October 1852

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: National Liberty Party: at the National Liberty Party Convention, held in Syracuse September 30th, 1852, the following resolutions reported by Gerrit Smith, as chairman of the Business Committee, were unanimously adopted...

The Convention, held in Syracuse 30 September and 1 October 1852, chose to nominate William Goodell as President and S. M. Bell as Vice President. Includes Gerrit Smith's address to the Party. Lists officers nominated to lead the New York State Liberty Party Convention.

GLC04717.35

5 November 1852

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To the voters of the Counties of Oswego and Madison

Complains that he was nominated for a Congressional seat, a position he did not seek. Assures he will not resign, but will perform his duty, pursuing abolition from his position. Includes his political creed, asserting that slavery is not in the Federal Constitution, that free trade is the necessary outgrowth of human brotherhood, and that political rights encompass all persons, among other beliefs. Contains a pencil note at the top.

GLC04717.36

31 July 1855

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: Second Letter of Gerrit Smith to the New-York Tribune

Addresses grievances he holds against the Tribune: "The 'error', 'weaknesses', 'eccentricities', 'excessive passion' or 'monomania', which you attribute to me, have, doubtless, had not a little to do in encouraging you to select me as the person, on whom to vent your ill humors, and practice your weapons of ridicule and detraction." Smith's feud with the Tribune was ongoing throughout his political career.

GLC04717.37

22 August 1855

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to Edward Cornelius Delavan, Esquire

Smith writes to Delavan, a temperance leader. Discusses his views on the government's power to educate the people in relation to slavery and alcohol. Expresses his opinion that the government should regulate alcohol consumption.

GLC04717.38

4 August 1858

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Gerrit Smith's acceptance

Includes a State Mass Convention's nomination of Smith as a candidate for Governor of New York. Contains Smith's reply, which begins: "My years have been spent in seclusion. My habits are all formed to private life. It is emphatically true that public employments are not to my taste. Nevertheless, Gentlemen, I accept the nomination."

GLC04717.39

5 November 1858

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To the men who put me in nomination!

Discusses meetings he held across the state during his campaign for the position of Governor of New York. Hopes the good accomplished by the meetings is not estimated by the low number of votes he received. Encourages temperance and abolition. Criticizes the current trend towards non-extension of slavery versus complete abolition.

GLC04717.40

12 November 1858

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: Letter from Gerrit Smith to Rev. Dr. John Marsh; Letter from Gerrit Smith to Joshua R. Giddings.

Smith responds to an editorial published by Marsh, editor of Journal and Prohibitionist, New York. Marsh accused Smith of being "unsound on Temperance." Also replies to a published letter from Giddings, in which Giddings sought to defend the Republican party. Calls Republicanism a "one-idea-Party" unwilling to eradicate slavery.

GLC04717.41

1840-1870

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: An appeal for the Sabbath.

Smith declares, "the spirit of the age and the tide of our prosperity threaten to wrest from us this most precious institution of the Creator of the world." Includes a printed patterned border.

GLC04717.42

21 August 1838

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: An address, reported by Gerrit Smith to the 'Christian Union Convention' held in Syracuse, August 21st, 1838.

Smith begins, "No person, acquainted with the words and the heart of Jesus Christ, believes, that it is His choice to have His disciples separated from each other by party lines- wearing the badges, and contending with each other about the peculiarities, of their respective sects."

GLC04717.43

January 29, 1841

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Union of Christians: at a large meeting, held in Peterboro', January 29th, 1841, to promote the union of Christians, the following resolutions were passed...

Focuses on the formation of a common Church.

GLC04717.44

February 25, 1842

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To the Christians of Peterboro and its vicinity

Smith disagrees with removing a Baptist Church in Peterboro and building a Methodist Church. Argues against sectarianism. Contains cloth tape along left edge.

GLC04717.45

29 November 1843

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Church of Peterboro

Includes a creed and resolutions of the Church of Peterboro. Resolutions name an elder for the church, cite the church's opposition to sectarianism and slavery, and cover other pertinent issues.

GLC04717.46

15 July 1845

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To those ministers in the county of Madison, who refuse to preach politics

Believes that the continued enslavement of millions of citizens results from religious leaders' refusal to preach politics. Emphasizes the duty of religious leaders to preach against slavery.

GLC04717.47

4 April 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to President Green, Whitesboro

Addresses a chief difference: "You have none, whilst I have the utmost confidence, in the capabilities of the masses to take care of themselves."

GLC04717.48

1 June 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: [Resolutions passed unanimously by the Church of Peterboro]

Resolutions open fellowship to "christians of every name and type," uphold the Sabbath, etc.

GLC04717.49

7 July 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: At the meeting of the "Church of Peterboro," held July 7th, 1849, the following Resolutions were passed, without a dissenting voice...

Accuses a clerk and store owner who sell liquor as being "out of...place" for preaching the gospel. A second resolution attests that no members of the Church of Peterboro are guilty of voting for anti-abolitionists or drinking intoxicating liquors. The resolutions are to be read in a public assembly 8 July.

GLC04717.50

20 July 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To the Church of Peterboro

Uses an allegory of a tea, coffee, and liquor merchant to illustrate that "the wickedness in one branch... taints with wickedness every other branch..."

GLC04717.51

9 August 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to Hiram P. Crozier, New York

Defends the Resolutions of the Church of Peterboro, which Crozier criticized. Chastises Crozier for running a store that sells liquor, declaring "iniquity, permitted in one of the branches of the store, stamps the whole store with iniquity." Crozier served as pastor of the church.

GLC04717.52

27 November 1849

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Proceedings of the Church of Peterboro, at their meeting held Nov. 27, 1849.

The Church of Peterboro substitutes several resolutions for one previously set forth. Resolutions regarding those who, though they do not consider themselves Christians, voted on the continuance of Hiram P. Crozier's pastorship.

GLC04717.53

January 14, 1859

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: [Hymns to be sung in connection with Gerrit Smith's discourse]

Smith will deliver the discourse 23 January at the Presbyterian Church of Peterboro, on the topic of the "New Religion." Contains four hymns. Includes a pencil note at the top of the page.

GLC04717.54

13 April 1841

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: To John Curtis, Preston Armour, Asahel C. Stone, and Geo. W. Ellinwood, Esquires, commissioners of excise of the town of Smithfield, County of Madison, and State of New York.

"Your petitioners implore your honorable body, in the name of the drunkard, his wife, and his children- in the name, too, of the sober, who, whilst tavern licences are granted, are exposed to become drunkards- to refuse to grant such licences. They implore you to do so, even though it should be at the probable loss of your popularity and your offices."

GLC04717.57

15 March 1843

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: To the people of the town of Smithfield

Smith writes "At the recent Town Meeting, you again refused to elect men for Commissioners of Excise, who are willing to license dram-selling. You did right... dram-drinking is morally wrong."

GLC04717.58

18 May 1857

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to Edward C. Delavan

Smith, active in the temperance movement, declines Delavan's invitation to attend an approaching meeting of the New York State Temperance Society. Delavan was a leader in the temperance movement.

GLC04717.59

4 January 1850

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: to John Cochran, Isaac T. Hopper, Daniel C. Eaton, George H. Evans, and William Kemeys

Smith writes to prominent men he chose to designate the distribution of gifts of land and money among five hundred males and females from New York. Notes that he will not give the females land, but will instead bestow $50 upon each of them. Declares, "Alas, that good men should be so slow to see, that the acknowledged right of every generation, and the whole of every generation, to the use of the earth, as well as to the use of the sea, the light, and the air, is necessarily preliminary to that state of universal comfort... for which good men labor and pray!" Notes that most of the land is…

GLC04717.65

5 January 1855

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: Hon. H. C. Goodwin, M.C.

Smith writes, "I am happy to see, in the proceedings of the House of Representatives, the proposition to take up the Bill for the relief of the sufferers by French spoliations... We must remember the condition of our country in 1778, in order to estimate rightly the value to her of the Treaties, which she made with France, in that year..." Henry Charles Goodwin served as a United States Representative from New York 1853-1854 and 1857-1858.

GLC04717.67