November 2018 Auction Ends Thursday, November 8th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/8/2018
Interesting autograph letter signed by former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, in response to an ''infamous assault'' made on him by General William Tecumseh Sherman. Dated 6 November 1884 from Beauvoir, Mississippi, Davis responds to a speech that Sherman made in which he accused Davis of not only secession, but conspiracy. An excerpt from the speech reads, ''...I have seen letters that few others have seen, and have heard conversations that cannot be repeated, and I tell you that Jeff. Davis never was a secessionist. He was a conspirator. He did not care for separation from the United States. His object was to get a fulcrum from which to operate against the United States, and if he had succeeded he would to-day be the master spirit of the continent and you [Northern citizens] would be slaves...'' After reading this speech, published in the St. Louis Republican, Davis writes to his friend, Thomas Reynolds, former Confederate governor of Missouri during the Civil War: ''...The infamous assault which, by published report, Genl Sherman recently made upon me has seemed to me to require a very pointed retort and I have therefore addressed the enclosed letter to the Editor of the St. Louis Republican, but as I have not the presence of his personal acquaintance it may be that he would not be disposed to insert it unless presented by someone with whom he was acquainted. Will you therefore do me the favor to send, or hand it to him so that the notice of Sherman's speech may go out through the same channel which bore the slander...Jefferson Davis''. Two page letter on a single sheet measures 5'' x 8''. Mr. Reynolds apparently gave the letter to the Editor, as docketing regarding its receipt appears on the verso. In very good condition, with interesting post-Civil War content as the country sought to understand and lay blame for the devastating war.
Jefferson Davis Autograph Letter Signed in Response to General William Sherman Calling Him a Conspirator -- ''...Sherman's speech...which bore the slander...''
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