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Benjamin Bacon. Bacon was an original member of the Anti-Slavery society.
ALS to autograph seeker C.L. Farrington (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). October 2, 1873. 1 p.
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Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher was a social reformer, clergyman, and the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Partial ALS, n.p., Undated. 1 p. "It is his way. It does us all good to have someone who piles on the screws - especially when we know at bottom he is most friendly."
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William Birney. Birney was Union Army general during the Civil War, and was noted for encouraging thousands of free black men to enlist.
ALS to Lewis Cist (Paris). March 8, 1852. 1 p.
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Phillips Brooks. Brooks was an Episcopal clergyman and the author of O Little Town of Bethlehem.
ALS to Mrs. Waters (Boston, Massachusetts). February 3, 1886. 1 p.
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Blanche K. Bruce. Bruce, the child of plantation owner and his house slave, was the first African-American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate, representing Mississippi during the Reconstruction era.
ALS to Harry Hause (Washington, D.C. ), thanking his "host" after a recent visit. November 16, 1886. 2 p.
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Benjamin Butler. Butler was a Massachusetts politician and Union General.
ALS to David R. Godwin (Washington, D.C. ). June 12, 1876. 1 p.
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William Channing
ALS to Mrs. Chapman (Boston, Massachusetts), apologizing for sending a manuscript he suggests is unworthy of Liberty Bell, the journal of the American Antislavery Society. October 23, 1845. 1 p.
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David Lee Child. Child was the husband of writer and reformer Lydia Maria Child.
ALS to J. Bailey, arranging a meeting. n.p., July 17, 1829. 1 p.
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Thomas Clarkson. Clarkson was one of the most important British abolitionists of the late 18th century.
ALS to John B. Murray who served as Brigadier General in the Union Army, and later helped establish Memorial Day. (Playford Hall, England), arranging a visit. April 15, 1842. 2 p.
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Cassius Marcellus Clay
AQS, "Life, Liberty, and Love". n.p., 1860. 1 p.
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George H. Cook. Cook was a professor of chemistry at Rutgers University whose geological survey of New Jersey became the predecessor for the U.S. Geological Survey.
ALS regarding the purchase of a telescope (New Brunswick, New Jersey). August 27, 1863. 2 p.
ALS (New Brunswick, New Jersey), regarding teaching science to future clergymen. May 3, 1865. 2 p. "I am every day stirred up by their fears lest they should learn something which would render their faith weak or unsound. It is a hard lesson for men to learn that one belongs to the finite the other the infinite…."
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Daniel De Vinne
ALS (Rye, New York). April 8, 1850. 2 p.
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Orville Dewey
ALS to Elizabeth Arnold (Paris). April 26, 1842. 2 p.
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G. M. Emerson
ALS to Joseph Kidder (Boston, Massachusetts). June 27, 1863. 1 p.
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David Francis
ALS to Governor Samuel T. Armstrong (Boston, Massachusetts). March 4, 1835. 2 p.
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William Lloyd Garrison
Copy of Wendell Phillips letter in Garrison's hand, August 1852. 1 p.
ALS, responding to an invitation to speak at the New England Woman Suffrage Association. May 10, 1859. 2 p. "Where my hear and heart are in this matter you need no assurance from me, but I dare not, now, give you a positive pledge."
AQS, "Liberty for each, for all, and for ever!". January 1, 1872.
Post-mortem examination of Garrison, containing the results of the autopsy and account of the disease leading to his death. 3 p.
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Joshua R. Giddings
ALS to anti-slavery politician Charles Sumner, regarding New England delegates to the Peace Convention in Paris. June 8, 1849. 1 p. "Our Free Soil movement is on the advance in this state. Our forces are consolidating, and we are making preparations for the election in October…"
AQS, n.p., regarding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Undated. "When the Representative of a State is struck down the people feel the blow."
With one additional ALS.
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Francis Gillette
Letter sent from Gillette to an unknown woman, seeking her services as a school teacher for a recently built school in Bloomfield, Connecticut. July 25, 1851.
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Sarah and Angelina Grimke, and Theodore Dwight Weld
Three Autographs on one page, n.p., Undated (circa the 1870s). RARE
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R. R. Gurley. Gurley was a Clergyman and the U.S. Commissioner to Liberia.
ALS (Washington, D.C.). August 24, 1832. 1 p.
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R. G. Hazard
ALS to William Pitt Fessenden, July 28, 1864. 2 p.
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Thomas Wentworth Higginson
ALS, regarding hymns. July 23, 1908. 2 p.
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Samuel Gridley Howe
ALS (Boston, Massachusetts) June 7, circa the 1870s. 1 p.
Invitation from the Perkins Institution for the Blind, announcing a meeting of the Trustees. Embossed to be read like Braille. Obituary from the Providence Journal included.
With three additional ALS.
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William Jackson
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William Jay
ALS, thanking an anonymous man for a ticket and discussing introduction for a speaker (Sumner). November 23, 1854. 1 p.
ALS, discussing lot rentals. (New York). December 19, 1835. 1 p.
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Oliver Johnson
Autograph Poem Signed, "The Peace of God", n.p., Undated. 2 p.
AQS, "God is wrath, even as he is love". (New York). January 8, 1886. 1 p.
ALS to Rev. William Hayes Ward (Orange, New Jersey) pleading for work. February 2, 1879. 4 p. "I tell you frankly that I am in a dire strait. I have struggled hard for almost three years to get my paper on a paying basis…I look now into the faces of my dear wife and child with anxiety much as I never before experienced…".
ALS to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (New York), regarding abolitionist Moncure Conway. October 6, 1885. 3 p. "I very much regret my inability to join in person the good company of friends and admirers of Mr. Moncure D. Conway, over which you are called to preside on Friday evening next. I greatly honor him for his high position in the world of thought and am moreover deeply indebted to him for light and inspiration upon many important subjects. In point of fidelity to his convictions and the boldness with which he has uttered them, he has set an example worthy of general imitation. I am glad he has returned to his native land, and I desire to lend my voice to the chorus of welcome that will greet him on the occasion to which I have referred. May his light still increase in brightness, and his hand grow strong for the work before him."
AQS, "Thanks be to God! Not a slave in all the Land!" (Clifton Springs). September 15, 1889. 1 p.
ALS to an anonymous Charles, discussing a speech that was sent but was incomplete. 1 p.
ALS, of payment sent for an article, (New York). December 31, 1866. 1 p.
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Jean Kina. Kina was a Haitian revolutionary leader and former slave.
Note Signed, warrant for rations. September 12, 1795. Exceptionally rare autograph.
Winslow Lewis.
ALS, request for letter to see someone in London. Envelope addressed to Winslow Lewis. March 1872. 1 p.
Invitation and ALS, expressing his father's inability to accept an invitation due to being absent from the city. May 7, 1872. 1 p.
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J. L. Lovejoy
ALS, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 28, 1839. 1 p.
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Zachary Macaulay
ALS, regarding the disposition of an estate. Macaulay was the leader of a Parliamentary effort to end slavery in Britain. October 10, 1823. 4 p.
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Samuel May
ALS to H.W. Clarke, regarding Civil War relief efforts. (Syracuse, New York). March 10, 1863. 2 p.
Copy of a letter from Samuel May, (Syracuse, New York). January 8, 1866. 1 p.
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James M. McKim
ALS. 2 p.
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Edward Joy Morris
Note signed, regarding a Whig gathering Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1844. 1 p.
ALS, giving dates of his service in Congress (Washington, D.C.). February 8, 1858. 1 p.
Letter signed (possibly clerically), thanking an unidentified woman for a likeness of her husband, who gave Morris advice during his time in Liberia. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). August 9, 1863. 1 p.
Letter signed (possibly clerically), mentioning favorable news regarding diplomatic appointments to Liberia. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). May 22, 1866. 1 p.
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Theodore Parker
ALS to Miss H.E. Horn regarding Goethe (West Roxbury, Massachusetts). October 15, 1846. 3 p.
Two additional ALS, three ANS, and one cabinet card.
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William W. Patton
ALS, answering his sister, who was evidently skeptical of the anti-slavery movement's methods (New York). September 16, 1839. 4 p.
Transcript:
"Dear Sister,
Dr. Bates a few moments ago handed me your letter & I hasten to reply. And this I do the more readily because I feel confident that a satisfactory answer can be given to your questions. You wish to know, what good all this agitating will do?
I could first ask what good cause or what great moral reform action ever succeeded without agitation. How did our Savior & the apostles endeavor to propagate the gospel? Was it not by traveling extensively over the known world & promulgating the truth? Was it not by rebuking sin everywhere & under all forms - proclaiming the utter wickedness of the human heart - denouncing idolatry as folly & wickedness & holding up the cross as the only hope of a lost world? They spoke the truth also sternly & made no compromise with wrong. In rebuking the Jews for their treatment of the Savior they said, whom 'ye have take by wicked hands have crucified and slain' 'But ye denied the Holy One & the Just & desired a murder to be granted unto you.' And while the church followed their example, almost miraculous success attended their efforts.
Again when Papacy threw her mantle of gloom over the church - when a deathlike stupor had seized the disciples of the cross, what aroused them, save the trumpet tones of Luther & his associates, spurning with indignation the idea of Papal supremacy & infallibility. They awoke the plebian & the senator - the peasant & the king - how? By agitation. And the happy results we feel every day.
Alcohol had slain its thousands - the drunkards hell was fast filling up. We were branded abroad as a nation of drunkards. How is it that such a change as we now see has been wrought? Why is it that one state after another is prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor & we stand far in advance of the rest of the world on this subject? It has been accomplished by agitation.
Nearly one millions of slaves groaned beneath West Indian bondage & the slave traders covered the ocean, sailing under the flags of all civilized nations yet not a voice uttered warning or rebuke; but now how different the sight. The freeman lifts his free arms to heaven & thanks his God & the abolitionists of England the lash is beneath his feet, & the chain rent asunder falls to the ground. And how was this brought to pass. By the agitation of such men as Wilberforce, Clarkson & Sharpe. Years did they agitate, & now God has brought about the result.
And now, shall we follow the path which Experience points out, or (monstrous anomaly) leave sin to cure itself.
But permit me to mention of our plans & opinions. First, we believe the slaveholder has a conscience, aye a conscience, slumbering though it may be. This conscience we would address. We would show him that though he may not distinctly be aware of it, yet in reality he is robbing his fellow man - treading under foot precious rights & [curtailing love on many such]. Do you say, that he will not hear & is only enraged; so does the rum seller stop his ears or assail you in his rage when you tell him, he is filling up the drunkards grave, & feeding the fires of the drunkards hell. But in his cooler moments, his conscience will whisper, it is all true. Is it right so to speak to the rum seller & to hope for beneficial results, then is it right thus to address the slaveholder & equally to anticipate the time when Slavery's expiring groan shall scare be heard for the songs of the emancipated.
Secondly. We believe, if we can convince the slaveholders that free labor is far more profitable to the South than is slave labor, that their self interest will liberate the slaves. To establish this position we have a mass of overwhelming arguments & facts.
Thirdly. We believe that the South has a sense & a deep sense of honor. What then will she do, when a worlds scorn shall scathe her. When to be a slaveholder shall be as counted a foul spot on a mans character. Lynching & bowie knives will ill contend against the brand of shame. Was not Robinson acquitted of the murder of Helen Jewett & yet he dared not, he could not reside in this city. Why? Because every body believed him quietly & infamy had marked him as her own.
Fourthly. We believe that the South wishes to live securely. Therefore we point her to a nation of enemies growing up in her midst. We mention her hopeless condition in case of a war & thus wish to show that it is always unsafe to do wrong.
'Why then do you labor at the North?' Because in several of the so called free states slaves are yet held. Because a burning, withering prejudice is bowing the colored man to the earth, blighting his hopes for time & often for eternity. Because the free colored man is shut out of our schools & our colleges & put in a place of degradation in the courts of God! Because no mechanic will take him for an apprentice & no merchant receives him as a clerk. Because if the colored man was elevated & it was seen that he could hold stations of honor & respectability such a grief of universal condemnation would go forth against slavery as will cause it to vanish from the earth. Because several of the nominally free states permit slaveholders from the South to hold slaves within their bounds for 6 or 9 months, & others lay heavy fines & imprisonment upon those who aid the panting fugitive. Because the North has the majority in Congress & hence the power & obligation to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in Florida, also to break up the slave trade between the states, which is the main thing that renders slavery profitable in Delaware, Maryland & Virginia, which being removed these states would be forced to emancipate their slaves. Because the Northern church has palliated this crime & failed to rebuke it, while at the same time it has influence sufficient to cause its members at the South to renounce slavery. (See my last letter about communing with slaveholders) Because in a word, slaveholders as a general thing will never listen to us, as long as so many uphold them at the North.
But says, the objector, 'I have seen a great deal of quarreling & disturbance arise from so much agitation.' Well, what then. This is not denied, but what does it prove? That it is wrong to continue because incidental disturbances arise? Why then did not Paul stop when he was mobbed wherever he went? Why did Peter & John continue so fanatical, when they were scourged for Christs sake? Did not Christ tell us to expect trouble whenever truth grappled with error. Math. X:34,6. Could we expect a system which is so bored by the civil passions of the heart to be given up without a severe & protracted struggle?
Such is my answer, given as briefly as possible, to your questions. Had I time, I might sustain my position by many more arguments. But I have tried to be brief. If my answer is not satisfactory to Miss Bonny & others, please as soon as possible specify wherein I have failed. I have not undertaken to show how bad slavery is, inasmuch as I took it for granted that she allowed its wickedness. Therefore my attention has been confined to a general statement of our plan & the reasons for it. May God teach us all right that we may do what is well pleasing to him. For it matters little whether we have mans condemnation or not, so long as the smile your Savior is on us. Mother sends her love. I have had a cold for 4 weeks. The Dr. forbids to sing or speak much. The Plans look quite well & has one pedal to another alongside of it. Last Wednesday I went on to Uncle Mag office & on Saturday brough[t] Ludlow, & Aunt Catharine home. Had a very pleasant time there & got most well of my cold, but was put almost entirely [back by singing & talking yesterday (Sabbath).] Write soon."
AQS, "He that doeth good is of God; but he that doeth evil hath not seen God" (Chicago, Illinois). February 14, 1877. 1 p.
With one additional ALS.
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Wendell Phillips
AQS, "Count that day lost / Whose low descended sun / Sees at the thy hand / No worthy action done / These lines John Brown taught to each his children." September 1871. 1 p.
Four additional AQS, two ANS, two ALS, and a Cabinet card.
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Parker Pillsbury
ALS (Concord, New Hampshire). September 8, 1896. 2 p. "I joined Mr. Garrison in the tenth year of his warfare, and I hope and think he would say I never deserted him in any of his finest battles on whatever field. And I hope ere long to meet him under other and brighter skies, to renew our conquests upward and onward…"
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A. M. Powell
ANS, on Office of the National Anti-Slavery Standard stationary (New York). June 26, 1866. 1 p.
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F.B. Sanborn
ANS (Boston, Massachusetts) January 11, 1910. 1 p.
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Gerrit Smith
An 1864 Note Signed, three ALS (one mounted on an acidic page from the autograph album), and an 1848 printed speech on land reform. (5 items total)
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Henry B. Stanton
ALS, sending a manuscript for publication. October 17, 1844.
ALS, n.p., Undated. 1 p.
"…why would it not be a good plan for some of our New York stump orators to 'change works' with some of yours? Some of your Conscience Whigs can do great good, very great good, in the central & western parts of this state. They would have great influence with the Whigs of this region. In return for them, let some of your Barnburners go there. Their noble enthusiasm would wear off prejudices which you Whigs have to contend, and they might make deep inroads upon Hunkerism in Massachusetts…"
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Thaddeus Stevens
ALS, February 17, 1861. 1 p.
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Alvan Stewart
ALS, from an early political abolitionist regarding his publication and the legal assault on slavery. June 16, 1845.
"I did not receive your letter until Saturday night & I hasten to answer it. The Argument I delivered in eleven hours before the Sup. Court of N. Jersey I think eminently calculated for lawyers [?] & those wise men constructing society courts the muse who[?] and the exponents of the law & Constitution. It covers all the questions under the federal Constitution as well as N. Jersey, I have had lawyers men who were my political enemies order fifty of these. The Argument will be as I understand 45 to 50 compact pages, & are $125.00 at per thousands at the office. In fact it is altogether the most labored production of my life, & covers our entire question, under all aspects, as my adversaries compelled me by their attacks to give a history of & define the Liberty party - its objects, aims, the course of slavery in different ages, demonstrating the declaration of independence a practicality & showing condition of slave states, as compared with free, showing 6 millions ruined, 3 of Black & 3 of poor Southern whites…"
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P. F. Streeter
ALS (Baltimore, Maryland). August 22, 1861. 4 p.
"This city is quiet, but feelings are bitter, and the secessionists believe 'Old Jeff' [Jefferson Davis] will be here before long. I do not agree with them. Troops are beginning to arrive and encamp on our hills. A great hospital is to be established here. These things will create some activity. As to my own prospects, they are not very bright. I shall lose many secession pupils, and some will not be able to send; but I hope to have some new ones, and enough to justify me in going on."
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Charles Sumner
Newspaper clipping discussing a dispute.
Autograph Manuscript outline of studies in history. 3 p.
Document Signed, regarding a railroad. February 5, 1845. 1 p.
Autograph Quotation, "Whether on the gallows high, or in the battle's van, the fittest place for a man to die, is where he dies for man." n.p. Undated.
Four additional ANS, and one photo with a clipped signature affixed.
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Lewis Tappan
ALS, regarding a case before the Presbytery. February 26, 1841. 1 p.
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George Thompson
ALS to Oliver Johnson, July 13, 1865, 2 p.
Clipped signature and AQS "To America!" (Salem, Massachusetts). December 6, 1850. (tipped on the left side onto acidic paper)
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Francis Todd
Letter from Todd to an attorney regarding a transaction of $1000 in Newbury Port. June 11, 1842.
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John Weiss. Unitarian minister
ALS, to a younger unidentified colleague (New York). November 21, 1852. 4 p.
"My Dear Friend,
I have been trying very hard to think that I can come to Washington, for I should like to do it. But I am forced to decline it, for a variety of reasons which press upon me. Rev. Bowen will have left us, and no one will take his place at present: so that the entire responsibility of study will come upon me. If I preach at all away from home, it will be for Rev. Bowen's installation at Williamsburg. Then, the journey and preaching would use me up for a week: a thing not to be considered, if any one were here to take care of the [evening] Sunday. The besetting difficulties are too great even for my strong desire to come.
I rejoice that you are going to be settled at Washington: and I have no doubt that you can say there just what you please. My advice to you would be to go on as you have begun, making your Anti-slavery occasionally, at timely moments, just as strong as you have made it previous to your call. The most that a man can desire is to have the liberty to speak a timely word at some conjuncture which enhances its meaning and prevents it from being spent upon the air. If a man waits for the chances which must inevitably occur in our legislation, and so long as the power of slavery seeks its opportunity, he will have the satisfaction of bearing his testimony at the most useful moment for his own conscience and for the cause of truth. All else, relating to any special topic, is comparatively aimless, lacking the time's enforcement - which justifies it from the charge of dilettantism and superfluity of independence by bringing the evil up to be hit, and marking every hit a palpable one. Particularly in Washington, where people hear of effects being produced by speaking strongly to the point at some critical moment, I should judge it to be the best cause for the preacher of anti-slavery truth to watch the providential chances, and concentrate this special moral energy of his upon the evil when it has a '[name].'
Let me desire for you every success and spiritual blessing, and though distant from us may you yet feel the sympathy of all who believe as you do, who will be ready to countenance for you, and who will feel strengthened by your efforts."
With one additional ALS.
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Elizur Wright
ALS, regarding becoming an auxiliary to the National Liberal League. August 31, 1880. 2 p.
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Other letters
Ones addressed to famous autograph collectors Lewis Cist and William Buell Sprague, are from Francis Gillette (Senator from Conn.); William Jackson; William Jay (2 letters); Winslow Lewis; J. C. Lovejoy; James Miller McKim (2 ALS); A.M. Powell; and Francis Todd.
