“ … I THINK THE BLACKS OUGHT TO BE FREE BUT NOT TO BE SEATED AMONG THE WHITES. I THINK THEY OUGHT TO HAVE A PLACE BY THEMSELVES … ”

Autograph Letter Signed, “Louisa N Miller” One page, 7 3/4”x 12 1/2”. New Rutland LaSalle Co. Ill. September 11, 1863. Accompanied by original envelop addressed to Mrs. Susan G. Wort Hicksville, Defiance Co. Ohio. With circular “New Rutland” postal cancellation. Miller writes, in part: “ … you seem to be down on the abolitionists well I don’t now [sic] what you call Abolitionist perhaps you might call me one. I think the blacks ought to be free but not to be seated among the whites. I think they ought to have a place by themselves. Susan you say you are a democrat and would not do anything else for the best man ever lived so I suppose from that you would not be any thing else ... if I had ninety and nine votes to cast I never would cast one of Vallandigham [Clement Vallandigham (1820-1871) Ohio anti-war and pro-Confederate Democrat] I think all the women that wants there husbands and sons to stay three of four years longer in the army ought to stand up for that scoundrel perhaps if you had read some of the speeches he made in the Senate last winter you would not think so much of him … ” Fine commentary on abolitionism and the heated political divisions in America during the Civil War. A vocal opponent of Lincoln and the Union cause, Ohio politician Clement Vallandingham was arrested and convicted of “uttering disloyal sentiments” in May of 1863. Though the Supreme Court overturned this conviction in early 1864, President Lincoln, who viewed Vallandigham as a dangerous agitator, ordered him sent through the lines of the Confederacy. Eventually traveling to Canada, Vallandigham was nominated in absentia as the Democratic candidate for governor that same year. Although he lost in a landslide, his campaign, as our letter illustrates, further intensified divisions between pro- and anti-slavery factions in the state. Very Fine.