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TO COL. WILLIAM GURNEY COMADANT [sic] OF THE POST OF CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA. THE PETITION OF B.D. ROPER WHO HAS TAKEN THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE

Roper, Benjamin D.

TO COL. WILLIAM GURNEY COMADANT [sic] OF THE POST OF CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA. THE PETITION OF B.D. ROPER WHO HAS TAKEN THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE, A RESIDENT OF THE CITY OF CHARLESTON, & A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH THAT YOUR PETITIONER IS OWNER OF A SO. CAROLINA BOND ISSUED BEFORE THE WAR AMOUNTING TO $325. THAT YOUR PETITIONER IS IN WANT OF FOOD & CLOTHING. THAT GEORGE W. WILLIAMS IS WILLING TO PURCHASE THE SAID BOND TO RELIEVE THE NECESSATIVES OF YOUR PETITIONER, IF HE IS PERMITTED TO DO SO, & YOUR PETITIONER PRAYS PERMISSION TO SELL THE SAID BOND TO G.W. WILLIAMS, & YOUR PETITIONER WILL EVER PRAY &C. B.D. ROPER

Charleston, S.C.: 1865

$600

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Single sheet of pale blue, lined paper, 8" x 12-1/2." Very Good. Entirely in ink manuscript. Dated at the bottom of the recto, "Charleston SC May 4, 1865." The document was written a few weeks after Appomattox. Gurney, commanding the Post of Charleston, organized the 127 New York Regiment in 1862. Despite a distinguished war record, Gurney is primarily remembered for a conflict with Stephen Swalls, "the first African American soldier promoted to commissioned rank. . . During the siege of Charleston, "Swails' application to muster as a 2nd Lieutenant with the regiment was refused by the War Department. The reason given was 'Lieutenant Swails' African descent.' Colonel William Gurney, the post commander, ordered Swails to remove his officer's uniform and reassume duties as an enlisted man" [Wikipedia article on Swalls] The order was eventually reversed. After Roper signs his loyalty oath, the endorsement of John Phillips is written: "I certify that I have long known intimately [sic] Benjamin D. Roper Esq the Petitioner. Mr. Roper was always a Union man and opposed to Secession. He never in any manner whatsoever aided the Rebellion." Docketed on the verso: "The Petition of B.D. Roper praying perm to sell a bond." With the approval note of Gurney: "Head Quarters City of Charleston | Charleston SC | May 5 1865 | Respectfully returned | Approved | Wm Gurney | Col. 127 NY | Commdg Post."

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AN ADDRESS, ON THE CHARACTER AND OBJECTS OF SCIENCE: AND, ESPECIALLY, THE INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON THE SCIENCE AND LITERATURE, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, OF PROTESTANT NATIONS: DELIVERED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ON WEDNESDAY THE 9TH OF MAY, BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH-CAROLINA

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THE EPISTLE FROM THE YEARLY-MEETING IN LONDON, HELD BY ADJOURNMENTS, FROM THE 15TH OF THE FIFTH MONTH 1780, TO THE 20TH OF THE SAME, INCLUSIVE. TO THE QUARTERLY AND MONTHLY MEETINGS OF FRIENDS AND BRETHREN IN GREAT-BRITAIN, IRELAND, AND ELSEWHERE. DEAR FRIENDS AND BRETHREN.

Society of Friends 4pp, folded folio leaf. Caption title [as issued]. Old horizontal folds, with short separation along margins at one fold [no loss]. Rubberstamp in blank portion of page 4, releasing the document from HSP. Good+. Signed in type by William Bleckly, Clerk to the Meeting, on page 4. Reviews of the Meetings of Friends in America indicate that, "The just and charitable endeavors of friends on that continent have so happily succeeded, that the slavery of the poor negroes is nearly put an end to amongst them, and has greatly decreased amongst those of other professions." The Meeting optimistically assesses progress of Quakers in America and on the status of Slavery in the northern American colonies. This is the American imprint, with the title letter 'L' [in 'London'] directly beneath the 'A' in 'Yearly', and the word 'London' 82 millimeters long rather than 109 millimeters. AAS, which does not own this imprint, says it is "A line-by-line copy of the London edition (ESTC T102626), but set in a completely different font. See, ESTC W41887 and T102626. According to ESTC this imprint is held only at the Library Company. Not in Evans, Bristol, Shipton, or at AAS.

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PETITION TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

[Bibb, George M.] 12pp. Disbound with caption title, as issued. Uniformly toned, scattered light to moderate foxing, upper blank corner of first leaf torn. Signed in type at the end. Good+. George Bibb is the first of nine "undersigned counsellors and attorneys at law, admitted as practitioners in the court of the United States, for the seventh Circuit and Kentucky district." John J. Crittenden [Governor, U.S. Senator, U.S. Attorney General] is among the signers. They offer suggestions to improve the administration of the Supreme, Circuit, and Kentucky courts. Docketing schedules require Judges "to adjourn the Supreme Court, to attend the circuits, leaving from sixty to seventy cases on the docket uncalled. . . Very many of the cases now on docket have been standing there for eight years untried." Additionally, circuit-riding requirements place unreasonable travel burdens on the Judges. Six states "are without the benefit of the circuit system. In those six states the opinion of the single District Judge is final and without appeal" in many cases. Bibb and his colleagues also criticize the use of Supreme Court judges to determine circuit court cases. Other aspects of federal court jurisdiction and the provisions of the Judiciary Act are carefully examined and analyzed. Not in Cohen, Sabin, American Imprints, Coleman. OCLC 1304165511 [4- Yale, Dayton, Queens U, CA W Law], 40333397 [Trinity, Notre Dame, Boston Ath.], 1322267290 [1- NY Soc. Lib.] as of April 2024.

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AUTOGRAPHS FOR FREEDOM. BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, AND THIRTY-FIVE OTHER EMINENT WRITERS

[Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society] Original cloth [some loss to spine cloth]. Illustration frontis ["The Altar of Liberty, or 1776"]. viii, 192 pp, plus full-page plates following pages 24 ["Sheltering an Outcast Slave"], 38 ["The Hunted Slave"], 44 ["Slave Auction"], 76 ["Interior of a Coffee-House at Damascus"], 100 ["The Altar of ---, or 1850"], 110 ["Frederick Douglass and the Hotel Clerk"], 148 ["A Slave Gang on Their Way to Market"]. Clean text. Good+. This first British edition, issuing in the same year as the first American edition, is a collection of anti-slavery essays, poems, and other writings, each with the author's facsimile autograph. The book prints Frederick Douglass's only work of fiction, "The Heroic Slave," based on the 1841 revolt of the slave ship Creole. Other prominent contributors include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Horace Mann, John G. Whittier, Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner, Gerrit Smith, William H. Seward; and three other African American authors: William G. Allen, James M. Smith, and James M. Whitfield, The Preface is by Julia Griffiths, Secretary of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. Her Preface to the American Edition, also published in 1853, advises that proceeds from the book's sales "will be devoted to the dissemination of light and truth on the subject of slavery throughout the country." The Preface to the English edition is also printed. FIRST BRITISH EDITION. Blockson 9204. BAL 21781 [Whittier]. II Wright 1033 [Douglass].

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FRANKLIN PIERCE’S LETTER TO JEFF. DAVIS

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Gordon, William 37, [1 blank] pp, but lacking the half title and final blank. Stitched. Inscription on verso of final blank, : "the gift of Dr. W. Gordon / to g. Woods march 17th 1786." Several text corrections in ink, probably by Gordon himself. Light foxing and wear. Good+. This is the first July 4 Oration commemorating the Declaration of Independence. Gordon "was a vigorous partisan of independence and in 1775 was made chaplain to both houses of the Provincial Congress assembled at Watertown. Congress possessed great confidence in him and voted him a good horse and access to the prisoners of war.He delivered the first independence anniversary sermon on July 4, 1777" [DAB]. Later he would write the "first full-scale history of this war by an American" [Howes]. Likening Americans to the Hebrews of biblical times, he emphasizes that "the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was from the Lord. And it is upon that principle alone that we can rationally account for the seperation [sic] that hath taken place between the united States of America and Great-Britain." Gordon stresses the justice of the American cause, and "recollects that we were without an army, without money and without ammunition, we are amazed, that instead of being galled to the bone with the yoke of slavery, we are keeping the anniversary of our independency!" FIRST EDITION. Evans 15317. Rosenbach 69. Singerman 0053.

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THE GUILLOTINA, OR A DEMOCRATIC DIRGE, A POEM. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE “DEMOCRATIAD.”

[Hopkins, Lemuel] 14pp, lacking the bookseller advertisement at page [15]. Else Very Good in modern half brown morocco with gilt-lettered spine title. Hopkins pours out his wrath upon his enemies, the Democrats, who are no longer fellow-countrymen but traitors. "By the time Lemuel Hopkins published The Guillotina, or, a Democratic Dirge in 1796, the French Revolution, Whiskey Rebellion, and Jay's Treaty had tightened the battle lines between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, now characterized as protectors of domestic tranquility, on the one hand, and threats to Constitutional unity on the other. The epigraph on the title page of The Guillotina calls Democrats traitors and accuses them of bribery and sedition." [Lee, Republican Rhymes: Constitutional Controversy and the Democratization of the Verse Satire, 1786-1799. Studies in American Humor. 1988, New Series 2, Vol. 6, SPECIAL SECTION: HUMOR IN AMERICAN POETRY (1988), pp. 30-39.] Evans 30591. Wegelin 205. Gaines, William Cobbett 177.

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JOURNAL OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BEING THE FIRST SESSION OF THE SECOND CONGRESS, BEGUN AND HELD AT THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER 24TH, 1791; AND IN THE SIXTEENTH YEAR OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SAID UNITED STATES

Senate, Second Congress Folio. 228pp [last page numbered '224', as issued]. Original calf [short separations at upper and lower corners of front board; hinge starting], raised spine bands, gilt-lettered morocco spine label. A clean and bright text with only minor occasional foxing. Very Good plus. Inscribed in ink on front free endpaper: "The Speaker of the House of Representatives Connecticut. recd August 8th 1792." With the initials [probably] of Thomas Seymour. "First edition, first issue of the rare journal containing numerous messages from Pres. Washington.official ratification[s] of the Bill of Rights, the Presidential Succession Act debate and passage, the establishment of the U.S. mint and coinage, the first militia act, and foundation Northwest Territory Acts." [Jenkins]. State-by-State ratifications of the proposed Bill of Rights are reported at pages 11 [Pennsylvania], 30 and 69 [Virginia], and 98 [Vermont], with a Table of ratifications at page 217. President Washington's opening Message reports rapid subscriptions to the new Bank of the United States and focuses on "the defense and security of the Western Frontiers." He urges an Indian policy "corresponding with the mild principles of religion and philanthropy towards an unenlightened race of men;" recommends establishing postal services, a Mint to cure "disorders in the existing currency," and a "uniformity in the weights and measures of the Country." Yeas and nays are recorded on a variety of important bills which are printed in the Journal, with various amendments as they wend their way toward final approval or rejection. These include bills establishing the Mint [including explicit instructions on the coins to be struck], Post Offices and Post Roads, the militia, public lands, weights and measures, appropriations, fisheries, protection of the frontiers, judicial procedures. Additionally, the results of the first census, with accompanying apportionment of representatives, are printed and debated. Vice President Adams's Report on the reduction of the public debt is printed, as are many other significant matters. FIRST EDITION. Evans 24911. III Jenkins 505.

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