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Lot #145
Horace Greeley Autograph Letter Signed on Slavery and the Civil War: "God grant that we be near its end!"

"There was never on earth before so wicked and wanton a war as that waged upon our country by the Slaveholding Rebels"

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Estimate: $200+
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Description

"There was never on earth before so wicked and wanton a war as that waged upon our country by the Slaveholding Rebels"

Founder and editor of the New York Tribune (1811-1872) who used the power of his newspaper to advocate for a variety of liberal causes, most importantly the call for emancipation of slaves during the Civil War. ALS, one page both sides, 5 x 8, Office of the Tribune letterhead, February 8, 1863. Handwritten letter to William H. Grigsby, in part: "I do not quite understand how you would have the Tribune sent to you but I shall try to comply with your wishes. As to the war, I believe there was never on earth before so wicked and wanton a war as that waged upon our country by the Slaveholding Rebels, and I think they ought to be permanently, resolutely, utterly subdued. I believe to that they may be if our people will only try. If not—if the Democrats and Pro-Slavery men insist on opposing, embarrassing, and obstructing the war as they have done for some months past. I believe in letting them break down the country and holding them to a just responsibility therefor. And I think it will be idle for half the people of the loyal States to undertake to crush the Rebellion if the other half refuse to help and do their best to defeat them such are my notions of peace and war. I do not ask how they accord with yours. But in Peace or War, in the Union or out of it, I must always be the deadly enemy of that accursed system which makes one more the owner of another man's wife and children. God grant that we be near its end!" In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Greeley's own hand. Spectacular content from Greeley, making plain his ardently abolitionist stance amidst the Civil War.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autograph and Artifacts Featuring Animation
  • Dates: #688 - Ended March 13, 2024





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