February 1, 1845

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: Hon. F. Whittlesey of Rochester

Criticizes Whittlesey for advocating a plan for higher rates of toll on the Oswego River than on the western part of the Erie Canal. Smith calls it "discrimination in tolls." Whittlesey served as a United States Representative from New York 1831-1834, and as a justice of the State supreme court in 1847 and 1848.

GLC04717.68

24 May 1844

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: To the persons who derive title from myself or my late father to land in Charlotte River and Byrne's Tracts, in the Counties of Delaware, Otsego, and Schoharie

Discusses the authenticity of land titles, possibly for land he previously gifted to African Americans in need. Suspects that Native Americans told residents that the land titles were inauthentic in order to obtain timber from the property.

GLC04717.69

21 December 1857

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed letter

Title: From the New York Tribune. Mr. Gerrit Smith on the President's message. The currency and the hard times.

Smith writes, "There is nothing in the nature of civil government, and there is nothing in the Constitution, to justify the Federal Government in banking, or in undertaking to authorize it in others." Also criticizes economists' reference to slavery as an institution, or "an essential part of the basis of public and national credit."

GLC04717.70

circa 1858

Pearson, T.P., fl. 1858

Print

Title: [Print of Abraham Lincoln photograph by Pearson]

Print of Abraham Lincoln (by "Joyce"). On glossy paper. Original photograph is an ambrotype by T. P. Pearson, Macomb, Illinois, 26 August 1858. O-8 [refers to Ostendorf identification number].

GLC05241.47

20 September 1839

Grand Jury

Manuscript document

Title: The Grand Jury finds the following fact

Relates details pertaining to the sailing of the Amistad, the mutiny of the captives on board, and the ship's subsequent capture near the coast of New York. Mentions Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney, commander of the brig Washington and other persons involved in the case.

GLC05636.06

November 1839

Manuscript document

Title: [Testimonies regarding the capture of the Amistad]

Possibly given at Connecticut District Court in November 1839. Marked "U.S." at the top. Begins with the testimony of Lieutenant Richard W. Meade, who led an armed party that initially boarded the Amistad, requesting the ship's papers. Includes the testimony of Baldwin, Dart Sharp (on board the USS Washington when it came in contact with the Amistad), and Captain Mather (who "went with Mead made soundings & c.").

GLC05636.11

2 July 1834

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Document signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Partially printed. Holabird's appointment as Attorney of the United States for the District of Connecticut. John Forsyth, Secretary of State, appoints William S. Holabird as Secretary of State for the District of Connecticut. A handwritten note by Forsyth states: "I will thank you at the time of acknowledging the receipt of your Commission to name the place of your birth."

GLC05636.16

23 September 1839

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Forsyth states: "It is necessary to a just decision on the various points presenting themselves for the President's consideration in the case of the Spanish Schooner 'Amistad,' that the Department should be furnished, with a copy of the ships' papers, together with a transcript of the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry held by the District Judge, on board that vessel, to which you refer in your letter of the 5th instant, and on which the Blacks were imprisoned for the alleged murder of the Captain and Mate..."

GLC05636.17

10 November 1839

Judson, Andrew T., 1784-1853

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Judson, who presided over the district (and circuit) court proceedings of the Amistad, informs Holabird that he has not yet heard from President Martin Van Buren or Secretary of State John Forsyth regarding the case. Suggests Holabird review a similar case, "10th Wheaten 133. The Plattsburgh." Writes "That is a Late case, long since the Spanish Decree of 1817, and yet it turns wholly on the question of fitting out in the U. S. or Cuba. If in the U. S. she was rightfully condemned but if in Spain a restoration is the admitted course. Such seems to me to be the argument in that case..."

GLC05636.04

4 May 1840

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry D. Gilpin

Holabird, United States District Attorney of Connecticut, writes to Gilpin, Attorney General. Relates that the Amistad case did not spend much time at the circuit court level, because "the counsel for the negroes [interposed?] a plea in abatement of the appeal from the decree of the district court, they contended that the U. S. had no interest in the matter, & could not appeal, that by the Treaty with Spain our courts were open to the claimants of the property, or to the representatives of the Spanish Government, that they should appear in person, & not through our Govt. upon this…

GLC05636.05

January 1840

Manuscript document

Title: [Fragment of Antonio G. Vega's deposition given to United States District Attorney William S. Holabird] [incomplete]

Date inferred based on the relation of this document to GLC 5636.08 and .09. States "That he is a Spanish subject, that he resided in the Island of Cuba several years, that he knows the law of [struck: Cuba] that island on the subject of Slavery." Possibly created in Connecticut, where the District Court heard the case.

GLC05636.07

January 1840

Manuscript document

Title: [Antonio G. Vega's deposition given to United States District Attorney William S. Holabird]

States "that the Spanish edict prohibiting the importation of slaves from Africa, was not considered as applicable to that Island and was [inserted: then] wholly disregarded after slaves were landed... that the slaves on the plantations kept their native languages for years... that the ships papers, of the Amistad are... in the usual form, & not necessary to practice any fraud to obtain such papers from the proper officers... that the Barracoons are public markets where all description of slaves are bought and sold-" Mentions the deposition of Richard Robert Madden, British…

GLC05636.08

January 10, 1840

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Document signed

Title: [Antonio G. Vega's deposition given to United States District Attorney William S. Holabird]

Signed deposition read before the court stating "that the court of mixed commissions had no jurisdiction except in cases of capture... that newly imported African Negroes were constantly brought to the Island, & after landed, were bona fide transferred from one owner to an other without any interference by the local authority, or the mixed commission, and were held by the owners, and recognized, as lawful property, that slavery was recognized in Cuba by all the Laws that was considered in force there... " Appears to be a complete version of GLC 5636.07 and an edited version of GLC 5636.…

GLC05636.09

January 1840

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Manuscript document

Title: [Notes of Holabird, United States District Attorney for Connecticut]

Contains testimony of Dwight G. James (an abolitionist), Captain Green (who came into contact with Amistad Africans on shore, prior to their capture), N. Wilcox (Norris Wilcox, United States Marshal for the District of Connecticut), and E. Osborne (who notes the value of the cargo). Wilcox notes the cargo on board the Amistad, and Green identifies persons in the courtroom who he had seen on shore. Possibly created in Connecticut, where the District Court heard the case.

GLC05636.10

November 1839

Manuscript document

Title: [Testimonies regarding the capture of the Amistad]

Created at Connecticut District Court in November 1839. At the top, states: "Schooner Amistad plea to jurisdictions & matter of it- Baldwin says most extraordinary objections & c Circuit Court said only that so long as the matter was pending before the District Ct that Court should not dismiss & c..." Relates events that took place 26 August 1839, when Captains Henry Green and Peletiah Fordham, [Fithy?], Sherman, Conklin met the Africans from the Amistad on the shore near Culloden Point, New York. Green would later enter a salvage claim for the ship and its contents. A faint…

GLC05636.12

1839-1840

Manuscript document

Title: U. States v. Cinqué & others...

... (title continues) Charged with murder & robbery (piracy) on board the Spanish Schooner 'Amistad'- The offense committed by foreigners, on the high seas, & on board a vessel belonging exclusively to subjects of foreign states... Have the Courts of the U.S. jurisdiction of the offense?" Contains a summary of the results of several cases, and how their verdicts affect the Amistad case. Cases include: U.S. v. Palmer et al. 3 Wheat 610, U.S. v. Pirates 5. Wheat 195, U.S. v. Keesler 91 Baldwin's Rep, U.S. v. Davis 2 Sumner's Rep 482, and 5 Halls Am Law Journal 459 case of the Almeda…

GLC05636.15

6 January 1840

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Forsyth discusses the Amistad case, revealing the administration's assumptions regarding the verdict of the trial. States that the Spanish minister had applied to the State Department for the "use of a vessel of the United States in the event of the decision of the Circuit Court in the case of the Amistad being favorable to his former application, to convey the negroes to Cuba, for the purpose of being delivered over to the authorities of that Island." States that President Van Buren has agreed, and "ordered a vessel to be in readiness to receive the negroes from the Custody of the Marshal…

GLC05636.18

January 17, 1840

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Fearing that his letter of 12 January had not reached Holabird, Forsyth reiterates President Van Buren's instructions regarding the Amistad. Writes "... I have to acquaint you with the desire of the President that you take the necessary measures to carry the case by appeal to the Circuit Court, both on that branch of the decision which relates to the negroes, and that which grants salvage on the vessel and the goods found on board. That part which concerns the slave Antonio is not to be disturbed, and instructions will be forwarded to you designating the parties to whom he is to be…

GLC05636.19

25 March 1840

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Encloses a letter from the Spanish minister at Washington, D.C., a translation of the letter, and the printed copy of a treaty (not included) from 1835 between Great Britain and Spain intended to enforce restriction of the slave trade. Intends for Holabird to use the documents at the upcoming Circuit Court Amistad trial. Instructs Holabird to return the treaty to the State Department on the request of the Spanish minister.

GLC05636.21

30 April 1840

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Relates that the Africans' defense team requested President Martin Van Buren to instruct Holabird to present copies of the 1817 Decree of the King of Spain, the 1838 ordinance of the Queen of Spain, and the 1817 Treaty between Spain and Great Britain in the Circuit Court hearing of the Amistad case. These documents, which had previously been used when the Amistad trial was held at the District Court level, pertain to the slave trade in Spanish territories. Van Buren does not question the authenticity of the documents, but does not feel he has the right "to interpose in the manner desired of…

GLC05636.22

8 September 1840

Forsyth, John, 1780-1841

Letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Transmits the deposition (not included) of Henry Thompson given to H. Griffiths, Esquire, United States Commercial Agent on the Island of Mauritius. Thompson had been a crew member of the Bark Pembroke, from which he was illegally discharged.

GLC05636.23

January 13, 1829

Bostwick, Charles, fl. 1796-1840

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Bostwick, a lawyer, discusses terms of settlement in a court case between Mr. Jervett and his creditors. Holabird represented the creditors. Bostwick states that Jervett will settle on the terms proposed by Holabird in previous correspondence. Address indicates that Holabird practiced in Winchester, Connecticut.

GLC05636.24

24 March 1830

Griswold, Jared, fl. 1835

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

Discusses the case of Peters vs. Sumner, implying that Griswold and Holabird were working on the case together. States that E. Phelps, another lawyer, moved the date of the case on account of a witness or witnesses who were absent. Relates that he will attend to Hitchcock's cases.

GLC05636.25

6 July 1830

Boyd, John, 1799-1881

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William S. Holabird

States that Henry Jones contacted him (Boyd) regarding an audit in the case of Jones vs. [Brunnik?]. Jones hopes to hold the case at New Hartford. Asks that Holabird respond to confirm the time and location for hearing the case.

GLC05636.26

17 May 1831

Holabird, William S., 1794-1855

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Theodore Hinsdale

Holabird asks Theodore if he told Horace Hinsdale that Holabird recommended Colonel Soper as Justice to General Adams on the grounds that Sopic was an anti-mason. Includes Theodore's reply of the same day, informing Holabird he did not pass the message to Horace.

GLC05636.27