Pair of New York Letters Including a Strong 1848 Free Soil Political Discussion Predicting Northern Political Realignment Over Slavery, Together with a Vivid 1847 Schoolmaster Letter Describing Rural Teaching and Classroom Discipline.
Corning, New York: March 14, 1847 and November 15, 1848. Two autograph letters signed from C. H. Berry. Each 3 pp measuring 8 x 10 inches. Very good plus. Item #List3729
A pair of letters from C. H. Berry of Corning, New York, who was apparently both a schoolteacher and active in Free Soil circles in the area. The earlier letter, written in 1847, provides an unexpected look at corporal punishment in the classroom. Berry writes:
“I am in my school yet. I have four weeks, or nearly that to keep yet. I storm round like an old sailor, have my hands full, but enjoy the pleasure of seeing the little ‘varmints’ learn. I had a speck of variety today. Several boys stayed out this forenoon after recess. This afternoon I called them up, & after talking a spell, told them I should punish them for staying out. One fellow squared himself & said he should not be punished! He was a huge fellow, with a boxer’s ring on his fingers, weighing one or two ounces. He swore flat in my face when I began to talk with him. I told him, in consideration of his being saucy, he must take off his coat. I took the young man by the collar with one hand and applied a strap of harness leather to his legs with the other. He flourished his tongue, his arms & legs in a furious way, till finding my own was too long for him to reach me, he dove for the poker. I just laid him out a couple of times & then plied my straps till his coat came off with a rush & numerous apologies followed it. He said he swore because he was mad, he always did so, & thought it very unfortunate that he had such a habit. I then punished him for staying out and told him to take his seat, which he did very quietly.”
The second letter, written during the immediate aftermath of the election of 1848, shifts dramatically toward national politics. Berry offers a frank assessment of the political future of anti-slavery organization:
“In ‘Free Soil’ matters, we have done up all we expected to here and are perfectly satisfied. Our party is firmly organized. Our cause has the sympathy of honest men of all parties, and as Taylor is elected, let me tell you just what I think of it: Cass has showed his hand, and that party can not claim to be free soil men in 1852, or at any time hereafter. Taylor is in a position where he will be obliged to declare himself also. Now if Taylor disappoints the South and comes out a freedom man, it will be in consequence of this Northern movement, and we have attained all we wanted. But if (which is more likely) he goes for the South, his supporters in the free states will be without the least color of excuse in 1852, and they must join our party, & there will not be a grease spot of their organization left. The case, then is this: Nothing but ‘liberty’ will satisfy the people of the north. The Hunkers can not stand on this platform, for they have repudiated it; the honest ones will be with us. The Whigs must come on to our ground and join us as a party, by the acts of their Executive, or declare against liberty, which will destroy their party here and bring them to us in a disorganized mass. Then with ‘repeal’ as our motto, we will teach them the error of their ways. We can not fail to succeed in my view of the case. Free soil forever.”
Written before the formation of the Republican Party and more than a decade before secession, the letter captures anti-slavery political sentiment at a transitional moment when Free Soil activists believed sectional political realignment increasingly inevitable. An unusually readable pair balancing ordinary rural life with emerging sectional politics in antebellum New York.
Price: $375.00