ALS, one page both sides, 4.5 x 7, May 8, 1888. Two months after leaving the White House, Cleveland sends thanks to former Confederate General Joseph R. Anderson regarding sending a highly controversial book on slavery. In full: “Accept my thanks for Mr. Bruce’s book which you kindly sent me. I have not yet read it entirely through but it seems to me that the subject of which it treats is handled by the author with great intelligence, and that my imperfect perusal of it lends me to think that the writer intends at least to be just and fair.” Several horizontal folds, one passing through Cleveland’s name, scattered light toning, and Cleveland’s name printed in an unknown hand beneath his signature, otherwise fine condition.
The book, which was written by Virginian historian Alexander Bruce, is entitled "he Plantation Negro As Freeman. The book’s main premise was that slavery had in fact benefited Negroes, and they would eventually revert to barbarism due to the fact they had been freed. Bruce's book was a popular gift in the South, and many former proponents of the Confederacy, such as Jefferson Davis, strongly endorsed the book. General Anderson, who was famous as the owner of the Tredegar Iron Company during the Civil War, sent the book to President Cleveland just two months after Cleveland had finished his first term as President. Rather than condemning the book, President Cleveland seems to provide faint praise for it.
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