1839–1846 Correspondence of the Jennings Family, with Many from the Jennings Women Discussing the Elite Political and Social Circles of the Expanding South and West, Including the Fall of George Campbell Childress and the Personal Life of Henry A. Wise.
Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and others: 1839–1846. Thirty-seven letters. Conditions vary; see description for full condition information. Item #BK0001 A collection of thirty-seven letters, written between 1839 and 1843 primarily by the women of the Jennings family, whose marriages, friendships, and social positions placed them within a remarkable political circle. With a family network that included Henry A. Wise and the ill-fated Texas revolutionary George Childress, and acquaintances ranging from James K. Polk to Ashbel Smith and John Catron, the writers are in close quarters with the elite of social and political life of the antebellum South and West. Generally centered around politically contested Nashville, to which much of the family had moved from Philadelphia, the writers describe the spectacle of Whig-Democratic contests and mass gatherings which “seem as if they never were to end”; “old friend” and “devoted” father Wise; Childress’s enthusiastic return from Texas despite Sam Houston’s “humbug”, and the eventual collapse of his finances and prospects; and the future of St. Louis, “soon [to] become the most important city in America off the seaboard”. The women judge politicians both politically and socially, speculate on marriages and prospects, watch mass meetings and rallies, and record the fortunes of their relatives and friends with candor. As the family’s orbit shifts westward, St. Louis arises as a promising social and commercial locus, giving a broader view of the networks connecting the older South to the developing cities and territories beyond it. Both Childress and Wise were married into the family: Childress to Rebecca Stuart Jennings and Wise to Ann Elizabeth Jennings, who had died in 1837. Childress appears as a constant worry to the family. While they report on his great enthusiasm for Texas (and his private opinion that Sam Houston is “the greatest ‘Humbug’ of the age”), they also express fears first that Childress would move his family to Texas for good; then, as Childress’s career began to deteriorate, that he would be unable to support Rebecca and their children. Just under three months before Childress’s suicide in Galveston, eldest brother Thomas Read Jennings writes to his mother Ann: “In strict confidence I inform you that I have made up [my] mind to the conclusion that Rebecca and her children will be thrown on my hands. Mr Childress has wasted all the property which he owned at the time of his marriage and I fear has not the habits that will ever insure him success in his profession. His family is now and has been for several months [dependent] on me and as he is in Galveston with means that must be very limited and without what I can believe is a good prospect for pursuing what will be necessary for the comfort and respectability of Rebecca I am unwilling (too) that she should yet leave me. [...] The talk which impudent people report to her respecting Mr Childress insolvency and dissipation keeps her constantly in a state of mortification and despondency. [...]” (August 31, 1841) Wise, by contrast, is a close and beloved friend, especially to Sarah Jennings, who writes him intimate, gossipy letters, even reprimanding him for “showing my letter to Ma” instead of “burn[ing] it immediately on reading” before discussing her response to Wise’s question of “if ‘I ever thought of marrying a man I didn’t love’”. Sarah Jennings also corresponds with Wise’s relative (possibly sister) Sarah Wise, who is no less politically tuned in; she reports her distaste for the “rather much Democracy” in Pennsylvania, where “One man, thinks himself as good as another So he but has the Dollars, cents &&&—”. In fact, politics and ordinary gossip cross-pollinate throughout the collection—inevitably, as the politicians in question are often family or close friends. Rebecca Childress writes to Sarah Jennings that their sister, Mary Stuart Morgan, “ought not to invite Mrs. Catron to her house again” as “she is a vindictive woman” who had taken a dislike to “Reed” (possibly Thomas Read Jennings) because he “spoke freely of Judge Catron’s pressures.” Supreme Court Justice John Catron was Rebecca’s brother-in-law, married to her husband’s sister Matilda Childress. Rebecca continues, reporting that anti-abolitionist politician Dr. Ashbel Smith would “approach to your [...] ideal of a lover” and was “the most brilliant fascinating man”, and that Tennessee Supreme Court Justice William B. Turley “drinks very hard and is as fond of looking at a pretty woman as ever and of eating a good dinner”. Thomas Jennings himself attempts a political career as a Whig; Sarah Jennings writes to Henry Wise that he “is as warm a party man as you ever could wish” and that his “first effort at stump speaking” was “highly complimented.” The family were connected to the broader political scene as well, not just to that of their relatives. Several members and friends resided at an unnamed hotel in Nashville, from which they keenly observed—and to the extent afforded to them as women, partook in—the city’s political happenings. For instance, friend Elizabeth Stevenson writes to Sarah Jennings: “Gen Jackson and Col Polk – or I should say Gov Polk live at the Hotel. The Col was invited to the Theatre last evening, and altho I had just returned from my full travels I went along in Mrs Polks place, she being a good presbiterian [sic]. The Theatre was brilliantly illuminated and all dressed with [?] and flowers or Eagles &c &c the house and street in front was crowded to see his excellency, the delighted ‘democrats’ raised such a shout that I thought the very earth was coming down. [...] The democrats are carrying on the Legislature entirely after their own notion, as you know they have so large a majority, we have just heard from the elections at Baltimore and Gen Polk looks all smiles [...]”. (October 14, 1839) In another letter Stevenson describes the hotel “crowded with Whigs”, to whom “your dear Brother [Thomas Jennings] is a great man [...] They expect him to do everything in the Legislature”. Another unidentified friend in Nashville describes the city’s 1840 Whig convention, which included speeches from Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, “our friend” Balie Peyton, and others: “The procession all came just past our door — and it really did begin to seem as if they never were to end — One company of the Military after another, each with their respective flags and Mottos making in all a splendid exibition [sic] of enthusiastic [freemen?] — The yeomanry of some of the out countys forming a strong contrast, especially the Wilson County company of delegates — all to a man I believe in home-spun clothes — As they passed us each company would say some little thing in compliment to the Ladies, which was a considerable source of amusement to me.” (September 18, [1840]) The letters also record emigration of Easterners to the South and West. From Nashville, Elizabeth Stevenson remarks that “all of our old Phila beaux are here” alongside “a number of Philadelphians [...] that I never knew before”; and later that “allmost everyone [in Nashville] is either dead or married or broke or – runoff to Texas.” Sarah Jennings’ future husband Harrison McKay plans to move with her to St. Louis, writing that he is ”completely charmed with all my prospects” there and does “not doubt being perfectly happy” surrounded by “so many clever people”, especially comparing the “refinement” of St. Louis with “the excessive formality of the old eastern cities.” Though Rebecca Childress remarks that “it [is] very doubtful” that Mary Morgan’s husband Franklin Henry Morgan “will leave Phila.”, a later letter from Mary Morgan tells Sarah “not [to] be surprised to see us all this Fall in St Louis”. Taken together, the letters provide a vivid picture of antebellum political and social life as it was experienced within a closely connected family network—in particular, from the perspectives of well-connected women who, though excluded from formal political participation, nonetheless were in proximity to political power and observing matters closely. The Jennings were firsthand witnesses to the ambitions of Childress and Wise, but even figures more incidental to the family such as John Catron, Ashbel Smith, Balie Peyton, and William Turley appear as subjects of correspondence between people who knew them personally. The letters consequently capture political life from an unusual angle, illuminating these figures’ private reputations and opinions, alongside the effects of politics on personal and family matters, as the US shifted and expanded, sometimes uncomfortably, before the Civil War. Red Sulphur Springs, Virginia: July 16, [1838]. Three-page letter. Folded with a few slightly larger holes along folds though generally legible. Very good plus. Jennings’s sister Mary Morgan describes her tour of several Virginia mineral springs—White Sulphur, Salt Sulphur, and Red Sulphur—and compares the scenery, accommodations, and clientele. White Sulphur is “most enchanting” but “deadly deficient in comforts”, though it is “the great point of attraction for the gay and fashionable.” Salt Sulphur is disappointing in appearance, “the least interesting in point of situation”, but has “good fare and every comfort that can be procured”; while Red Sulphur is “the most pleasant of any in the mountains” and “a most romantic spot” then hosting “from fifty to a hundred persons”. However, she complains that hot springs “are only resorted to by invalids of the worst kind.” By this period many of the medicinal springs in Virginia had transformed from remote, inaccessible destinations for those desperate for better health into major resorts for high society. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: February 12, [1839]. Four-page letter. Some very small holes, inkblots, and a few stains. Excellent. Ann reports that Mary Morgan is bedbound and recuperating in a boarding house, where “you never saw her looking better”. She states of Henry Wise: “Mr. Wise called here on his way to N York, and I am now working for him on his [?] I think he appears satisfied that I have the care of the children, speaks of taking them down with him when Congress adjourns and [sending?] them back with little Ann in a month[.] Report says he is placed with a Miss Gardiner of Alexandria a very young lady and without fortune – I do not know where he could take a wife in the eastern [?]. [...] Mr. Wise came the evening before last & left this morning – Dr Reed came in to the City the evening & [hosted?] up here to see Mr W they met as old friends and the Doctor enquired most particularly for Thomas Mr Wise says he wonders you do not answer his letter.” Of the Childresses, she states: “I wrote to dear Rebecca since I came to this house I hope she will write to me soon when she has pen in hand [...] I hope Mr Childress will arrange his business so as not to be obliged to go to Texas.” 1839 marked Childress’s second unsuccessful attempt to return to Texas and establish a law practice; Ann Jennings hopes that he simply settles down, likely in his home city of Nashville, instead. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: February 24, [1839]. Three-page letter. Folded, some staining, small tears with one larger hole and tear at seal, though generally legible. Excellent. Mary Morgan reports on Henry Wise’s visit, George Childress away in Texas, and tentative plans of her own to move westward: “I hope ere this Mr Childress has returned as I know Bee [Rebecca] must be very anxious whilst he is in Texas. I do wish they may give up this matter of going to Texas to reside. I cannot but entertain the hope that our homes will not be so far asunder, but that we may meet at least once or twice during the year. Franklin is already anticipating a removal to the west and thinks something of a residence near Lexington so then if Bee remains in Nashville and Reed continues there and Mama and Ellen will of course accompany us and you must make it a sine qua non with your [?] man that he will not take you to Red River or Texas we may all be united again. Mr Wise was here on his return from New York he still appears devoted to his children. They are the most affectionate children I have ever seen. [...] Henry I think was your favourite, as he is every one else’s – he had the impudence to ask his father when here last, if he was ‘going to marry another woman’ Mama was present and the question led Mr Wise to observe that he had not seen a woman that he thought of admiring although we have heard a hundred reports of his being engaged.” She observes that, were Sarah to return to Philadelphia from Nashville, she would likely “feel the want of the society and many indulgences that you enjoy”; and regrets that she cannot visit “until the expiration of Mr Morgan’s engagement here”, though they will soon have “a long visit to the west [...] to select some spot for our future home.” Nashville, Tennessee: April 22, [1839]. Four-page letter. Small tears and holes at folds, larger tear at and next to seal. Very good. A letter from Sarah Jennings to her former brother-in-law, revealing their highly intimate relationship, Childress’s comments on his return from Texas, and Thomas Jennings’s political ambitions: “Did you know that the Doctor [Thomas Jennings] has actually embarked in politics! He is a candidate for the Senate of Tennessee in opposition to Davy Craighead – and is as warm a party man as you ever could wish, goes about electioneering, shaking hands & smiling on everyone with the best grace in the world: He has been out but a week; his friends as well as himself are very sanguine about his election:– he made his first effort at stump speaking the other day, & was highly complimented. Bee & I opposed his coming out; but like everybody else he asked advice, & then acted according to his own feelings. I fear it will be much against his interest. Mr Childress has returned; is well, in fine spirits & enthusiastic about Texas, says he would rather live in Houston than any place he ever saw, the improvement since he was there last [is] wonderful & almost incredible. He expects to return in the fall & carry Bee with him. You find Col Love is there. The famous Ms Florida White expects to reside there, her husband intends however first to carry her to Italy, let her remain a year or two to complete herself in Italian French &c whilst he returns to Texas to build her a marble palace on the seacoast — ‘tis thought she will find it ‘vastly agreeable’ as Wilde you know is there. His Ex-Majesty Sam Houston is expected here soon. Mr Childress & some others have got up a dinner for him [and] the ladies to hear his speech at the table which will no doubt be flattering to his vanity. Mr C is warm in his favor publicly, but his private opinion is that he is the greatest ‘Humbug’ of the age.” She reports that “Your friend David Dickinson has been here lately, he stayed at the hotel, with his sister, we saw a good deal of him, he talked of you as his greatest friend”—likely Tennessee Whig David W. Dickinson—and then turns to answering a highly personal question posed to her by Wise: “You ask me if ‘I ever thought of marrying a man I didn’t love’? Never never!! I am a warm advocate for love and carry it as far as any romantic sentimental girl of sixteen I am not so ideal as to look for perfection; but I do look & aspire to a man of talents, of high moral principle and a good heart; & until such a one seeks & wins my heart, it shall be my own — [...] I appreciate & admire your sentiments about mercenary marriages – but ‘tis no more than I expected from one whom I know to be far above such things.” Finally, she comments that “The Democrats here are rejoicing over the elections in N York & Connecticut.” Holly Springs, Pennsylvania: May 25, 1839. Four-page letter. Small holes at folds; excellent to Near Fine. Sarah Wise, Henry Wise’s sister or another close relative, writes to Sarah Jennings describing the town of Holly Springs. She appreciates that society there is kind and considerate to her, and that the church and Sunday school are up to her standards, but dislikes the Democratic bent of the town: “My reasons in favor of the place have been assigned – now for objections – First then, there is rather much Democracy here for me — One man, thinks himself as good as another So he but has the Dollars, cents & & & — They think too that all ladies are alike, that is, they all love money, so well, that it is quite irresistable [sic]. And again, they think too much of ‘Nashville ladies’ to suit my conscience, not to say any thing here of inclination. Would that some of you young interesting girls were here, to receive the frequent visitors calling in every evening at ‘Mrs Trimbles,’ One or more of the gentlemen I take pleasure in conversing with But then again, where there is one of intelligence and dignity, sufficient to render them agreeable to me as visitors, there are dozens to the contrary. This place is made up of Bachelors and Widowers, a fine place for a young girl, (ambitious of attention from the ‘Lords of Creation’) to figure in.” She also notes that Thomas Jennings’ political career is “gaining ground fast – I read the notices taken of his speeches in the ‘Whig’.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: July 6, 1839. Three-page letter. Tears and holes at folds; large piece missing from bottom of final page apparently only intersecting with signature. Very good minus. Ann Jennings reports that Mary’s health is improving and that “Mr Wise spent some days last week and expects to be here next week. He is going to the sulphur springs I believe in company with Mr D[?]s family with whom he is very intimate.” She asks Sarah to ask Thomas to send money from Obadiah Jennings’ estate to pay for the musical education of Ellen, her youngest child, and questions Sarah rather mysteriously whether “those notorious characters [have] left the Hotel”. Nashville, Tennessee: September 6, 1839. Four-page letter. Folded with stains and holes at folds, larger hole at seal, generally legible otherwise. Very good minus. Friend Elizabeth Stevenson writes to Philadelphia to report on the “interesting situation” (i.e., pregnancy) of herself and “Mrs. C”, possibly Rebecca Childress. She then describes a large Whig meeting in Nashville, centered around the hotel in which Stevenson and some members of the Jennings family resided: “The Whigs have a meeting in town to day and the Dr and all the Whig party are very busy we had two hundred gentlemen more than usual to dine with us to day our table as well as the public one was crowded with Whigs, they toasted Mr Marshall and the Lady, and drank and smoked and in short cut up a great many [missing]; your dear Brother is a great man with them They expect him to do every thing in the Legislature they also say your Brother Wise is a great man”. Hotels in the city were centers of civic life, giving the correspondents who lived in them a close look at political goings-on. Stevenson could be living at the City Hotel, which the Nashville Banner described as “Whig headquarters” in the 1840s.[1] [1] William E. Beard, “Red Letter Days in Nashville,” Nashville Banner, April 5, 1925, 2. Nashville, Tennessee: October 14, 1839. Five-page letter. Tears at folds with hole at seal, very good. Stevenson first describes a deer hunting trip she took in Kentucky, and then describes Democratic affairs in the city—including a trip to the theater she took as a guest of “Gov Polk”: “Gen Jackson and Col Polk – or I should say Gov Polk live at the Hotel. The Col was invited to the Theatre last evening, and altho I had just returned from my full travels I went along in Mrs Polks place, she being a good presbiterian [sic]. The Theatre was brilliantly illuminated and all dressed with [?] and flowers or Eagles &c &c the house and street in front was crowded to see his excellency, the delighted ‘democrats’ raised such a shout that I thought the very earth was coming down. We had very very fine playing greatly the best I ever saw in my life. The democrats are carrying on the Legislature entirely after their own notion, as you know they have so large a majority, we have just heard from the elections at Baltimore and Gen Polk looks all smiles, and so does V.K., did I tell you V.K. won fifteen hundred dollars on Polks election”. “The great crowd” in Nashville, Stevenson reports, “is truly astonishing”, and it “looks quite like a city.” She relates that “Mr and Mrs C leave next week for Texas”, and that she is not in fact pregnant. Nashville, Tennessee: April 21, 1840. Three-page letter. Near Fine. Stevenson comments on migration West and some acquaintances of the Childresses: “I could not give you – (on this sheet of paper) any idea of the dangers that have taken place here since you left and since I wrote you last, allmost every one is either dead or married or broke or – runoff to Texas. [...] Well Sister Ewing and her daughters are gone to Phila at last, and left a nice name behind here, I may at least say a very unenviable one – the last I heard of the old lady she was abuseing [sic] George Childress and Beck, I think she hates them if possible more than she dose [sic] me.” “Sister Ewing” is possibly a member of the Ewing family of Nashville, which produced several politicians prominent in the 1840s and 50s. This next to Stevenson’s report that their acquaintances are mostly on their ways out of Nashville in one manner or another illustrates the volatility of social networks in the region—and especially the continual flow of people to the West. She also notes that “The Whigs here are making a great mourning over the death of Judge White”, likely Hugh Lawson White, former Democrat and an 1836 Whig presidential candidate. Nashville, Tennessee: May [1840]. Five-page letter. Toned with very small holes at folds, tear to final page. Very good. Stevenson tells Jennings of the sheer number of Philadelphians then in Nashville: “all of our old Phila beaux are here”, along with “a number of Philadelphians here now that I never knew before some of them are up to the snuff-braid”. Stevenson again illustrates the period’s constant westward flow of Americans, especially the social elite. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: May 6, 1840. Three-page letter. Tear at seal not intersecting with text. Excellent. A friend writes to Sarah Jennings’ future husband Harrison McKay; the letter was sent to Louisville then forwarded to Nashville. He comments that “In politics our friends are getting up so much steam, that I fear the results which have always followed excessive excitement – explosion + ruin”, lamenting the “silly pageantry” in Baltimore and worrying that though Pennsylvania “may be carried by moderation”, it “may also be very readily lost by the folly which too often controls the Whig crowds.” Arnad is almost certainly referring to the Whig convention held in Baltimore that began on May 4, 1840, and involved massive numbers of marchers, cannon fire, log cabin floats, and plenty of hard cider; as historian Robert Gray Gunderson described it, the “normally sedate and aristocratic Whigs” were “adapt[ing] their campaign to the political realities” of the time.[2] Arnad also regales McKay with a tale of his own days venturing West: “Some years since – ‘in the days when we went gypseying’ – my friends thought that I had the consumption, + after exhausting the energies of lancet, cup + leach [...] – after depletion + starvation could find nothing more in me to conquer (except the disease – that was untreated) – I was ordered to travel. I went to the West on horse-back. I was young enough to turn the whole affair into a pilgrimage of romance. This was ten years ago – the West was then still full of the rough peculiarities of the parties, + as I selected the most unfrequented routes I saw much that was both [?] + interesting. I remember that I had a quarrel with Rapp at his settlement on the Ohio. On the first day that I entered Ohio, I chanced to express my irritation in the crowded bar-room of a rough village. A sinister looking giant listened in silence, + after some time took me aside + said ‘Stranger, you hate this Rapp – so do I –; he has insulted you – so he has me; now give me $5 and I will shut him up for you.’ Heavens! I said to myself is this the West? I would have had no objection to a collision with Rapp myself, but I turned pale at this blunt offer of assassination. I politely + gratefully declined the offer – ordered my horse – hurried off + did not consider myself safe till I got to the next town. I have no doubt now that this was a joke played off on a green-horn; but, in the course of my journey I met many real adventures which illustrated the harsh + wild features of the country [...]”. [2] Robert Gray Gunderson, “The Great Baltimore Whig Convention of 1840,” Maryland Historical Magazine XLVII (March 1952), 11–18. Nashville, Tennessee: September 18, [1840]. Four-page letter. Small holes at folds and hole at seal, very good plus. Sarah Jennings’s friend opens by contrasting Philadelphia, the “beautiful city of quietness and neatness”, with Nashville, “the ‘wild woods of the west’ — as many of the Eastern people are pleased to call our town, even yet — altho our tall steeples soar quite high, and our city has attractions enough to bring together thousands of persons”. Nashville also has the “ways and means to get the present chief magistrate out of his Princely Pallace, in order to place there in his stead the plain old Hero of North bend”. To that end, the writer launches into a lengthy description of “the Convention” that took place the day prior: “The morning of the 17th was a buisy [sic] one to the Citizens of Nashville generally — Twas ushered in, by a tremendous Cannon roar — from the log cabin – after which the drum and fife were soon heard, to assemble the military all up — Then was heard the ringing of bells — after which announcement the grand parade commenced in regular form to proceed to the grove, near Old Mr McGafrock to listen to the eloquent speeches of H Clay J J Crittendon, our friend B Peyton, Gen Combs and others, The dinner prepared by young D McGafrock was numerously attended I was told — I did not myself go on Monday to hear Clay — but listened to the praises bestowed on his musical voice (as some call it) by those who went from our house — We had Peyton, and D Dickinson to stay with us all the time — and as many more as our little House would comfortably accommodate. Twas truly an exciting occasion. The procession all came just past our door — and it really did begin to seem as if they never were to end — One company of the Military after another, each with their respective flags and Mottos making in all a splendid exibition [sic] of enthusiastic [freemen?] — The yeomanry of some of the out countys forming a strong contrast, especially the Wilson County company of delegates — all to a man I believe in home-spun clothes — As they passed us each company would say some little thing in compliment to the Ladies, which was a considerable source of amusement to me. [...] A Steph[enson?] came down to sit in our little shaded Portico [...] the excitement seemed to help him as he is a very warm Whig ———”. The convention was apparently so massive and enthusiastic that Henry Clay had to be hidden from the crowds until he made his appearance; some estimate a mass of 25,000 people came to see him, including many women of Nashville.[3] The “strong contrast” that the writer draws between the “splendid exibition” of flags and banners with the “home-spun clothes” of the “out county” men is interesting—the diversity of the Whig electorate was both a strength of the party and a part of its eventual demise. The writer apparently does not feel the need to see Clay speak, and she is well-connected enough to host David Dickinson and Tennessee politician Baylie Peyton at her home. Like the previous one, this letter also illustrates the period’s strategic shift towards mass gatherings and political spectacle. [3] Nashville-Gallatin Interurban Railway, “The Great Whig Convention of 1840,” in The Historic Blue Grass Line (Nashville-Gallatin Interurban Railway, 1913), 39–41. Nashville, Tennessee: September 28, 1840. Four-page letter. Small tears at folds with large tear at seal. Very good plus. A letter from “V.C.”—possibly a Childress, as the writer reports feeling “lonely without Mr. Childress”—to Sarah Jennings. She relates that Childress’s friend “General Chambers” is in Nashville “and is quite a [lover?] amongst the girls. He says that he is very much disappointed in not finding you here as he has heard Mr. C. speak so frequently of you in Texas”. Nashville, Tennessee: January 23, [1841]. Four-page letter. Folded with small holes at folds and large hole at seal. Very good plus. Rebecca Childress writes from Nashville to Sarah Jennings, discussing her husband leaving for Texas, John Catron, Ashbel Smith, and William B. Turley: “Tell Mary that Mr. C and myself think that in justice to herself she ought not to invite Mrs. Catron to her house again but always call on her. I do not know what reason she has for declining your invitations but the Wise affair – she is a vindictive woman. When I returned from the South last spring I observed that Mrs. Catron and Mrs. Marshall were more formal than usual [and] I soon discovered that they had taken a great dislike to Reed on account of [Wheat?] but more especially about politics as he approved Col. Marshall and spoke freely of Judge Catron’s pressures. [...] Mr. C. desires me to tell you that Fanny enchanted Gen. Chambers before he was aware of it. Gen. C. would not approach to your [?] ideal of a lover but we had a Texian here a few days ago that I think would – you have heard Mr. C. speak of Dr. Ashbel Smith he is a man of great acquirements an excellent physician studied in Paris and is the most brilliant fascinating man in conversation I ever heard. [...] I have not attended a party this winter Mr. C. seems to have lost all relish for society so that I think we are the most domestic folks in town. [...] Mr. C. will leave for Texas the first of next month I intended going with him to New Orleans but was afraid to venture with my children [...] The judges are here and sometimes gallant [?] to church – Judge Turly [sic] drinks very hard and is as fond of looking at a pretty woman as ever and of eating a good dinner – he said to me a few days since ‘O! Mrs. Childress this Hotel is not like it use to be when we had Mrs. Stevenson to listen to and Miss Sarah to look at’”. Judge John Catron’s ”vindictive” wife was George Childress’s sister Matilda; the letter demonstrates how political disagreements—here between the Whig-aligned Jennings and Wises and the Democrat Catrons—could manifest in the personal lives of the social elite. In 1841 George Childress was to embark on his final trip to Texas; he would take his own life in October of that year, making Rebecca’s comment that he had “lost all relish for society” quite foreboding. Nashville, Tennessee: August 31, 1841. Two-page letter. Toned and torn at folds but legible. Excellent. Jennings consents to McKay marrying his sister Sarah: “From sources of information on which I can rely I have learned that you are a man of intellect of humour of unexceptionable habits and warm sensibilities. Without a word of admonition therefore I consent to resign my sister to your protection [...]”. Nashville, Tennessee: August 31, 1841. Four-page letter. Tear at seal. Very good plus. The same day that he wrote to McKay, Jennings wrote to his mother Ann both to update her on McKay’s proposal and to express serious concerns about George Childress’s ability to care for Rebecca and their family: “P.S. In strict confidence I inform you that I have made up [my] mind to the conclusion that Rebecca and her children will be thrown on my hands. Mr Childress has wasted all the property which he owned at the time of his marriage and I fear has not the habits that will ever insure him success in his profession. His family is now and has been for several months [dependent] on me and as he is in Galveston with means that must be very limited and without what I can believe is a good prospect for pursuing what will be necessary to the comfort and respectability of Rebecca I am unwilling (too) that she should yet leave me. If she stays here this winter in a [tavern?] without society (for I can see her but rarely) she will live very unhappily. The talk which impudent people report to her respecting Mr Childress insolvency and dissipation keeps her constantly in a state of mortification and despondency. Mr. C. for all I can learn is not now dissipated for a while he was so but I have no fears that he will throw himself away after that fashion. What I fear is that being dependent as he now is on his [profession?] – he never will devote himself to it nor that it will afford him ever the means of livelihood. Let no one not even Rebecca know what I have written about Mr. C. It would only distress her prematurely and unfortunately”. An exceptional letter containing a close family member’s account of Childress’s financial and personal crisis and its effects on his loved ones, written only about five weeks before Childress’s condition would drive him to suicide. Jennings lays out a brutal indictment of Childress’s character, describing his issues as being caused by poor work habits and excessive spending; he reports that he is no longer worried that Childress will ruin himself by excess, but rather that Childress simply would never sufficiently dedicate himself to his work to support his family. The letter underscores the Childress’s financial dependence on the Jennings, and indicates the attitudes of many of the Childress’s social cohort towards their situation: one of “impudent talk” that “mortified” Rebecca Childress. Louisville, Kentucky: October 26, 1841. Four-page letter. Tear at seal and some stains around folds. Excellent. The first of several effusive love letters from McKay to Jennings: “Your question is already answered, with regard to the feelings produced by absence. – Is absence the test of love? Perhaps it is but it never occurred to me in that light before – but it might have presented itself in that light if it had entered into my imagination that I could love anyone but you. But my dear Sarah, you, with all your distrust of men know that I could not love any being but yourself – or some one exactly like you.” St. Louis, Missouri: October 31, 1841. Three-page letter. Tear at seal. Excellent to Near Fine. McKay reports on his social calls in St. Louis: “[...] a friend called just as I had written the few preceding lines and invited me to pay some visits with him. [...] So we sallied forth and paid four distinct calls – the first on Mr. + Mrs. Gist + Mrs. Thompson, the second on a catholic lady (young + handsome) who sang for us – then we called on Mrs. Dean, the widow who made such a noise in Washington last summer. She is a perfect _____. [...] Next we went to the home of a Mr. Tevis whose father lives in the square just below you. [...]” St. Louis, Missouri: November 8, 1841. Three-page letter. Small holes at folds and hole at seal. Very good plus. McKay relates his plans to travel to Philadelphia with a stop in Troy, Missouri, and then back to St. Louis “for the purpose of picking up some information with regard to some business matters which I will not trouble your head about”. He enthusiastically describes the city: “I am completely charmed with all my prospects in Saint Louis. I do not doubt being perfectly happy here, that is, as happy as it is possible for man to be with the loved one of his heart and every thing else smiling around him. I have never been in any community where I found so many clever people. Somehow or another it has leaked out that when I come home again I am to bring a wife with me. I really do not know to whose officious kindness I am indebted for the flattering report – but certain it is that the murder is out and almost every married lady I see asks me if I will not become a neighbor of hers – ‘do take a house in our square won’t you? we have so many agreeable people near us!’ I really believe that there is not an unpleasant square in the city – certainly there is not if the ladies are to be believed.” McKay documents the city’s rapid development and his efforts as an emigrant there to establish himself. Unlike his soon-to-be wife and in-laws, Kentucky-born McKay was technically a Southerner already. However, given his multitude of comments favorably comparing St. Louis with cities of the East, it seems he considered himself an outsider to the culture as well. St. Louis, Missouri: November 20, 1841. Six-page letter. Small holes at folds and hole at seal. Excellent. McKay mentions “an old acquaintance of mine here from Ky. Mr. Crockett a lawyer of eminence”—likely attorney and future California Supreme Court Justice Joseph B. Crockett. Crockett had just built a house which McKay had “taken a great fancy to – he will perhaps agree to let me have it and build another and larger one on the same lot for himself.” Crockett also reports knowing Thomas Jennings “well and says he has strong hopes that the Doctor will turn his attention to St Louis”, which McKay states “will soon become the most important city in America off the seaboard”. By 1840, St. Louis, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, had one of the busiest river ports in the country, and was quickly becoming an important gateway to even further westward points. St. Louis, Missouri: November 21, 1841. Five-page letter. Small holes at folds and tear at seal. Very good plus. McKay had apparently just learned of the gruesome suicide of George Childress, which occurred over a month prior in Galveston. He writes: “The singular and appalling end of Col. Childress and the deep sympathy you feel for your dear agonized sister in this hour of her desolate heart is well calculated to awaken feelings of gloom + sadness in you [...]. I have thought a great deal about the situation of your sister since I first heard of the death of her husband. [?] circumstances which you have mentioned to me I have no doubt that she would prefer your society to that of any other person in the world. [...] If I thought Mrs. Childress would be able to travel I would cheerfully go by Nashville and have her with me to Philadelphia – but I suppose she would not at any rate like to leave Nashville for some months to come.” McKay here documents the aftermath of Childress’s death as experienced by the Jennings family. More optimistically, he continues to describe his love of St. Louis and its equitable social scene: “As to friends they are more easily made here than in any place I have ever been in – and the society of St Louis has the refinement without the excessive formality of the old eastern cities. Here you will find all persons of the respectable class on the same footing – there are no divisions, no separate degrees among the refined class. You will come to St Louis a stranger but you will not long remain one.” St. Louis, Missouri: November 24, 1841. Five-page letter. Holes at folds and at seal with some tears at folds as well. Very good minus. McKay reiterates how easy it is to make friends in St. Louis, though he is “really tired of all these people” and their “affected gaiety”, despite the fact that “they are so kind and agreeable.” Business is good, and he has rented a store “for which I pay a very high rent” and is “highly pleased with my prospects of success in St. Louis.” Returning to Rebecca Childress, he remarks: “I am delighted to hear that Mrs. Childress bears up with [?] under her affliction – and now that I have learned that she talks, herself, of visiting Phila. I have no apology for not complying with my remarks in my last letter, and go by Nashville for her.” St. Louis, Missouri: November 27, 1841. Four-page letter. Small holes at folds. Excellent. McKay first continues his commendation of St. Louis, again comparing it with eastern cities: “To me it [St. Louis] affords such an agreeable contrast to the coldness and formality of Philad. that I am positively delighted with the idea of a change of [?]. Ultra dignity is a thing scarcely to be met with in society here – but ultra sociability and ultra hospitality are the features that strike every stranger from the East. The better class of people here are as well educated and as conversant with the forms of refined society as they are anywhere in the U.S. but this being comparatively a small community, it is not thought necessary that the fixed and rigid rules of the old eastern cities should prevail.” He remarks that the Medical College of St. Louis (that is, the medical department at Kemper College), according to Crockett, had “offered and even pressed a professorship in that Institution on your father [sic, brother?]” and that though the institution “at present, is not in a flourishing condition”, nonetheless “it might easily be made the leading school in the west.” His issue with the college centers around Joseph Nash McDowell: “Dr. [J?] McDowell the great anti-phrenologist is one of its leading professors – and he I believe has had the happy faculty of embarrassing the prosperity of every Institution he has ever belonged to. When the college gets rid of this [Jonah?] it will undoubtedly flourish. I think it likely that your brother would object to joining an Institution in which Dr. McD. held a place.” It is interesting that McKay’s issue with McDowell focuses on anti-phrenology views and financial straits, as McDowell was primarily controversial for cadaver dissection and supplying said cadavers via grave-robbing. He was of course correct about the value of cadaver dissection to medical education, and would head the medical school at Kemper, a predecessor to Washington University, for twenty years. McKay also reports having had “a long conversation” with Mary Morgan about “the subject of Mr. M’s settling here”; Mary believes “that if he will visit St. Louis and make himself acquainted with all its advantages that he will not hesitate to make it his place of residence.” Troy, Missouri: December 19, 1841. Four-page letter. Some larger holes at folds and seal. Very good. McKay’s sister Ellen Christy writes to Jennings to “most heartily sympathise” with her on soon having “to part from your Mother and dear friends”, given her upcoming marriage to McKay and move to St. Louis. Boston, Massachusetts: January 15, 1842. Three-page letter. Very small holes at folds. Excellent to Near Fine. McKay reports being “used up by one nights travel” on the railroad, and that he plans to leave for New York City the following day. He tells Jennings to relay to Rebecca Childress “that I am not a Philadelphian she should not treat me as one – I know that what she said about visiting was only a [french?] compliment but still I acknowledge it as a compliment”. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: February 23, 1842. Three-page letter. Some very small holes at folds. Excellent to Near Fine. A Philadelphian friend laments losing her dear friend to marriage: “I am inconsolable for your loss. It is the greatest trial to my feelings to call + see your Mother + Sisters, where I have so often been blessed with the sight of you. You have left a void in this aching heart, which time cannot efface – + which no other can fill.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: April 13, 1842. Three-page letter. Some inkblots. Near Fine. Jennings reports family news to her daughter, including of the Wises: “The children have not yet returned from [Vermont] I had a letter from Mr Wise saying that owing to the time of his election being changed he cannot bring them on so soon as he intended Sally Wise I expect will come with them”. Sally is likely Sarah Sergeant Wise, Henry Wise’s wife after Ann Jennings. Nashville, Tennessee: May 28, 1842. Three-page letter. Holes at folds and seal, wrinkled. Very good minus. Jennings attempts to clear up a misunderstanding with his sister, and reports on the threat of a duel between Henry Wise and Edward Stanly: “You have been misinformed if you have heard that I have said anything of Mr. McKay to which you could take exception I have never spoken of him other than in terms of the highest respect [...] The late difficulty between Wise and Stanley has made me fearful that another calamity was impending over our family but I have been made relieved by a report now current that [the] quarrel has been amicably adjusted. I had a letter last evening from Mr Wise [?] dated the 20th of this month up to which time he says Stanley had not sent a challenge whilst he also speaks very very confidently in regard to his safety in a duel if one should take place”. Wise and Stanly had gotten into an altercation after the North Carolina politician had ridden his horse too close to Wise and Wise in return had hit Stanly with his cane.[4] Stanly requested that Wise meet him in Baltimore and waited there, not knowing that Wise had been arrested under anti-dueling laws. The disagreement was apparently resolved shortly via mutual friends. [4] Benjamin Perley Poore, “Chapter XXII. The Capitol and the Drawing-Room,” in Perley’s reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, Vol. 1–2 (Hubbard Brothers, 1886). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: August 14, 1842. Three-page letter. Stained with some small holes. Very good minus. Jennings reports having been quite ill but recovering. She mentions that a “Mrs. Bennett” visited the day before “and told me she had bought the place on the bay formerly her fathers it had been in the family 150 years she was going there to live in the spring”. The letter was likely misdated by Jennings, as by 1842 Sarah’s surname was McKay, not Jennings. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: November 2, 1842. Three-page letter. Some very small holes. Excellent. Childress finds it “very doubtful whether Mr. M[organ] will leave Phila”, although “Mary would be willing to go to St. Louis strange as you may think it”. For her own part Childress “would prefer remaining here” as she likes “a large city and walking”. She notes that Mrs. Wise had given “birth to a dead child and mourns over it just in her childlike way”, while Henry was “has been very sick”. The letter primarily documents Rebecca Childress’s life and preferences after the loss of her husband, alongside further evidence of the westward shift of the family network. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: December 30, 1842. Three-page letter. Some larger holes along the top quarter of the pages. Very good. Childress is very busy caring for her children, who “occupy most of the day”. Sally Wise “inquired most kindly for you” and “longs for the sands and fish of the Eastern Shore – does not like Wash.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: January 19, 1843. Five-page letter. Wrinkled with toning, small hole at seal. Excellent. Sergeant updates McKay on society gossip, particularly engagements: “Emma Worrell is on the eve of Marriage with no less considerable a personage than my Cousin Sam Fisher. She has been engaged since June, after an acquaintance of three short months. The Lover is twenty three years of age, has sandy hair & complexion, white eyes, a singularly ugly nose & uglier mouth. His figure is rather slight, he is of middle height, manners unpolished & his mind a waste. [...] I forgot to mention that the youth is worth one hundred thirty thousand dollars! Sarah Case’s engagement to Edward Hopper is at last acknowledged. Another sacrifice at the shrine of Plutus.” Moreover, Henry Wise’s son Henry is “in Washington, flourishing as a Beau. I spoke with a Lady yesterday who often sees him. She considers him inordinately vain & prefers George.” A gossippy and thus revealing letter about wealth, marriage, and social status, and how they were understood between young elite women at the time. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: March 27, 1843. Three-page letter. Tears at folds with a larger tear on the third page. Very good. McKay had recently had a child and the Philadelphian family “were all delighted to hear of your safe recovery”. She continues, “You need not be surprised to see us all this Fall in St Louis – Do you not think I am very accommodating to consent to emigrate to such a strange country?” Further documentation of the emigration of the Jennings to the West. Nashville, Tennessee: May 24, 1843. Two-page letter. Large apparent water stains though fairly legible. Good. Jennings advises his sister to retain a physician in St. Louis to help her recover from childbirth. He then describes the state of his political career: “I am very much engaged and of course very much worried just at present and expect to enjoy but little respite until I am again released from my political obligations. I [...] intend if it be possible for me to do so to visit St Louis after the next session of our Legislature. I regard my re-election as almost certain. My competition Maj Claiborne though he has [?] before represented this country in the House of Representatives both of this state and of the U.S. is now obsolete and cannot persuade the people to take him down from the high shelf on which he was [?] deposited many years ago”. “Maj Claiborne” is almost certainly Thomas Claiborne, the Democratic-Republican politician from Tennessee. Whig Jennings’ remark that Claiborne is “obsolete” is interesting—he may be commenting on Claiborne’s age, his family’s long history in American political life, or his more traditional and conservative standing as a Democratic-Republican. Knoxville, Tennessee: September 26, [1843]. Two-page letter. Missing section of cover not intersecting with any text. Excellent. Morgan relates a recent trip: “From Nashville we went to Huntsville, spent a [day] in Huntsville, which I think is one of the most pleasant villages in our country. On our return we spent two days in Columbia [...].” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: July 20, 1846. Two-page letter. Hole at seal. Excellent. A business letter to Harrison McKay in New York, written several years after the death of Sarah Jennings McKay. The letter agrees to sell merchandise with the McKay Brothers.
Louisville, Kentucky: October 11, [1838]. Two-page letter. Folded with some very small holes at folds; excellent.
Ann Jennings writes from aboard a steamship in Louisville, reporting on her trip back to Philadelphia. The journey is “tedious though safe”, and they are “well and as comfortable as we could be in a very crowded boat.” Water levels are “so low that we cannot get further than Cincinatti [sic] by water.” She “got Mr Crawford to enquire for Mr Childress on a boat that was just leaving for the south but could hear nothing of them”. In 1838 Childress had returned from his first, and not yet embarked on his second, trip back to Texas to attempt to establish a law practice.
2. Mary Morgan in Red Sulphur Springs, Virginia, to Sarah Jennings, Reporting on Virginia’s Various Medicinal Springs and the “invalids of the worst kind” who Frequented Them, [1838].
Price: $15,000.00