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Racist, Anti Roosevelt Drawing and Note
RACISM. [THEODORE ROOSEVELT], Drawing. 1p, 5 x 6¼ in.
NYPD Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt Argues the Police Entrance Exam Keeps "Blockheads" Off the Force
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Typed Letter Signed as New York City Police Commissioner, to W.C. Sanger, defending the police entrance exam, February 5, 1897, New York, N.Y. On "Police Department of the City of New York" stationery. 8 pp., 8 x 10½ x ¼ in.
Theodore Roosevelt, as New York City Police Commissioner, defends his reforms, including his implementation of an entrance exam for candidates, a year before his victory in the gubernatorial election. "We have appointed sixteen hundred patrolmen under these examinations ... If they were strong, hardy young fellows of good character and fair intelligence they got their appointments. As a whole, they form the finest body of recruits that have ever been added to the New York police force."
Roosevelt Recognizes Attributes of "brave and honorable" Legislator in Battle over the Reorganization of the NYPD (SOLD)
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Typed Letter Signed, May 16, 1895
Just ten days into his impactful two-year stint as President of the Board of Police Commissioners, Roosevelt attempts to shape the complex debate over competing reform proposals in the state legislature. In part due to Roosevelt's advocacy, and veteran upstate legislator D.A. Ainsworth's reversal of positions, the "Supplemental Re-Organization Bill," granting autocratic powers to longtime Police Chief Thomas Byrnes, was defeated. "Only a brave and honorable man will frankly and openly revise his action, when he receives trustworthy information that the measure is not what it seemed to him to be…"
Item #21878, SOLD — please inquire about other items
Counting the Vote in 1876 – Florida's First Election Fiasco
ELECTIONS, Two pamphlets and three documents relating to the disputed presidential election of 1876. 1876-1877.
The 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden came down to a dispute over Florida's electoral votes. These pamphlets and documents include official signed copies of key Florida court and executive decisions. From the papers of Edward Louden Parris, an attorney for Tilden, who ended up losing in the "Compromise of 1877."
Item #21857.04, $1,450
Discontent with Gilded Age Presidential Politics
and the Influence of "the negro vote"
WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE, Autograph Letter Signed, to Henry Anthony. Newport [R.I.], November 25, 1872. 4 pp.
A detailed, despairing letter on campaign politics after the reelection of Ulysses S. Grant. Lawrence observes the humiliating defeat of Democrats and "Liberal Republicans" – who united behind Horace Greeley because of corruption in the Grant administration – in the Election of 1872. Lawrence laments the elevation of personality over merit and virtue in elections, an observation which resonates today. He also expresses concern about how newly enfranchised African Americans tended to vote. "The negroes are naturally disposed to support those who are in power & whom they invest with superior dignity, on account of the possession of power. …the extraordinary denouement of the Cincinnati Convention has placed in bold relief the mode most unsatisfactory to an intelligent people, by which party conventions are constituted & which are readily made, the instruments of the vilest partisan combinations, carried on by men without character & without principle."
Washington Attorney and Inventor Writes to Arms Manufacturer about Andrew Johnson's Impeachment
[ANDREW JOHNSON]. CLIFFORD ARRICK, Autograph Letter Signed, to James T. Ames, March 2, 1868, Washington, D.C. On U.S. House of Representatives stationery. 5 pp., 5 x 8 in.
"Our Convention having gone off half cocked, after the nomination of the noble Abraham we had nothing else to do, but endorse what they did, and adopt this modern bogus 'Moses.'"
"The infliction of Andy upon us was after all a probable God Send. Mr Lincoln would have adapted himself to events probably, and his noble heart would have stopped far short of what is now, as inevitable as death."
Written on March 2, 1868, the day the House of Representatives approved the first nine articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, this letter reflects on the responsibility for his 1864 nomination as vice presidential candidate and the villainy of his rule, and expresses the hope that African American voters would yet save the nation. Congressman Arrick apparently did not count on Johnson's acquittal.
Alexander Hamilton's Son Thanks U.S. Senator for Report that Leads to President Johnson's Impeachment
JOHN C. HAMILTON, Autograph Letter Signed, to Jacob M. Howard, January 11, 1868, New York. 2 pp., 5 x 7⅞ in.
In this fascinating letter, Alexander Hamilton's son thanks U.S. Senator Jacob M. Howard for his report on President Andrew Johnson's attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. That attempt and the refusal of the Senate to endorse it led the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach Johnson just six weeks after Hamilton wrote this letter.
John Hamilton also jokingly refers to Howard's thinly veiled criticism of Thomas Jefferson, whom Hamilton characterizes as the "Machiavel of the U States." Italian Renaissance man Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote The Prince (1513, published 1532) in which he commends an amoral expediency in the ruthless exercise of power, exactly the view the younger Hamilton held of Jefferson. Hamilton also commends his father's plan for funding the nation's Revolutionary War debt as a model for funding the Civil War debt.
Pierce Urges His Young Nephew Studying at Princeton:
"Do Not for a Day Relax Your Labor"
FRANKLIN PIERCE, Autograph Letter Signed to Frank H. Pierce, his nephew. Concord, N.H., September 6, 1866. 2 pp.
Former President Franklin Pierce worries that young Frank Pierce – like most undergraduates – is occupying himself with things other than his studies at Princeton.
Edwin Stanton ALS Prelude to Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
EDWIN M. STANTON, Autograph Letter Signed as secretary of war, to Major General Henry W. Halleck on War Department letterhead. Washington, D.C. April 26, 1866. 2 pp., 7¾ x 9¾ in.
"I am still tugging at the oar as hopelessly & almost as painfully as a galley slave"
Lincoln Pushes for Arkansas Without Slavery
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Autograph Letter Signed as President, to Frederick Steele. Washington, D.C., January 27, 1864. 1 p., 7¾ x 9¾ in. On Executive Mansion stationery.
After announcing his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on December 8, 1863, Lincoln paid close attention to two Arkansas groups both aiming for reunion. Here, the president is concerned about potential conflicts with his plan, but in the end, both plans coincided in the key detail of ending slavery.
"The Excursion of the Bought Nominations"
Showing Balloon "Union League"
[CIVIL WAR], Broadside, "The Excursion of the Bought Nominations, The Large Balloon 'Union League,' Will Start Immediately. The Balloon is managed by the Old Hunkers in the Ring." [1864]. 4 ¾ x 8 ½ in.
Abraham Lincoln Introduces Ulysses S. Grant's Superintendent of Freed Slaves to the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission
Abraham Lincoln, Autograph Letter Signed as President, to Robert Dale Owen, July 22, 1863, Washington, D.C. On Executive Mansion stationery. 1 p., 5 x 8 in.
"Mr John Eaton Jr. … having had charge of the freed-men … comes to me highly recommended by Gen. Grant, as you know, & also by Judge Swayne[1]of the U. S. Supreme Court.
On July 22, 1862, exactly a year before he wrote this letter, Lincoln read a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, agreeing to Stanton's advice to hold it back until the Union could claim a military victory. On September 22, after the Battle of Antietam, he issued a Preliminary Proclamation, stating that enslaved people in any areas still in rebellion would be freed, and that freed men would be welcomed into the armed forces of the United States. Once Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, Secretary of War Edward Stanton worked to create a federal system to support freed slaves, and allow them to most effectively support the Union.
Item #26470, $110,000
Very Rare and Possibly Unique Political Print of Abraham Lincoln
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN]. GABRIEL KAEHRLE, Print. "Abraham Lincoln," with excerpt from First Inaugural Address, ca. 1861-1864. 9¾ x 12 in.
An unusual and possibly unique Lincoln portrait above patriotic banners and a quotation from his first inaugural address.