Raynors 2012-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/27/2012
Late antebellum letter by D. H. Beardsley, 3pp., 8vo, Cleveland, Ohio, January 6, 1861, to Representative John Carey, likely Washington, D. C., reading, in part, "…Our present beneficent Constitution was framed in 1787, but was not adopted by the States so as to go into operation until 1789. In this latter year I was born. Is it possible that I am doomed to survive the Constitution of my country? It looks like it. I will say to you and the other rulers of the Country, save the constitution and Union if possible; but by all means avert civil war, If the Cotton States must go (and no future event is more certain, in my opinion, than that they will go) let them go in peace. To force them to stay, if this were possible, will cost more that it is worth. It will be hard to conquer them; and when conquered it will be still harder to govern them. Can you force them to elect Senators and representatives to our Congress? No, Sir. They must be held as conquered provinces, and will require a standing army of 100,000 to keep them in subjection…but, I instruct you, save the country, if possible, from the misery and horrors of a civil war. You plan of saving the Union, that is, by a spontaneous uprising of the people, is well, if practicable. But I think it is not. The people need a popular and gifted leader…If we had not had for president an imbecile, I might, perhaps say a traitorous old man, a mere tool of the secessionists, the evil might have been averted. Look at our southern forts and arsenals; all given into the hand of the traitors without the semblance of resistance, except in one instance; and in that case it appeared the commanding officer violated a secret treaty made by the administration with the secessionists…The conspirators of whom Buchanan is one, will have placed the affairs of government in such a fix that….not even Washington could save the country, much less can Lincoln, our Worthy president elect…." Very good condition with trivial splits at the folds.
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