The uartoISSUED FOR THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATES

Western Civilization

THE CLEMENTS L IBRARY will eventually be therecipient of on e of the most exciting WesternAmericana coll ections to come on the market forsome time-the Al exander P. Crittenden Papers­of which there was a hint in the last Quart o.

A Kentu ckian, nephew of Sen ator J ohn J.Crittenden and first cousin of Civil Wa r generalson both sides of the conflict, he gra d uated fromWest Point in 1836, married a Virginia girl , andheaded for the T exas frontier. A decade later, hejoined an overl and expedition to California,where he became an early political leader, aleading advoca te of th e Confederacy, and even tu­ally the victim of a nati onally famous scandal­his murder at the hands of a jealous mistress in1870. The collection is in the safe keeping of th elibrary, but will not be available for resear ch forsome time.

One of the characteri stics of Crittenden fam­ily members at their be st is thoughtfulness andfelicity of expres sion. With the owner's permi s­sion, we quote a letter of A . P. Crittenden d atedApril 8, 1851 from Sacramento , de scribing tohi s wife back in Texas a recent excursion:

"Su tter's For t is onl y about two mil es fromtown. In company with Cornwall and hi s wifeI rode out last Sunday to gather mushrooms andflowers-a mixture of the useful and sentimentalwasn't it? \Ve took the road to the Fort and wentthrough i t. It is now aba ndoned and its old adobewall s will be in ruins before long. It was afamous place in the hi story of this country. Afrontier outpost-the property of a private in­dividual, who kept up someth ing of regal stateand treated with "Mexico Hke an mcmerem perten ta te, The great Republic became jealous ofhim and sent an army against him. They not onl yfailed to take him, but had to appeal to him torelieve them from starvation, offering to leavehim unmolested for the future. He sup plied theirwan ts and sent them away in peace.

NUMBER 1M, JUNE, 1982

UA few years ago this spot was almost out ofthe world . To form some idea how remote i t wasfrom civilization read Fremont's account of it.T he n think of th e cha nge. Instead of approach­ing th is pl ace by a des ola te and dangerous over­land route of months dura tion- alm ost unex­plored-or by a six-mon th's voyage around CapeH orn. I came to the vicinity the other day inon e of the most magn ificen t steamers that everf1oated-a pal ace- carpeted with finest Brussels­with cushions and armed chairs of crimson velve t- doors and panelwork of mah ogany-made glori­ous by all the ar ts of painting and gild ing. Ipassed through the old Fort in a splendidbarou che lin ed with satin-drawn by a pair offinel y matched bays-a turnou t then which nonemore elegant cou ld be found in the city of NewYork.

"T hen, inside the Fort , instead of the barrenprarie or pa tch of undergrow th, was a city-ofman y thousand inhabitan ts. There were themasts of vessels- the chimneys of steamers-out­side of the town, was a plain dotted with housesand farms. Man had chan ged the wh ole face ofna ture. This inaccessible place had been broughtnear to civilization, All its refinemen ts and lux­uries are now here .

"Yes, the Americans are a great peoplel Greatas discoverers-great as inventors-a moving, rest­less unquiet peoplel A people whose specialvoca tion is to explore and sett le wildern esses­to layout great cities and drive stakes, as I hearda man remark in the legis lature last year, 'wheremor tal foot never had trod and never wouldtread again!' A land robb ing people- a Christianpeople wh o paved th e way for the gospel andmorality wi th wh iskey, revo lvers, Bowie knives,cards and other queer and inappropriate rm ngs .A people wh o carry vice to extremes in order todisplay the beau ties of virtue. An Am ericanscoundral is the gre atest ruffian of th e world. Themo st degraded of all created things is an Ameri­can prostitute. . .. T he vast majori ty of womenin th is country are those who clearly do not fall

THE CLEMENT S LIBRARY ASSOCIATESof The U niversity of Michigan

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Appointed by th e Regents of th e University

Mrs. J ohn Alexander, A nn A rborMrs. Noyes L. Avery, Jr., Grand R apidsCarl W . Bonbright, Flin tEdward W. Bowen, Bay CityR obert P . Briggs, Elk RapidsMrs. Marga re t B. Ca meron, Ann ArborC. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., Bloomfield HillsBly Corning, FlintThomas N. Cross, Ann ArborD uane N. Diedrich, MuncieJ Ind .,

VICE CHAIRM AN

H arl an H . H atcher, Ann ArborPe ter N . Heydon, Ann ArborDr. Thomas C. Kingsley, A tlan ta, Ga.J ames M. Kl an cn ik, ChicagoJ ames S. Schoff, New YorkRoy M. Tolleson, J r. , DetroitMrs. David F. Upton, St. Joseph, CHAIRMANLee D . van Antwerp, Northbrook, II I.J ohn D . Wheeler, Bay CityJ ohn C. Dann, Director of the

Library, SECRETARY

within the class of respectable. and they are en­countered everywhere-on the streets-in all pub.lie houses- saloons- shows-theaters.

" It is on ly of late that lad ies- real veri ta bleladies- are becoming at all common. Socie tyhere has been in that cond ition to which it in­evitab ly comes when perfect license exists to do asone pleases without restraint from public opin­ion. N ow such an opinion is growing up in thiscountry. Now there is arising a distinction be­tween what is reputable and what is disrepu table.and in the course of a few years there wi ll be asmuch outward morality here as in any older State.But as yet it is no t so-and every day one meetswi th scenes to be encountered nowh ere else."

Custer's Cavalry

FOR T nRlLL'i and pagean try, no mili tary branchhas ever been able to match the cavalry. GeorgeW. Hunt joined the 15 th New York VolunteerCavalry in 1863. A year later his unit became p artof the 3d Division, command ed by Bri g. Gen .George Armstrong Custer. Hun t's memoir of thewar is a stirring tribute to Custer and a fine nar­rative of cavalry action.

In October, 1864, Phil Sher idan's Shenandoahcampaign was winding down, the troops with­drawing from the valley to join Gen eral Grant.But th e 3d Division was bein g harried by Con­federate cavalry, including a brigade under Gen.Thomas Lafayett e Rosser, Custer's erstwhilefriend and West Point classmate . At T om'sBrook , Virginia, the U n ion forces engaged theenemy in what the men la ter called the "w ood­stock Races,"

Hu nt recalled, "It was a magn ificent place fora cavalry light. There was roo m to deploy, smoothground to ride on; all the rail fences had long agovanished for soldiers' fires. . . . Out rode Custerfrom his staff, far in advance of the line, in pla inview of both armies. Sweeping off his broad­brimmed hat, he threw it down to his knee in aprofou nd salute to his foe .

"Custer repl aced h is h at, turned to hi s line ofmen and the next momen t the 3d Division wassweepi ng on at a trot, the flamin g neck tie andbr igh t cu rl s of Custe r before all, followed by hi sstaff, all swords out. Now the pace q uicke ns . Therebel guns open at shorter range , bullets andsh ells whi stling over the heads of the men .. . .T he trot becomes a gallop, a wild yell fro m th elin e and they go racing across the interveningspace with waving sabres, the horses wild withexcitement as they race for the rebel batteries: '

Hunt's two wartim e diaries, as well as hi s 70­page memoir, were recentl y purchased by theClem en ts Li bra ry.

Associates Purchases

AT THEIR MEETING ON M AY I I , the Board ofGovernors of the Clemen ts Library Associatespurchased a diverse selection of printed andmanuscrip t items for the permanen t coll ection .

T he mos t timely, in ligh t of a visit to thelibrary in la te June by the Q ueen of Holland,was a collection of thirteen Du tch pamphlets re­latin g to America . Two date from the 1660's,when the Dutch held sway along both the Hud­son and Dela ware Ri vers, the remaind er from the

Revol u tionary W ar period when th eir financialsupport and diplomatic recognition gave invalu­able strength to the American cause. Of th ethirteen titles, th ree seem to be unique to Ameri­can libraries, six others in but one lo cation.

The mo st intriguing item pu rchased by th eBoard is of similar rari ty, loca ted a t but a sing lelibrary in the Na tiona l U n ion Ca tal og. an d th erein varian t-for m. III 1803, Thomas She ra ton beganpublishing, in p arts, Th e Cabinet Maker, Uphol­sterer, and Gen eral Artist's Encyclopaedia, al­though he com pleted but a por tion of it beforehe died. It is, to say the least, a strange publica­tion. combining encyclopedia tex t h aving no th­in g to do with cabinet work an d technical de­scrip tions of furn itu re designs. accompanied bystr iking h and-colored pl ates. Our copy has a" prel imina ry" subscr ip tion list but no ti tlepageand 50 colored furniture engravings .

She raton's la ter design s were un iforml y cri t i­cized by earl ier a rt hi stor ians for departin g fromh is early simplicity and incorporating styles ofthe Fren ch Em pire. Thanks to such places asW in rerhu r and Antiqu es l\lagazirzc, we now havea far gre a ter apprecia t ion of Empire fu rniture.and wh at looked gr otesque a genera tion ago isnow appreciated on its own terms, \Ve a lso knowto w hat a n exte nt wealth)', self-co nsci o us Amcr i­

cans crav ed th e latest European styles, acce p tingtrends more uncritically, perhaps, than Euro­peans. Sheraton's book almost cer ta inly waskn own to im migrant cra ftsmen of the time, Itis a most captivat ing add it ion to our growingcollecti on on the decorative ar ts.

Benjamin Church wrote the most importantand read able acco unt of King Ph ilip's W ar. W ehave long possessed the scarce first edition (Bos­ton, 1716) an d several lat er reprints, but n ot thesecond, printed in New port in 1772. It is withdelight th at we were provided one by the Asso­cia tes, hecause it conta ins two of Paul Revere'sengravings: a portrait of Chu rch and a marvelousportrait of Kin g Philip. Neither of th e subjects,both long de ceased when Revere execu ted th eco pper pla tes, are likely to have had the sligh t­est re semblance to their "liken esses," but theyare among the more important prints of th efu tu re patriot, and the book is quite scarce .

T wo of the purchases are excep tiona l forthei r beauty. Bowles' Universal D isplay of theNava l Flags of all N ations (London, 1783) con­tains exq u isi te hand-cclored copper en gravingsof th e world's flags . The newest en try into th ecomm un i ty of nations, th e equ ivalen t of a Third

World N ation of today, is th e U nited States, andOld Glory is here introduced to th e Old W orldfor th e first time in li vin g color. In 1810 , ThomasC. Millington published a h andsome colored lith­ograph of William and Mary College . Most of theolder colleges had been represented in engravingsby th is date, but this is the first large-scale view ofour second oldest institu tion of hi gh er education .It has par ticular im portance, because th e original"Wren Building" por trayed here was twic eburned in th e Civil W ar er a.

T wo purchases added to our strong holdingson the mi d-western fron tier of the late eigh ­teenth cen tury. W ith th e papers of J osiahHarmar and Anthony ' '''ayne. we are one ofthe mos t important repositories docu menting theIndian fronti er of the 1790's in Ohio, Michigan,and Indian a . In th e period be tween the com­mands of these two genera ls. Arthur St. Cl airexer cised control of U .S. for ces in the N orthwestand we have but sca tte red documenta tion of thisperiod, 1790-95. The Boa rd p urchased a lengthyletter dated 1831 of J acob Slaugh, lieutenantunder St. Cl air, descr ib in g first -hand the defeatof U.S . troo ps in 179 I. T hey also secu red th eexceedi ngly scarce first print ing of Th e R em ark ­able Adven tures of Jackson Johonnet (Boston ,17 9 3) , the acco u n t o f a so ld ie r und er Har m ar

and St. Clair who had the mi sfortune to be cap­tured by the Indians.

For decades, the library has very selectivelyadded Confed erate im prin ts to the colle ct ion andhas also assid uously built u pon our strong hold­ings on slavery and the an tislavery movement.Charles Colcock Jones' R eligious In struction ofthe N egroes (Au gusta, Georgia, 1861), one of th eminority of Co nfederate publications with realconten t, was too impor tant to pass u p.

The final item selec ted by th e Board, we arenot ashamed to adm it , is an ou tr ight scand al!Scandalous in character, a t least, because theyacq u ired for u s vol umes on e and two of Th eNat iona l Police Gazette (New York, 1815-17).T he progenitor in a lon g trad ition of sensationaljou rnalism, it was n ot the kind of publicationsubscribed to by circu la t ing libraries and is re­ported in only three collections today. In addi­tion to lu rid woodcut s of pi ckpockets and rnur­de rers and remarkably comple te records of thepro ceedings of criminal cour ts, i t con ta ins first­ra te western Ameri cana .

The library extends its deepest thanks to theBoard and to the Associates in general, whosegene rous support makes such purchases possible.

Sir Henry Strachey's Papers

COLLECTING MANUSCRIPTS is often a matter ofpatience and perseverence, a willingness to keeplooking and questioning. The Clements recentlypicked up the trail of a collection of Britishmanuscripts which Randolph G. Adams, theLibrary's first director, examined in 1929. Thepapers of Sir Henry Strachey, a British states­man involved in both the Howe Peace Commis­sian in 1776 and negotiations ending the Revolu­tionary War, have been a tantalizing, elusivebody of manuscripts.

The papers first came to public attention inthe late 19th century when they were still in thepossession of Baron Strachie at Sutton Court.The Historical Manuscripts Commission pre­pared a calendar which indicated an impressiveamount of material relating to the AmericanRevolution. Today, the location of much of thismaterial remains a mystery. Adams was shownonly a portion of it in 1929; none of the Ameri­can items were with the Strachey family paperswhen they were deposited at the Somerset RecordOffice in 1943. Since then three small lots haveappeared at Sotheby's auctions, in 1921, 1967 and1981. Each time the Clements was able to buyimportant American items, in the last two in­stances through the generosity of the Associates.

Contemporaries described Sir Henry Stracheyas a man of unusual ability, intelligence andintegrity. The son of an impoverished SomersetCounty family, he began his public career assecretary to Clive in 1764, and spent the nextdecade in India. During this time he developeda close personal relationship with the Governor,and assumed a large share of the administrativeduties when Clive's health began to fail. Strachey'sadministrative talent made him a logical choiceas secretary to the Peace Commission in 1776.The French ambassador to London, commentingon the abortive mission, noted that Strachey was"a man of merit" but Lord Howe was "verymuddled."

Strachey's political career was remarkable byeighteenth century standards. His skill as a "manof business" in the House of Commons allowedhim to rise above the usual factions . He sup­ported the North administration's war againstAmerica, yet was a valuable member of Shel­burne's liberal administration during the Parispeace negotiations in 1782-3.

Strachey was also a devoted husband andamong the letters we recently acquired was a

lengthy, amusing account, written for his wifeJane, describing life in Philadelphia during thewinter of 1778. Strachey was particularly takenby the American ritual of "tea drinkings," where"the young lady who makes and dispenses thatfavorite liquor thinks herself a very eminent per­sonage. The table is decorated with many morecups than are necessary, and a silver kitchen com­pletes the ornamental part of the repast. But thisis nothing, unless the presiding goddess has atleast one beau next to her, who pays his wholeadoration to her alone. If he wishes to be thoughtgallant, he must stick to her and be in hot waterduring the ceremony which is never of shortduration."

During his two years in America Strachey hadinvested in plantations in South Carolina andFlorida. A large portion of the newly purchasedmanuscripts relate to the management of theseestates. Like many other absentee landlords,Strachey found himself constantly embroiled infinancial difficulties over crops, slaves, and lessthan honest managers. The papers contain docu­ments for a string of lawsuits involving the slavetrade and offer valuable evidence about how thatdreadful business was conducted on an Americanplantation in the 1790·s.

Whether Stradley is commenting on politics,social manners or his own finances, he is an astuteobserver, and the manuscript record which he leftis well worth pursuit.

Donations

Two INTERESTING GIFTS, a book and a manu­script, have been received from Associate PeterFrantz of Bay City. The manuscript is an auto­graph letter of the British admiral, RichardHowe, written in 1767, recommending a friend'sson for the Navy. The book, in an early tooledbinding, is a sixteenth century collection ofdescriptions of appearances of the Virgin Mary,and includes references to Pigafetta, Magellan'scompanion, and Columbus. We are grateful to1\-Ir. Frantz for his thoughtfulness.

The Ann Arbor Book Society, which wasformed in 1980 and has held several meetingsin the Clements Library, has presented theLibrary with two items. One is a rare sermon byCotton Mather, published in Boston in 1713. Theother, an early Confederate imprint, was pub­lished in Charleston, S.C., in 1861, and descibesthe bombardment of Fort Sumter. Our thanks goto the members of the Society for these gifts.