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Lot 38
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CSA ex Pres Jeff Davis slams Reconstruction & Blacks holding political office
CSA ex Pres Jeff Davis slams Reconstruction & Blacks holding political office
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Description:

Writing from England, less than two weeks before Andrew Johnson granted him amnesty, Jefferson Davis criticizes Congressional Reconstruction and the Freedman's' bureau: "The letters I have received from home give a gloomy account of the state of affairs there, but that was to be expected as one of the consequences of a political canvass among the negroes..."

JEFFERSON DAVIS (1808-1889)Fine content Autograph Letter Signed, "Jeffn Davis," and again, "J.D.," in postscript, 4 pages, 5.25" x 8", Dormer House, Leamington, [England], December 10, 1868 to James Spence in Liverpool. Light creases, expertly laid into a larger sheet, else fine.

Davis writes, in full: "We think of leaving here in the early part of next week, for London. Though the weather had been unfavorable we have seen many of the objects of historical interest hereabouts and have found a residence here quite pleasant. The society is good and the Libraries acceptable and sufficiently supplied with interesting books. My family here have been generally well, though just now my elder daughter is suffering from a sprained ankle, the injury is however so slight that I hope she will be well in a few days. A friend in London expects me to stand sponsor for his child, and proposes to have the ceremony performed on Christmas day, very soon thereafter, if not before, I expect to go to France, in search of a cheaper though I cannot hope to find a more pleasant residence. The mails have brought me nothing from counsel in regard to the action of the court upon my case, and the newspaper statement that it was postponed until the May term is all which is known to me. The letters I have received from home give a gloomy account of the state of affairs there, but that was to be expected as one of the consequences of a political canvass among the negroes. The law in regard to the Freedman's bureau limits its existence to the current month, if it is not extended by additional legislation, there will soon be an abatement of one of the evils, perhaps the most potent in preventing an efficient labor system. I trust the expanded operations of your commercial house have rough corresponding profits, and I am glad that it is also to bring a diminution of your office toil. We often speak it is I hope needless to add affectionately, of yourself and family. I trust there may be in store for us many days of companionship, under circumstances less painful to me and mine. Mrs. Davis joins me in kindest remembrance to Mrs. Spence and all the young folks, as well as to yourself, and I remain ever very respectfully and truly yours..."

"P.S. I enclose in a form [not present] to serve as a memorandum a request for a remittance. I should have asked you how it would be most agreeable to you for me to draw upon you Please suggest for my future guidance the mode preferable to you."

After his release from Fortress Monroe on $100,000 bail which was posted by a number of prominent citizens (including Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Gerrit Smith), Davis travelled to Montreal to join his family. Davis remained in Quebec until 1868 when he travelled with his family to Europe where he found himself the object of intense interest from the elites of both Great Britain and France. On December 25, 1868, Andrew Johnson granted Davis amnesty, removing the threat of a trial for treason.

The recipient, James Spence, was one of the most prominent merchants in Liverpool—which was, in light of its deep commercial roots in the cotton trade, the most sympathetic to southern interests during the Civil War. At the outbreak of the war, Spence authored a highly-influential defense of the Confederacy, The American Union, which (incorrectly) blamed southern secession on the Morrill Tariff. Even Charles Dickens was swayed by Spence's arguments, so much that he repeated many of his arguments in the pages of the magazine, All the Year Round," writing that the tariff had "severed the last threads which bound the North and South together." In October 1864, Spence organized an enormous charity bazaar in Liverpool to aid the Southern Prisoners Relief Fund. The event featured booths representing each state; Virginia's featured portraits of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, while South Carolina's displayed crosses made from the wood of Fort Sumter. In all, the event raised more than £20,000. However when, the head of the Southern Independence Association of London begged permission for agents to visit federal prison camps to deliver the aid, they were rebuffed by U.S. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams. While it is unclear what became of the monies raised, some of it was used to aid Confederate refugees who arrived in Great Britain at the close of the war. The funds to which Davis refers in his postscript to Spence may have been from the same pool of money as well.

From the library of John Augustin Daly (1838-1899). Daly, one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century American theater, worked as a critic, manager, playwright and stage director. At the time of his death, he owned two major theaters, one in New York and the other in London. Daly is considered personally responsible for the careers of such acting greats as John Drew Jr. Maurice Barrymore, Fanny Davenport, Maude Adams, Sara Jewett, Isadora Duncan, Tyrone Power, Sr. and many others.

Daly was also an avid book lover and collector, amassing an enormous library of books and original manuscripts. That collection was dispersed in an epic, two-week auction at the American Art Association in New York in March 1900. The present letter was part of an extra-illustrated volume, described in the catalog as a "Unique copy, with autograph letters of all the Presidents inserted..." Walter Benjamin, writing in The Collector, described the sale as a "blaze of glory, due to the total having reached nearly $200,000." Benjamin attributed the sale's incredible success to "a small bookseller on 42d street, who appeared at the sale with apparently unlimited cash, and was soon the master of the situation." That "small bookseller," was George D. Smith (d. 1920), who, up until that time, had been an obscure and unsuccessful book dealer who began his career in 1883 with Dodd & Mead. Smith would dominate the market for the next two decades, working as an agent for some of the wealthiest collectors in the country—most notably Henry E. Huntington, for whom Smith purchased a portion of the Duke of Devonshire Library in 1914 for $1.5 million (American Art Association, Catalogue of the Valuable Literary and Art Property Gathered by the Late Augustin Daly, New York, 1900; The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2; Publisher's Weekly, March 13, 1920, 801; Ibid, March 21, 1914, 1008; "Geo. D. Smith Dies in HIs Book Store," New York Times, March 5, 1928, 13).

The extra-illustrated volume of presidents from which this piece derives fetched $850, nearly four times above the going rate for presidential sets at the time. According to Walter Benjamin, Smith quickly resold the volume for $1,000. The collection did not surface again until it appeared in a minor auction in early 2016. (The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2)

Provenance: John Augustin Daly; American Art Association, New York, March 19, 1900, Lot 3122; George D. Smith, New York.

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