is in his authority to protect Massachusetts citizens.

GLC07309

22 August 1862-21 June 1865

Gihon, J. L., fl. 1862-1865

Photograph album

Title: Battery "G" Penna. Vols. Aug. 22, 1862. June 21, 1865.

Oval albumen prints of members of the Battery G, Pennsylvania Volunteers bound in an album. All unidentified group photos, one is of members of the band. Leather cover is severely deteriorated with red rot.

GLC07315

1 May 1765

Jay, John, 1745-1829

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Robert R. Livingston

Written in response to a letter from Livingston, who was still attending King's College: "I have often remarked Ambition to be one of your strongest Passions, and have as often been misprised that instead of attending to such Persons as are most capable of gratifying so noble a Passion, you seem [illegible] o counteract your own Purposes, and to destroy those very Hopes which you are desirous to establish...." Admonishes him to "reject the Invitations of Syren Pleasure, and fly with hasty Steps the flowerly Vale of Insubstantial Joys." Jay graduated from King's the year before.

GLC07320

1855-1861

Halleck, H.W. (Henry Wager), 1815-1872

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Autobiographical note related to Halleck's work at the New Almaden Quicksilver mines]

Written on a printed form "To be returned to S.F. Baird" in which Halleck gave his name, his occupation as engineer, his address as San Francisco, and his branches of interest as engineering and mining. In the notes section, Halleck gives a brief explanation of his work as director of the mines, a position he held from 1853-1861. Notes experiments and the use of furnaces superior to those in Spain and Austria.

GLC07321

1770

Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

Book signed

Title: A Philosophical Enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

Sixth edition, printed by J. Dodsley in London. Signed on the title page by James Wilson and Bird Wilson. This was an influential eighteenth century English tract on aesthetics.

GLC07322

16 September 1866

Camenga, D.T., fl. 1866

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Kittie

A personal letter to his cousin in the Brookfield township region of upstate New York. Describes an attack on President Andrew Johnson in Indianapolis on or about 10 September 1866, and a subsequent melee. "The president... retired in disgust. As soon as he got inside, a shot fired at him, the ball passing within two feet of Genl Grant's head."

GLC07323

21 October 1814

Evans, Jonathan, fl. 1814

Broadside

Title: To Our Fellow Citizens of the United States.

Quotes a Philadelphia newspaper article that characterizes opposition to War of 1812 discussed at a Quaker meeting as treason. The Quakers charge that the article is both false and a fabrication. They claim that political subjects are not discussed at their religious assemblies. They also reaffirm Quaker pacifism, but note that they are bound to live peaceably under the government, even if that means submitting to fines and imprisonment for refusing to bear arms. Issued from a Quaker meeting by the meeting clerk, Jonathan Evans. With Ex-lib stamp.

GLC07331

circa 1845

American Republican Party of Kingston

Broadside

Title: American Republican Town Nominations. "Beware of Foreign Influence"

Nativist Election broadside, with large eagle, by the American Republican Party of Kingston attacking Roman Catholic immigrants. "Beware of Foreign Influence" is attributed to Washington's Farewell Address. Prints the address of John Young as Chairman, with Resolutions, calling upon people to guard against "all the Roman Catholic countries on Earth which are sending their millions of offcasts and vagabonds...to take from us the Liberties we now enjoy."

GLC07450

1776

Low, Nathaniel, fl. 1776

Book

Title: Astronomical Diary or Almanack for... 1777 [with woodcut map]

Accompanied by first American printed map of Washington's forces in Revolutionary War: "A View of the present Seat of the War at Near-New York." (p. 3). Printed by J. Gill.

GLC07454

1842

Channing, William Ellery, 1780-1842

Pamphlet

Title: Duty of the Free States, or remarks suggested by the case of the Creole

GLC07435

February 24, 1838

Broadside

Title: The Emancipator---Extra. February 24th 1838, Anti-Slavery Convention

Broadside inviting "Citizens of Connecticut friendly to immediate emancipation of the slaves of our Country, to send delegates to a convention to be held at Hartford" for establishing a state society. The names of the signers are printed in columns.

GLC07437

1893

Jay, John, 1817-1894

Book signed

Title: William Jay and the Constitutional movement for the abolition of slavery.

Written by Bayard Tuckerman. With preface written by John Jay, grandson of John and son of William Jay. Printed by Dodd, Mead & Company. Jay inscribes to the Honorable William Allen Butler, an author, lawyer, and poet.

GLC07440

1776

Sharp, Granville, 1735-1813

Pamphlet

Title: Law of Liberty, or the Royal Law ... [abolitionism]

Title continued: "... Earnestly recommended to the serious consideration of all slaveholders and slavedealers." With 4 pages of printed advertisements.

GLC07441

1797

Book

Title: To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States...

Printed Quaker petition, containing letters and what is apparently the first printing of the first petition brought before Congress by free Blacks (p. 7) appealing for intervention against the Fugitive Slave Act, which is called "a Flagrant proof of how far human beings, merely on account of color and complexion, are through prevailing predjudices excluded from common justice and...humanity."

GLC07442