July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
Original war-date manuscript poem, entitled: "Sic Semper Tyrannis by Mrs. Fanny Downing." 3-1/4pp. quarto, and reads in part: "…Sic Semper Tyrannis! We will whisper it low; While the hearts in our bosoms exultingly glow/ As we think of the time in its sure coming course,/ We will prove it by deeds with a terrible force./ Not the we of the ages, We shall pass from our pain./ See the bonds of Virginia, are sundered on twain;/ Yet the day when her children will free her shall dawn,/ Just as surely as earth on her orbit rolls on!…" VG. The author of this poem, Fanny Downing, a daughter of Virginia who was born in Portsmouth, Va. Her father was John W. Murdaugh, a noted lawyer of Virginia and she married Charles W. Downing, then Secretary of State for Florida. In 1862, while a refugee with kindred in Charlotte, N. C., she assisted Gen. D. H. Hill in the publication of his magazine, "The Land We Love." Possibly this is her original manuscript copy of her famous poem that was later published in 1869.
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