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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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Civil War Material from the William Reese Company - By Michael Stillman The Civil War. The William Reese Company has published their Bulletin 28: The Civil War. This is a selection of 32 items pertaining to that awful intramural skirmish, a terrible price paid to save the Union and rid it of the greatest stain on its character – slavery. Surely, there must have been a better way to accomplish this necessary goal, but unfortunately, cooler heads did not prevail. This collection includes books, maps, illustrations, manuscript letters and drawings, certificates, archives, and broadsides. Here are a few of these. Item 32 is a rare copy of the final draft of the Confederate Constitution. We don't often think of such issues during the middle of war, but the constitutional laws and protections of the United States went out the window as far as the Confederate government was concerned. They had to quickly draft their own version, which was mostly based on that of the United States. There were some differences. This Constitution does more to protect the sovereignty of the individual states vis-a-vis the confederate government. It prohibits the use of federal funds for making internal improvements to facilitate commerce, other than certain small exceptions pertaining to rivers and harbors. It also prohibits taxes on foreign goods to promote any branch of industry, a tip of the hat to southern resentment of tariffs supported by the North to protect northern industry. The Confederate Constitution provided for a single, six-year term for the President. However, the major differences, as one would expect, pertain to slavery. Its immutable character is clearly spelled out. It states that no “law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed,” that the property right in slaves shall not be impaired by traveling to a different state, and all new states that join the Confederacy must permit slavery. It specifies “negro slavery,” “negro slaves,” and “negroes of the African race,” racial specificity not made in the U.S. Constitution, just to be clear. One hundred copies of this final draft were authorized to be printed, but only five copies are known today. Priced at $175,000. Item 4 is an archive of manuscript material of a prominent early Texan, George Washington Smyth. Smyth went to Texas and worked as a land surveyor for Mexican authorities. However, he later joined up with those seeking independence for Texas. Smyth was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was involved in writing the state constitution, and supported union with the United States. During the 1850s he served one term as a Congressman but declined to seek reelection. Smyth, like Sam Houston, was a strong opponent of secession, and among the items here is a manuscript copy of a speech he gave on July 4, 1860, expressing his opposition. He believed secession to be illegal. However, after Texas seceded the following year, he did support the Confederacy. $15,000.
Civil War Material from the William Reese Company - By Michael Stillman A slave sale at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation. Item 29 offers another archive, and a most interesting one from near the end of the Civil War. It pertains to the unsuccessful Hampton Roads Peace Conference. At the suggestion of Horace Greeley and others, leaders from the North and South got together on a boat off of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on February 3, 1865. Representing the Union was President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward. For the Confederacy, there was Vice-President Alexander Stephens, Virginia Senator Robert Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell. Lincoln and Stephens conversed about old times, they both having been Whigs before that party broke apart in the early 1850s. However, the conference was doomed from the start. The Confederates were not authorized to accept anything that did not recognize Confederate sovereignty, and Lincoln would not accept anything that recognized the southern states as anything other than a part of the Union. They talked for four hours, and Lincoln offered compensation to slave owners in return for the South voluntarily accepting emancipation, but the issue of southern independence made these other questions moot. After the four hours of discussions, the parties broke up, and the war continued, though it would only last a little over two months longer before the South was compelled to surrender. They would have been better off accepting the terms offered, as the war's outcome was virtually assured by this time. Among these documents is Campbell's handwritten report, an important document since it was agreed that no official notes would be taken. $100,000. This next item could be an example of business as usual in the Civil War South, or alternatively, a case of denial. It is a broadside announcement of an Administrator's Sale! Land & Negroes. The sale was scheduled for the first Tuesday in December 1862. Offered was 640 acres of land on the Oostanaula River, five miles west of Calhoun, Georgia. No details are provided about the slaves. Any buyer would have had to have had a lot of confidence in a southern victory to buy slaves at this point. President Lincoln has issued the Emancipation Proclamation the previous September 22, and it was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 1863 in all states then in rebellion against the Union. In less than a month, those slaves would be free, at least under federal law, though so long as the Confederacy could hold out, they would remain de facto property. Item 16. $4,750. The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.

Civil War Material from the William Reese Company

- By Michael Stillman

The Civil War.

The William Reese Company has published their Bulletin 28: The Civil War. This is a selection of 32 items pertaining to that awful intramural skirmish, a terrible price paid to save the Union and rid it of the greatest stain on its character – slavery. Surely, there must have been a better way to accomplish this necessary goal, but unfortunately, cooler heads did not prevail. This collection includes books, maps, illustrations, manuscript letters and drawings, certificates, archives, and broadsides. Here are a few of these.

Item 32 is a rare copy of the final draft of the Confederate Constitution. We don't often think of such issues during the middle of war, but the constitutional laws and protections of the United States went out the window as far as the Confederate government was concerned. They had to quickly draft their own version, which was mostly based on that of the United States. There were some differences. This Constitution does more to protect the sovereignty of the individual states vis-a-vis the confederate government. It prohibits the use of federal funds for making internal improvements to facilitate commerce, other than certain small exceptions pertaining to rivers and harbors. It also prohibits taxes on foreign goods to promote any branch of industry, a tip of the hat to southern resentment of tariffs supported by the North to protect northern industry. The Confederate Constitution provided for a single, six-year term for the President. However, the major differences, as one would expect, pertain to slavery. Its immutable character is clearly spelled out. It states that no “law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed,” that the property right in slaves shall not be impaired by traveling to a different state, and all new states that join the Confederacy must permit slavery. It specifies “negro slavery,” “negro slaves,” and “negroes of the African race,” racial specificity not made in the U.S. Constitution, just to be clear. One hundred copies of this final draft were authorized to be printed, but only five copies are known today. Priced at $175,000.

Item 4 is an archive of manuscript material of a prominent early Texan, George Washington Smyth. Smyth went to Texas and worked as a land surveyor for Mexican authorities. However, he later joined up with those seeking independence for Texas. Smyth was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was involved in writing the state constitution, and supported union with the United States. During the 1850s he served one term as a Congressman but declined to seek reelection. Smyth, like Sam Houston, was a strong opponent of secession, and among the items here is a manuscript copy of a speech he gave on July 4, 1860, expressing his opposition. He believed secession to be illegal. However, after Texas seceded the following year, he did support the Confederacy. $15,000.

Civil War Material from the William Reese Company

- By Michael Stillman

A slave sale at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Item 29 offers another archive, and a most interesting one from near the end of the Civil War. It pertains to the unsuccessful Hampton Roads Peace Conference. At the suggestion of Horace Greeley and others, leaders from the North and South got together on a boat off of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on February 3, 1865. Representing the Union was President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward. For the Confederacy, there was Vice-President Alexander Stephens, Virginia Senator Robert Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell. Lincoln and Stephens conversed about old times, they both having been Whigs before that party broke apart in the early 1850s. However, the conference was doomed from the start. The Confederates were not authorized to accept anything that did not recognize Confederate sovereignty, and Lincoln would not accept anything that recognized the southern states as anything other than a part of the Union. They talked for four hours, and Lincoln offered compensation to slave owners in return for the South voluntarily accepting emancipation, but the issue of southern independence made these other questions moot. After the four hours of discussions, the parties broke up, and the war continued, though it would only last a little over two months longer before the South was compelled to surrender. They would have been better off accepting the terms offered, as the war's outcome was virtually assured by this time. Among these documents is Campbell's handwritten report, an important document since it was agreed that no official notes would be taken. $100,000.

This next item could be an example of business as usual in the Civil War South, or alternatively, a case of denial. It is a broadside announcement of an Administrator's Sale! Land & Negroes. The sale was scheduled for the first Tuesday in December 1862. Offered was 640 acres of land on the Oostanaula River, five miles west of Calhoun, Georgia. No details are provided about the slaves. Any buyer would have had to have had a lot of confidence in a southern victory to buy slaves at this point. President Lincoln has issued the Emancipation Proclamation the previous September 22, and it was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 1863 in all states then in rebellion against the Union. In less than a month, those slaves would be free, at least under federal law, though so long as the Confederacy could hold out, they would remain de facto property. Item 16. $4,750.

The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.