Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams June 19th

- By Bruce McKinney

Lot 3181 Timothy Newell, Boston Selectman and revolutionary war diarist

Book auctions have been for some time on an unfamiliar trajectory, arcing toward the ever-evolving nexus of old material, new tastes and evolving methodology.  This is not a world our Grandfathers would recognize but it is no doubt one they would like.  The evidence of change is everywhere but today’s dose of this new reality comes across my desk from Bonham’s, a 451-lot auction in New York of Fine Books & Manuscripts including Russian Literature on the 19th.  A look at this catalogue gives the sense of distant rails far into the future coming together while three hundred years of seller lists, broadsides, simple catalogues giving way to larger and more complex presentations, first just words, then illustrated, later in color and now electronic in increasingly florid presentations – remind us we are only midway on the path to collecting redefined.   Book collecting is what it becomes rather than what it has been and this catalogue with many images and complex descriptions provides evidence the transition continues.  The best catalogues today, be they dealer or auction catalogues, make their case for an offer to buy or a bid.

In the Bonhams sale there is, in addition to the catalogue’s implied statement on the state of the field, some wonderful material to consider.

If money is no object we’ll look at a gem.

3168

LINCOLN EXERTS EXECUTIVE CONTROL OVER AMNESTY AND, BY EXTENSION, RECONSTRUCTION.

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. 1809-1865.

Autograph Manuscript, DRAFT PROCLAMATION RESERVING FOR THE PRESIDENT THE RIGHT TO GRANT AMNESTY TO CONFEDERATE PRISONERS, Signed in the text "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States," 1¼ pages recto and verso, legal folio (350 x 210 mm), after December 8, 1863 and before March 26, 1864, on blue-lined paper, 22 lines to the page (THE SAME PAPER USED FOR THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, THE 1864 ELECTION VICTORY SPEECH, AND THE LAST ADDRESS). Horizontal folds, few very minor smudges including the edge of a fingerprint, faint shadow near center fold on left edge, a little residue from album hinge on verso, small printed caption pasted to head ("President Lincoln"), overall fine and fresh condition.

Provenance: [Robert Todd Lincoln—presumed gift to] Mary Ford, née Molesworth; by descent in the Molesworth family of Pencarrow for over a century; sold at auction to the current owner (Pencarrow Collection of Autograph Manuscripts, Sotheby's, December 8, 1999, lot 137).

Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams June 19th

- By Bruce McKinney

Lot 3168. [Lincoln] Draft Proclamation Granting Amnesty to Confederate Prisoners

Presidential power to grant amnesty was an important aspect of Lincoln's effort to control Reconstruction in general. Lincoln never deviated from the theory that secession was illegal and that Southern states remained in the Union despite the temporary takeover of their governments by rebels. Together with the 10%-plan, the second major tenet of the December 8 Proclamation, whereby a State could elect Federal representatives with only 10% of the voting population acceding to the loyalty oath, Lincoln acted to restore both property and franchise to Southerners with as few stipulations as possible. Some radical Congressman, however, led by Thaddeus Stevens, insisted that Southern states had forfeited all their rights prior to secession and would have little more legal status than conquered nations. "What Lincoln well understood, but did not acknowledge, was that the 'metaphysical question' of reconstruction theories concealed a power struggle between Congress and the Executive over control of the process. If the southern states had reverted to the status of territories, Congress had the right to frame the terms of their readmission under its constitutional authority to govern territories and admit new states. If, on the other hand, the states were indestructible and secession was the act of individuals, the president had the power to prescribe the terms of restoration under his constitutional authority to suppress insurrection and to grant pardons and amnesty" (Macpherson Battle Cry of Freedom p 700). Lincoln must have been mindful of this when he penned the present manuscript. He was not only proffering the olive branch to individual Confederate prisoners of war but also giving evidence of his personally conservative and forgiving attitude to Reconstruction. Of course, he never had the chance to fully implement and develop this position in policy before his assassination.

The existence of this important draft was unknown for well over a century, as was generally all the material collected by Mary Ford [1816-1910] in the late 19th century and held at her family's seat in Cornwall until it was sold by Sotheby's in 1999. How she obtained the present manuscript is unrecorded; it was certainly a non sequitur amongst a collection focusing on important European literary and musical manuscripts. The most likely path seems to be directly from Robert Todd Lincoln. Robert Todd Lincoln, the only child of the Lincoln's to survive into adulthood, was the custodian of his father's papers after the assassination. He is known to have given away a few manuscripts as gifts, including the manuscript of the 1864 election victory speech (on the same paper as the present manuscript) and also including diplomatic gifts. As Mary Ford's family was prominent and politically active it seems likely that their paths would have crossed in the years that Robert Lincoln was U.S. Minister to England, 1889-1893—a period during which Mary Ford was collecting.

Estimate:

US$ 200,000 - 300,000

Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams June 19th

- By Bruce McKinney

The statistical history of America is frequently at odds with the conventional wisdom of what America was and was becoming.  This is an important item.

For the collector of China and America’s connection to it there are 4 lots bearing the bookplate of W. W. Rockhill, diplomat and author of various books on China and Indochina in the 1880s and 1890s.  These lots are 3236, 3243, 3244, and 3268.  He himself was author of “Journey through Mongolia and Tibet,” an account written for the Smithsonian and published in 1894.

Another item to be carefully considered is 3181, The Revolutionary War Journal of Timothy Newell and written beginning April 19th, 1775 and concluding March 16th, 1776.  Mr. Newell served as Selectman for the City of Boston at various times and was witness to many of the storied events in and around Boston at the beginning of the American Revolution.  Adding complexity and interest to this lot is a painting of him that is attributed to Henry Sargent.

3181

REVOLUTIONARY WAR JOURNAL.

"OUR PEOPLE BEHAVED WITH THE UTMOST BRAVERY."

Manuscript Diary of Timothy Newell, 22 pp recto and verso, 8vo (158 x 95 mm), [Boston], dated April 19, 1775 to March 16, 1776, with frequent insertions and amendments. Nearly unstitched, first and last leaves a little edgeworn affecting a few letters, fol 4 with a closed tear, generally very good.

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR JOURNAL OF A BOSTON SELECTMAN COVERING THE COMPLETE PERIOD OF THE SIEGE OF BOSTON AND INCLUDING A DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.

The Boston Board of Selectmen (usually 7 men) was the governing body of the town of Boston through the colonial period till 1822. Timothy Newell was Selectman for six years: in 1767 and 1768 at the time of the Townshend Acts and the first arrival of British troops; and also from 1772 to 1775, witnessing the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, etc. John Hancock was a fellow Selectman for all the years in which Newell served. Newell was also a deacon of Brattle Street Church. His entries appear to be written somewhat after the events and so consolidate information. Newell was a moderate. He remained in Boston and did not join the Provisional Congress at Lexington as Hancock and Samuel Adams did at this juncture. However, his journal does show the bias of a patriot, for example in exaggerating the disadvantage that Revolutionary troops ("our people") had at the Battle of Bunker Hill and in his mounting hostility towards General Gage and his men. Boston was the first city to experience action in the Revolutionary War and this account by a prominent citizen is an invaluable primary resource. A few excerpts are as follows. The complete transcript—nearly all of which relates specifically to the siege, cannonade, and skirmishes with the Provincials, and no other matters—is available on request.