Gerrit Smith Collection an Intellectual History in His Own Words
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
De Simone Company, Booksellers _______________________________________________________________________________ 415 Seventh Street S.E., Washington, DC 20003 [email protected] (202) 578-4803 List 40, New Series Gerrit Smith Collection An Intellectual History in His Own Words Printed Letters, Discourses, Speeches and Sermons Gerrit Smith (1797-1874). A Collection of Thirty-Six Publications, mostly from the Press in Peterboro on the Political and Religious Movements in Mid-19th Century America. $ 4,500.00 Mostly bifolium and broadside publications measuring approximately 12 x 8 inches. Some previously folded but all very clean with no foxing or pencil markings. Excellent condition. This small but content heavy collection of printed material from Gerrit Smith’s printing press in Peterboro, New York is a treasure trove of information on the social movements of mid-19th century America. In the words of Gerrit Smith one finds the intellectual foundation of many of the arguments made by reformers on the subjects important to the day. The movements for land reform, woman’s rights, abolition, universal peace, capital punishment, debtor’s rights, Cuban independence, and temperance are just the most important issues that Smith addressed in these publications, and they contain the arguments that were used by those who followed him in the decades to come. Gerrit Smith was born in 1797, the son of Peter Smith, a partner with John Jacob Astor. Much of his wealth was invested in land in Upstate New York and upon his retirement, Gerrit became the master of thousands of acres of land and at a highpoint $ 80,000 income per annum. Gerrit was brought up in the Calvinist tradition and educated in Hamilton College. His education broadened his understanding of the conditions of mankind and as he aged he began to see Christianity in a universal light. Salvation was not based on predestined but on good works which benefitted the lives of his fellow man. As you will see from the items described in this collection, Gerrit Smith used his wealth and voice to address the issues of this day. The rigor he brought to his arguments challenged others to examine their own positions and as a result he made numerous enemies, even from allies in the movements he supported Reading these publications one comes away with an understanding of the nuance of the ideas Smith brought to his arguments and respect for his determination to express the need for justice, equality, and empathy in our relations with the people of this country. WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY SMITH AND A PROPERTY DEED SIGNED 1. Warranty deed for a parcel of land, between Gerrit Smith of Peterboro, Madison County and his wife, Ann Carroll Smith; and James Lyon of the village and county of Oswego. Oswego: May 26, 1837. Oblong pro-forma folio broadside. 13½ x 17inches. accomplished in ink. Previous folds with neat, professional repair on verso, some minor loss at the interstices, and the whole lightly toned; good or better. Broadside outlining the sale of "those certain pieces or parcels of land described as blocks numbers seventy-two and seventy-three in the village of East Oswego ... and also block number thirty-six, reference being had to a map of said village ... in the office of the Secretary of State..." for the sum of one thousand, one hundred dollars. Signed by all three parties to the transaction, the Smiths' signatures also with wax seals still intact. The verso with several dockets by M. W. Matthews, the clerk's office recorder, and O. W. Steele, commissioner of deeds.. Accompanied by a 2-page autograph letter signed. from Gerrit Smith to James Lyon, dated May 16, 1838, address panel and round stamp on integral leaf. Smith writes that he has just returned from New York "in a bad state of health, originating in a very severe cold. I find your letter enclosing your and Mrs. Lyon's deed, and also a writing signed by Mr. Fitzhugh. Be assured that it affords me great gratification to be an instrument of contributing relief of mind to those whom I respect as greatly as I do Mrs. Lyon and yourself ... Much as I shall lose in the property you convey to me, you lose still more in it - and difficult as it is for me to suffer losses in my present circumstances, it is still more difficult for you to suffer them. I accept the deed of Mrs. Lyon and yourself and I have caused an endorsement to be made on your bond..." WITH A MANUSCRIPT LETTER TO YALE PROFESSOR ALEXANDER TWINGING 2. Letter of Gerrit Smith to President Schmucker. Rev. S. S. Schmucker, President of the Theological Seminary, Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania. Peterboro, June 19, 1838. Bifolium 12 ¾ x 8 inches. Text printed on pages one and two. Previously folded, tears at folds and a bit fragile. WITH: Autograph Letter Signed by Gerrit Smith and dated Feb. 21, 1840 in ink on page three. The circular is addressed to Reverend Samuel Simon Schmucker, D.D., Professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg , also an abolitionist, who argued for the support of the American Colonization Society, as a moral way of ending slavery. In Smith’s letter he outlines his reasons, in a lengthy argument, for supporting the American Anti- Slavery Society instead of the American Colonization Society, although in the beginning he was a proponent of both. "If the Colonization Society had not come out against the doctrine of immediate emancipation, and inferentially against the doctrine of sinfulness of slavery, I should, in all probability have continued as a member of it." Smith advocated full emancipation and the ability of emancipated slaves to remain in this country as freemen. He cites other sources such as "a letter from a gentleman in Ohio" to show that the Colonization Society is the great hindrance in his region for arresting the progress of abolition. The hand written letter to Prof. Twining on a blank page of the circular reads in part, "I regret the state of my health does not allow me to make a suitable reply--I should love to extend a helping hand to Middlebury College: but immense liabilities for friends into which I imprudently entered put it out of my power-- indeed my total bankruptcy may be the consequence of those liabilities....With great regard, your friend, Gerrit Smith." SMITH’S MESSAGE ATTACKING COLONIZATION AS THE “SECOND BEST THING” 3. An Address. Reported by Gerrit Smith to the “Christian Union Convention” Held in Syracuse, August 21, 1838. Bifolium. 12 ½ x 8 ½ inches. 4 pp. Text printed on pages one and two. “Our age and country furnish another and very striking instance of the impolicy, as well as wickedness of taking up with a ‘second best thing’ in the stead and in guilty disparagement of a Heaven commanded ‘first best thing’. God requires the immediate and unqualified liberation of the millions of our enslaved countrymen. Now, but their murderous oppressors at the South and their scarcely less murderous enemies at the North exact the condition of the banishment of these afflicted brethren.” A NON-SECTARIAN MANIFESTO 4. Union of Christians. At a Meeting, Held in Peterboro, January 29th, 1841. 4to. 9 ¾ x 8 inches. Text printed on recto of first leaf only. Previously folded. Minutes of a meeting with resolutions to print 500 copies of the “3 Resolutions” passed by the Christian Union in December 1840 and January 1841 and posted and distributed throughout the town of Smithfield. The three resolutions referred to are first, that Bible does not condone the bifurcation of Christianity into sects or parties and denominations are ‘anti-scriptural and wicked’. Second, any Christian church that refuses ‘to receive into its fellowship’ any person admitted to be a Christian, is contrary to the Church of Jesus Christ. Third, a common Church would ‘take the place of the Methodists and Presbyterian and Baptists and other sects, which now divide and afflict and corrupt Zion’. AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL, NOT SECTARIAN CONTROL OF THE HOUSES OF WORSHIP 5. To the Christians of Peterboro and its Vicinity. Peterboro, February 25, 1842. Folio broadside. 13 x 8 inches. Note in pencil “Feb. 25, 1842/ 20 copies’. Previously folded. “The spirit of sectarianism is apt to run high, when the spirit of Christianity runs low. Accordingly it is not surprising, that we now hear of a plan to build a Methodist Meeting House in our Village . I say sectarianism is his own cause: -- for if sectarianism is not devilism, what is? If that, which makes Presbyterians and Baptists and Methodists the great props of American slavery, is not of the Devil – then nothing is.” TESTIMONY THAT ‘DRAM-DRINKING IS MORALLY WRONG’ 6. To the People of the Town of Smithfield: Peterboro, March 15, 1843. Folio sheet printed two sides. 12 ¼ x 8 inches. Previously folded. Praise for citizens of Smithfield who refused to elect to the Commission of Excise, men who were willing to license the sale of alcohol in their town. But illegal sales of alcohol continue in Smithtown and the law ‘has thus far proved impotent’. Citizens must redouble their efforts by the force of persuasion, not law, to influence those law breakers who manufacture and sell drams of alcohol. THE CREED AND RESOLUTIONS GOVERNING THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF PETERBORO 7. Church of Peterboro. [December 1843]. Bifolium. 12 ½ x 8 inches. Text printed on three pages. This appears to be the formal establishment of the Church of Peterboro with a written Creed of the Church and Resolutions of its incorporation. The written Creed reads in part, that we are “bound to recognize as a member of it every person within our territorial limits, who affords satisfactory evidence that he is a disciple and friend of Christ .