American Unitarian Clergyman; Author of “The Man Without a Country”

Autograph Quotation Signed, on a 2 ½” x 5” slip of paper.

“Nature gives us more than all She ever takes away.’   Edward E. Hale. April 17, 1871.”

Personal Secretary of Abraham Lincoln; U.S. Secretary of State - 1898-1905 – McKinley & Roosevelt Administrations

Hay became a friend of Lincoln while studying law in Springfield, Illinois and accompanied him to Washington to become one of his personal secretaries. After the war, Hay and Nicolay wrote their biography of Lincoln, and Hay served as Secretary of State under McKinley and Roosevelt from 1898 through 1905.

Signed Card, 2 ½” x 4 ¼”, “John Hay.”

Personal Secretary of Abraham Lincoln; U.S. Secretary of State - 1898-1905 – McKinley & Roosevelt Administrations

Hay became a friend of Lincoln while studying law in Springfield, Illinois and accompanied him to Washington to become one of his personal secretaries. After the war, Hay and Nicolay wrote their biography of Lincoln, and Hay served as Secretary of State under McKinley and Roosevelt from 1898 through 1905.

Autograph Letter Signed, two pages, on the first and third leaves of a 5 ¼” x 8” letter-sheet. Addressing former Union General Frederick Tracy Dent, brother-in-law and secretary of President Ulysses S. Grant, Hay seeks the help of the President in securing his brother’s advancement in the military.

“New York, August 31 [no year]. My Dear General Dent, Enclosed you will find the note to the President which you suggested I should write. My brother Lieutenant Leonard Hay is Adjutant of the 9^th Infantry. He likes the service and desires to remain in it. I know him to be a very efficient and valuable officer and if you can do anything to promote his wishes, I am sure it will be to the advantage of the service, and will lay me under great personal obligations. I am very faithfully yours, John Hay. P.S. My address will be for the present ‘Republican Office, Chicago’ where I am always at your disposition.”

Beneath Hay’s closing and signature, General Dent has written and initialed a biographical notation of Hay, in pencil, “Private Sec[retary] of President Lincoln and author of Jim Beldsoe & little breeches. F.T.D.”

The letter-sheet bears the usual light toning, and there is weakness and clean separation, with no loss of paper, at the edges of two horizontal folds. The text of the letter is unaffected by a three-quarter inch area of paper loss in the upper margin of the second page.

American Social Writer & Philosopher

Autograph Letter Signed, to Neil Yetwin, with exceptional content.

February 4, 1979

Dear Mr. Yetwin:

Many thanks for your letter. Unfortunately my failing eyesight prevents me from reading the faded print of your article. I shall have someone read it to me later.

There is a danger of an Anti-Semitic explosion in this country. There is no telling when it will come. The Negro vote can easily become anti-Jewish. Arab money can work mischief. If America’s present decline lands us into a real mess, many politicians will be tempted to blame the Jews for all our ills. Add the fact that over half of the adversary intellectuals who villify [sic] this country at every opportunity are Jewish and you can see that the present situation in America is not totally different from what things were in WeimarGermany in the late 1920s. The chief difference is that the Jews now have a place of refuge – Israel.

Warm regards,
Eric Hoffer

American Actor

Signature, “J. Jefferson,” on a 3 ½” X 4 ¾” slip of paper, the lower edge irregularly torn; affixed to a 4 ½” x 7 ½” album page. Beneath the mounted signature is the collector’s notation “Palm Beach, Fl[orid]a, March 1901,” where Jefferson died of pneumonia four years later.

American Poet

Signature, with sentiment, “Yours truly, Henry W. Longfellow,” on a 2” x 4 ½” slip of paper, with the notation, “From Cambridge, Mass[achusetts], Feb[ruary] 1868,” in another hand along the bottom edge.

Lightly and evenly toned, with show-through of old glue staining on the reverse.

Canadian-Born Journalist; Editor of the Chicago Tribune; Mayor of Chicago – 1871-73

As influential editor of the Chicago Tribune, Medill was instrumental in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency, and remained his staunch supporter throughout the Civil War. He served one term in office as mayor of Chicago, from 1871 to 1873.

Document Signed, Chicago, Illinois, June 25, 1873, “J. Medill,” as Chicago mayor, a partly printed 3 ¼” x 7 ½” check, payable to “Short & Brayton” for $44 and drawn on the Chicago Police Fund.

There are a few pinholes along the left edge, which has been trimmed slightly, along with several edge tears. The signature is unaffected by a punch cancellation at the center.

American Abolitionist & Reformer

Phillips fought slavery and advocated temperance and women’s rights.

Civil War-Date Autograph Note Signed, 4 ½” x 5”. In a spare, reflective moment as a Wednesday evening Abolitionist meeting in Boston is about to begin, Phillips pens a few evocative lines for an unnamed recipient.

“Boston, Jan[uar]y 22, [18]62. 20 minutes after 6 P.M. Snow falling. F.L.G. starting for the Festival. Wendell Phillips.”

The new year would soon bring good news to the Abolitionists, as slavery was abolished in the territories on June 19, and Lincoln read the first draft of his Emancipation Proclamation to the Cabinet on July 22, 1862. It is quite likely that the “F.L.G.” to whom Phillips refers is Helen Frances “Fanny” Garrison, the young daughter of Abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, already a prominent female voice in the movement.

Overall condition is excellent, with several horizontal folds and minor paper loss at the upper right corner.

American Social Reformer; Author, Lecturer & Early Suffrage Movement Leader

Signed Card, 2 ¼” x 3 ½”, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton.”

American Abolitionist Writer – Authored “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

Signed Card, 2 ¼” x 4 ¼”, with date and sentiment from Stowe’s Hartford, Connecticut home.

“Jan[uar]y 22, 1885. Very Truly Yours, H.B. Stowe, 49 Forest St., Hartford, Conn.”

The card is lightly and evenly toned, with a few superficial stains.

American Abolitionist Writer – Authored “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

Signed Gold-Edged Card, 2 ¾” x 3 ¾”, with date and sentiment from her Hartford, Connecticut home.

“Truly Yours, H.B. Stowe, 49 Forest St., Hartford, Conn., Jan[uar]y 26, 1885.”

The card is lightly and evenly toned, with surface loss along the upper and lower edges, presumably from past mounting, and there are old glue stains on the reverse.

American Poet & Abolitionist Newspaper Editor

A longtime associate of Henry Ward Beecher, Tilton filed charges against Beecher for “criminal intimacy” with his (Tilton’s) wife in 1874.

Signed Card, 2 ¼” x 3 ½”, “Truly yours, Theodore Tilton.”

The card is lightly toned and soiled and has a light diagonal crease in the lower left corner.

Bavarian-Born Political Cartoonist & Caricaturist

A dentist by vocation, Volck supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. He savaged President Lincoln and the Union cause in political cartoons, acted as a courier for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and smuggled goods for the Confederate Army.

Autograph Document Signed, 4 ¼” x 7”, Baltimore, Maryland, April 26, 1878, “A.J. Volck,” a partly printed receipt for $37 on Volck’s Baltimore dental practice, received from a Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Neville; also fully accomplished by Volck, thus bearing a second signature in the heading.

The receipt is lightly and evenly toned, with light vertical folds.

Union Major General – Indiana; Governor of New Mexico Territory – 1878-81

Wallace served in the West at Ft. Donelson and Shiloh, was transferred east with Grant to encounter Jubal Early at Monocacy River in 1864, and was president of the court-martial which tried and condemned Andersonville Commandant Henry Wirz. He served as post-war Governor of the New Mexico Territory and U.S. Minister to Turkey. He is also remembered for writing Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Signature, “Lew. Wallace,” on a 2” x 4 ¼” portion of an album page.

African-American Educator, Author & Political Leader

Letter Signed, on 6” x 9 ½” imprinted stationery of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. As school principal, Washington solicits a contribution to help pay the students’ tuition.

“Tuskegee, Ala[bama], Jan[uary] 17, 1901. Mrs. E.C. Hammer, B. Hotel Alexander, Boston, Mass[achusetts]. Dear Madam, I write thinking that you might like to take some interest in our work. Our students pay their own board partly in cash and partly in labor, but are wholly unable to pay their tuition in addition. Any sum, however small, will help us. The enclosed circular gives definite information. Yours truly, Booker T. Washington, Principal.”

The letter is lightly and evenly toned, with two horizontal folds and a few stains.

African-American Educator, Author & Political Leader; First President of Tuskegee University

Signed Card, 2” x 3 ½”, from the institute Washington helped establish in 1881.

“Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Alabama, Oct[ober] 30, 1908.”

A light ink smear above the “W” detracts very little, and there are old mounting remnants on the reverse.

Served in the Confederate Army under General Nathan Bedford Forrest; Democratic U.S. Congressman – Kentucky - 1876-77; American Journalist & Editor

Signed Card, 2 ½” x 4 ¼”, “Henry Watterson.”