1838-1873

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Header Record

Title: Collection related to Gerrit Smith [Decimalized .01- .72]

Mixed collection of pamphlets, printed letters and other printed documents written by Smith. Pertains mostly to Smith's views on abolition, but also includes documents related to the temperance and women's suffrage movements, as well as his opinions regarding political parties.

GLC04717

1854

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress 1853-4

JB00364

15 November 1838

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Judge Buell

Writes that he has not yet received a reply from Buell to his letter of October 22nd and asks that he write soon. Addressed to Buell in Albany, by W. Raymond.

GLC07483.15

17 April 1865

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mrs. Schoolcraft

Fears that President Johnson "will not feel as much kindness toward the South." Also, plans to meet to debate slavery. The letter was written three days after President Lincoln's assassination.

GLC05743

19 June 1838

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Letter of Gerrit Smith to President Schmucker.

Smith discusses his and Schmucker's shared disapproval of the Colonization Society. Defends the Anti-Slavery Society against Schmucker's criticism. Also covers Schmucker's opinions of temperance. Contains several spots of water damage in former creases.

GLC08873

December 11, 1874

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Ulysses S. Grant

Smith, a prominent abolitionist, philanthropist, and political reformer, transmits a circular (not included) which contains an extract from one of President Grant's recent speeches (not included, but possibly on the topic of civil rights).

GLC02448.14

12 December 1874

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Broadside

Title: Will the American people never cease to oppress and torture the helpless poor?

Begins with an excerpt from the New York "Tribune" indicating that thirty-five black children were ejected from public schools in Brazil, Indiana, by order of local trustees. Smith criticizes the children's ejection and urges the Republican Party to pass a pending Civil Rights Bill.

GLC02448.20

August 1857

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Compensated emancipation

[Title continued] a speech by Gerrit Smith, in the National Compensation Convention, held in Cleveland, Ohio, August 25, 26 and 27, 1857. First edition. Smith, a former United States Representative from New York, writes: "The sin of extending the area of slavery, and of encouraging the slaveholders to multiply their investments in human flesh, lies at the door of the North as well as at the door of the South. Northern commerce has connived at, and openly upheld, Slavery." Location of printing is not cited.

GLC00267.012

January 9, 1851

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Anti-fugitive slave law meeting: at a large meeting of persons from various parts of the state of New York, held in the City of Syracuse January 9th 1851...

[Title continued] and of which Frederick Douglass was president, the following resolutions and address were unanimously adopted. The Address is the same, and, with an inconsiderable exception, the Resolutions are the same, as those, which were reported by Gerrit Smith to the State Convention held in said City, January 7th, 8th, 9th, 1851. Previous documentation suggests this is a first edition. Place of publication is not cited.

GLC00267.143

1855

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Controversy between New-York Tribune and Gerrit Smith.

Printed by John A. Gray. Smith, a United States Representative 1853-1854, had been accused of missing an important vote on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Claiming previous misrepresentation in the Tribune, argues that he voted against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which he calls the "Nebraska bill."

GLC00267.158

1854

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Speeches of Gerrits Smith. In Congress, 1853-'4.

Published by Buell and Blanchard. Includes speeches by Smith on war, the homestead bill, the Nebraska bill, the Pacific Railroad, the postal system, the reciprocity treaty, and the sale of intoxicating drinks in Washington, D.C., among other topics. Bound with a green paper cover.

GLC04717.02

13 March 1856

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Speech of Gerrit Smith in the Kansas meeting, at the capitol in Albany, March 13th 1856.

At the Capitol in Albany. Criticizes Missouri aid societies that offer large bounties to proslavery inhabitants of Kansas. Deplores the allowance of slavery in Missouri, referring to the Missouri Compromise as liberty bargaining with slavery. Also condemns violation of the Compromise. Declares, "The right ballots could kill slavery this year. But delay a few years, and it will take bayonets to do it."

GLC04717.25

1847

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Letter of Gerrit Smith to S.P. Chase, on the unconstitutionality of every part of American slavery

Published by S. W. Green, Patriot Office. Letter was written at Peterboro, New York 1 November 1847. Chase recently disagreed with Smith's resolution at the National Convention of the Liberty party that slavery is unconstitutional. Argues that the Constitution "enjoins the abolition of every part of American slavery."

GLC04717.01

1851

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: The true office of civil government. A speech in the city of Troy.

Printed by S. W. Benedict. Smith declares, "The legitimate action of Civil Government is very simple. Its legitimate range is very narrow. Government owes nothing to its subjects but protection... from crimes... committed against their persons and possessions." Also argues against the union of Church and State and discusses tariffs.

GLC04717.03

1855

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Controversy between New-York Tribune and Gerrit Smith.

Printed by John A. Gray. Correspondence covers the Tribune's report that Smith was absent from the House of Representatives on the evening of the passage of the Nebraska Bill. The Tribune recently acknowledged Smith was present, and voted against the bill. Smith complains that the Tribune's acknowledgement of the facts came much too late. Bound in a peach colored paper cover.

GLC04717.04

1859

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Three discourses on the religion of reason.

Covers, among other topics, the reflection of God in man and man's role and responsibility concerning religion.

GLC04717.05

1860

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Gerrit Smith and the vigilant association of the City of New York.

Published by John A. Gray, printer. Includes correspondence related to a law suit in which Gerrit Smith accuses several individuals of libel. In a manifesto, members of the Vigilant Association linked Smith's name with the Central Association, a charge which Smith denies. Smith's defenders call the linking of Smith with the Central Association "wholesale murder upon Mr. Smith's reputation."

GLC04717.06

1860

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Religion of reason, no. 4. The one test of character. A discourse by Gerrit Smith, in Peterboro, July twenty-second, 1860.

Published in New York City by Ross & Tousey. In closing, Smith writes, "The morals and manners of a church should be such, as to realize our highest conceptions of human dignity... Church of Peterboro! Be true to your own God at the approaching Election. He is not your God, who would have men vote for candidates who are in favor of a white man's Party, and of excluding the black man from suffrage and citizenship." Bound in a yellow paper cover.

GLC04717.07

1863

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Gerrit Smith on religion.

Published by Sinclair Tousey. Includes a letter to Dr. G. B. Cheever (possibly George Barrell Cheever), "Discourse in Peterboro... The Good See: The Bad are Blind," a letter to Henry Ward Beecher on Stonewall Jackson, and a "Funeral Discourse in Peterboro."

GLC04717.08

1864

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Speeches and letters of Gerrit Smith (from January, 1863, to January, 1864) on the rebellion.

Published by John A. Gray & Green, printers. Includes various letters and speeches by Smith.

GLC04717.09

1865

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Speeches and letters of Gerrit Smith (from January, 1864, to January, 1865), on the rebellion. Volume II.

Published by the American News Company. Contains Smith's opinion on the Constitution of the United States in relation to the Civil War, the Democratic Party, and other topics.

GLC04717.10

13 November 1843

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Report From the County of Madison.

Smith inspires Madison County abolitionists following a recent election: "We have 'kept' the whole antislavery 'faith.' We have stood up for all its righteous and glorious principles; and have stood by each other. We have pursued slavery, hotly and unsparingly, into all its hiding-places, whether in the Church or in the State."

GLC04717.11

1 January 1845

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to William H. Seward

Informs Seward why he did not support Henry Clay, the Whig Candidate, in the Presidential election of 1844. Presents an argument as to why the Liberty Party did not support Clay: "Mr. Clay would not have been defeated, had he done his duty. If he had, as soon as he learned that he was put in nomination, publicly washed his hands of the blood of duelling and slavery, he would have been elected." In the Presidential election of 1844, opponents of slavery were faced with a dilemma: whether to vote for Whig candidate Henry Clay, or support Liberty party candidate James G. Birney, and…

GLC04717.12

23 August 1847

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: To the Editors of the Emancipator, Boston

Discusses an extract of a letter he wrote in 1843 printed in a recent issue of the Emancipator. Pertains to Smith's views of the Liberty Party.

GLC04717.13

15 August 1848

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: To J. K. Ingalls, editor of the Landmark, New-York

Smith writes, "I hardly need say, that I am deeply interested in the present movement against the extension of slavery; and that I infinitely prefer the election of the candidates, who are identified with it, to the election of the Whig and Democratic candidates. Gen. Taylor and Gen. Cass are proslavery candidates. Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Adams are antislavery candidates. The former are the shameless tools of the slave-power. The latter bravely resist it."

GLC04717.14