January 26, 1856

Chase, Salmon P. (Salmon Portland), 1808-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander Sankey Latty

Chase writes to "Latty" concerning republican politics and elections, the Know-Nothings, and immigration.

GLC00011

August 15, 1835

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Letter signed

Title: to Hubbard Taylor

Written in the hand of Dolley Madison, signed by James Madison. Discusses his views on politics. Writes "I join in all your good wishes, for more tranquility and harmony in our public affairs; which will always be best promoted by a course avoiding the extremes to which party excitements are liable." Advises that he is in his 85th year, "the infirmities belonging to which are added inroads on my health, which among other effects have so crippled my fingers as to oblige me to use borrowed ones." Envelope has a free frank signed by Madison.

GLC00086

January 15, 1762

Pendleton, Edmund, 1721-1803

Autograph document signed

Title: to James Madison re: legal opinion on Madison family wills and estate

Mentions passing down slaves.

GLC00099.017

July 3, 1914

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Document signed

Title: Pardon of Albert Holtzman of West Virginia for white slavery and kidnapping women for the purpose of prostitution.

Partly printed document. (c/s J.C.McReynolds [Attorney General])

GLC00045.39

December 19, 1859

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Samuel Galloway

With two postscripts, one initialed. Headed "Private." Introducing John "George" Nicolay (later Lincoln's personal secretary) and describing how he wants the Lincoln-Douglas debates published. In the 1860 presidential election, the debates served as an essential statement of Republican Party principles, especially on the issue of slavery being extended into the territories. Given the importance of the debates, it is unsurprising that Lincoln emphasizes the importance of fidelity in the original speeches: "As they stand there, is precisely the shape I would prefer the publication to be made in…

GLC00365

1880

Brown, George Washington, 1820-1915

Pamphlet

Title: Reminiscences of Old John Brown

An account of John Brown's time in Kansas, based largely on George W. Brown's recollections. Title page states "The Truth at Last. History Corrected...Thrilling Incidents of Border Life in Kansas." Attempts to be fair, "neither am i laboring to make my hero a monster of iniquity or a saint." Also includes some correspondence regarding John Brown. The back cover is lost. George W. Brown was the editor of the Kansas free state newspaper Herald of Freedom, which was the organ of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.

GLC00267.213

1892

DuBose, John Witherspoon, fl. 1892

Book

Title: The life and times of William Lowndes Yancey

GLC00267.217

1887

Andrews, Robert W., 1790-?

Pamphlet

Title: The Life and adventures of Capt. Robert W. Andrews...

Dornbusch II, 863, Nicholson p. 21. Andrews was a veterinary surgeon.

GLC00267.224

1885-1889

Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 1840-1907

Book

Title: William Lloyd Garrison: the story of his life, told by his children

Published by The Century Co., New York. Illustrated with wood engravings. Volume 1 covers 1805-1835, Vol. 2 1835-1840, Vol. 3 1841-1860, and Vol. 4 1861-1879.

GLC00267.368

1857

Howard, Benjamin C., 1791-1872

Book

Title: Report of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the opinions of the judges thereof, in the case of Dred Scott versus John F. A. Sandford. December term, 1856.

One copy of the Supreme Court decision of the Dred Scott case dated 1857. Item is a first edition printed by Cornelius Wendell.

GLC01259

1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

Book

Title: Uncle Tom's cabin; or, life among the lowly.

First edition, first printing (with Hobart & Robbins on the copyright pages). Rebound, with original cloth binding bound into back. Boston, John P. Jewett & company; Cleveland, Ohio, Jewett, Proctor & Worthington. Two volume set housed together in a book box.

GLC01361

1850

Broadside

Title: Read and ponder the Fugitive Slave Law!

A large anti-Whig broadside, attacking Samuel A. Elliott of Boston, and re-printing the Fugitive Slave law. Emphasis added with capital letters in some sections. Declares that the law is against the Constitution, habeas corpus and Christianity. States that the law, "...tramples on the Constitution, by its denial of the sacred rights of Trial by Jury, Habeas Corpus, and Appeal..." Appeals to the public, "Freemen of Massachusetts, Remember, that Samuel A. Elliott of Boston, voted for this law, that Millard Fillmore, our Whig President approved it..." Contains three columns, a large banner…

GLC01862

21 March 1880

Hunt, Henry Jackson, 1819-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Brinton McClellan

Mentions an article re the Battle of Antietam advertised in the 'North American Review.' Hunt discusses his conspiracy theory involving Stanton, McClellan and the Emancipation Proclamation. "…if you had lost Antietam you would have been shot [a hury?] - if a court could be packed for the purpose, and after a defeat such a court could have been got - After a victory, they were able to remove you and pack a court almost sufficient to shoot [a hurry?] Porter, and the spirit that prescripted it, is as then proceeding, in the Senate …as malignant an virulent as ever. You ran a terrible risk in…

GLC02382.068

22 November 1819

King, Rufus, 1755-1827

Pamphlet

Title: Substance of Two Speeches, Delivered in the Senate of the United States on the Subject of the Missouri Bill

Printed pamphlet written by King as an anti-slavery U.S. Senator from New York. King also signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. King was asked to write the pamphlet, which summarized his two anti-slavery speeches given before the U.S. Senate during the Missouri Compromise debates of 1819. This is the only record of the speeches, as they were not recorded for the official records of Congress. King was the floor leader of the Federalist Party in the Senate during the debates, but his views were held by both Federalist and Republican Party members in the North. The pamphlet's main thesis is…

GLC02384

December 20, 1856

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry E. Rees

Senator Sumner replies to a letter from Rees. Claims that unless slavery is checked, "the liberty of white as well as black in our country will become a name only."

GLC01574.02

March 20, 1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On its first day of publication in 1852, Stowe sends a copy [not present] of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. Slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833, and Stowe holds Britain up as a model for Americans. Letter written mostly in the third person. Stowe had consulted Horace Mann several days before writing this letter, asking for his advice as to how best to contact Prince Albert and other noteworthy British individuals. Evidently, Mann's advice had proved useful: Despite the "republican simplicity" of this letter to the Royal Consort,…

GLC01585

January 7, 1891

Hamlin, Hannibal, 1809-1891

Autograph letter signed

Title: to C. E. Potts

Hamlin replies to a letter from Potts in Troy, New York. He thanks Potts for a copy of the "Wide Awake Vocalist," an 1860 Presidential campaign song book for the Republican Party candidates (Abraham Lincoln and Hamlin). Reminisces about the campaign, and serving with Lincoln. Remarks, "we had to keep our territories free from the curse of slavery..." He clls Lincoln "a great and good man." He writes, "few remain who participated in those political conflicts or who realise, the determination and integrity required for that occasion. A majority of our population to day, were then unborn and can…

GLC01595.02

3 January 1783

Shaw, Samuel, 1754-1794

Autograph document signed

Title: to the Commissary

Writes, "Please to issue to Prince Darby of the Massa. Artillery, fifteen days provision from the 4th instant - he being ordered on command with officers horses. By order of the Comdt." Note on verso signed illegibly.

GLC02437.01790

5 December 1855

Brown, John, 1800-1859

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Owen Brown

Brown discusses the free state struggle, and reports there are rumors of a free state man being murdered, and that it may lead to more violence. Says "We feel more, & more certain that Kansas will be a Free State." Also discusses family affairs, health, and his plan to stay in Kansas at least until spring. Bottom of the page and all of the second page are written by Samuel and Florilla Adair, with the end of their letter missing. They recount how the murder of the free state man happened, state that it is leading to war, and discuss the buildup of armed forces. The man murdered was…

GLC02454

February 13, 1892

Nicolay, John G., 1832-1901

Autograph letter signed

Title: to F.N. Barrett

Thanks him for an extract of Gerrit Smith's comment on Abraham Lincoln. Mentions a problem with his eyesight.

GLC02490.12

7 March 1857

Daniel, Peter Vivian, 1784-1860

Autograph manuscript

Title: The opinion of Justice Peter V. Daniel of the United States Supreme Court in the famous Dred Scott case.

Daniel's original manuscript of his opinion on the Dred Scott case, bound into a book. Daniels, a passionate slavery advocate, argues that slavery had more protection under the Constitution than any other form of property. He supports the majority opinion of Justice Taney, but goes farther, asserting the unconstitutionality of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Contains pencil notes, and numerous insertions and deletions in Daniel's hand, including slips of paper. With a later title page in another hand. This copy was used by the printers for the official printing of Daniel's opinion.

GLC02546.01

16 April 1857

Brown, John, 1800-1859

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Ann Brown

Has "been more prospered within a very few days than I had before been," thanks to a $7,000 loan from George L. Stearns to be used towards a free Kansas. Hears "that one of 'Uncle Sam's Hounds was at Cleavland on my track;' and I have been hiding a little so as to let my track get cold." However has "no great fear of being caught" and says "I trust that God will send me back with Irons in rather than uppon my hands." Hopes to return home soon. Brown hid for a week in Boston to avoid the rumored United States Marshall.

GLC02519

December 1857

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph manuscript

Title: "House divided" speech fragment re: slavery, Dred Scott, Kansas

A single page beginning "Why Kansas is neither the whole, nor a tithe of the real question." Written before the debates with Stephen A. Douglas, apparently in response to that Senator's Dec. 9, 1857 speech in opposition to Buchanan's State of the Union address (as suggested by Don Fehrenbacher, "House Divided," 89 ff.). Nicolay and Hay date the metaphor from Oct. 1858 while Basler assigns it to May 1858. Unpublished and unrecorded. Current dating is based upon Don E. Fehrenbacher's hypothesis that this speech responds to Stephen A. Douglas's speech in the Senate of 1857 Dec. 9 (Prelude to…

GLC02533

18 March 1838

Pierce, Franklin, 1804-1869

Autograph letter signed

Title: to D. W. Burroughs

Pierce, writing as a United States Senator from Vermont, responds to a letter from Reverend Burroughs. In reference to their conflicting views on slavery, promises to send Burroughs a copy of the United States Constitution, as he requested. Writes, "I am no advocate of slavery. I wish it had no existence upon the face of the Earth, but as a public man, I am called upon to act in relation to an existing states of things- one, which neither you or I have had any agency in producing- One older than that Constitution of our Country and expressly recognized by it." Argues that violent…

GLC02634

January 25, 1837

Taylor, E. W., fl. 1837

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jeremiah Wilbur

Taylor, a Northerner who had moved to South Carolina and became a slave owner, explains his views on slavery and his willingness to fight for it. "If these matters are going to be carried so far as to the separation of the Union and blood must be spilt I fight for the South, & feel as though I could plunge the dagger to the heart almost of a brother in such a glorious cause. It would be for Liberty, Liberty." Believes abolitionists should leave well enough alone or the result might be the dissolution of the Union. Accuses abolitionists of being hypocrites and relays the story of a…

GLC08476