Abijah Beckwith papers, 1847-1977.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Abijah Beckwith papers, 1847-1977.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/63934131

A combined notebook and scrapbook, kept by Beckwith for his grandson and namesake, contains his handwritten histories of himself and his forefathers, including his account of soldiering at Sackett's Harbor in the War of 1812; political opinions, including a long essay entitled "Our Nation, Slavery: Its Worst Evil," describing slavery in the United States, the public attitude towards the Fugitive Slave Law, and national excitement over the Compromises of 1820 and 1850 and documenting Beckwith's predictions that slavery must inevitably decline and that the South would be defeated in the event of a Civil War; autographs and comments of state legislators and executives; and didactic poems selected and copied by Beckwith. In addition, there are mounted items including family correspondence and two undated letters from Francis Elias Spinner; press clippings, 1845-1875, among which are Beckwith's remarks in the Assembly on capital punishment and aid to schools, his letters to newspapers opposing a state-supported college of agriculture and the mechanic arts, the Maine Law, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, voter registry and temperance laws and the Know-Nothings, and a letter urging the use of force in the South Carolina secession crisis of 1860; the printed proceedings of the New York State Electoral College of 1860 on which Beckwith sat; obituaries; scrapbook; and reminiscences. Also, "The Descendants of Abijah Beckwith and Lurena Chadwick," compiled by Grace W. Brown, 1977.

.4 cubic ft.

Cornell University Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7904640

Cornell University Library

Related Entities

There are 3 Entities related to this resource.

Spinner, Francis Elias, 1802-1890

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rb7gn2 (person)

Spinner was born in German Flats, New York. He worked in banking, then entered politics as a deputy sheriff. In 1834 he became a major-general in the New York state militia; from 1845 to 1849 he was auditor of the Port of New York. From 1855 to 1861 Spinner served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and was appointed as Treasurer of the United States in 1861, a post he resigned in 1875. From the description of Papers, 1890. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat...

Brown, Grace W., 1912-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hf56md (person)

Beckwith, Abijah, 1784-1874.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vb5m45 (person)

New York State Assemblyman, 1817, 1823, 1847, and Senator, 1835-1839, local official, and farmer from Columbia, Herkimer County, N.Y. From the description of Abijah Beckwith papers, 1847-1977. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 63934131 ...