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Civil War-dated ALS, one page both sides, 7.75 x 9.75, October 29, 1862. Handwritten letter to Charles Edward Bennell, in part: “I have this moment received your letter…informing me that a number of ladies & gentlemen of Cincinnati had formed themselves into a Reading Club, & had honored me by adopting a Resolution calling it after my name. I need not say how much this token of their regard has touched the heart of an old public servant in retirement…The Association conducted, with wise & persevering effort, cannot fail to prove highly useful both to its own members & to society. The solitary reading of an individual for more pastime is of comparatively little value either to himself or to others. The information thus acquired soon passes away & is forgotten, unless fixed upon the memory & impressed upon the heart by an interchange of opinions with congenial spirits…May the ‘Buchanan Reading Club’ flourish & produce good fruit long after he, whose name it bears, shall have been gathered to his fathers!” In fine condition.
An uncommon post-presidency handwritten letter from James Buchanan on the benefits of reading circles, a leisurely pursuit in deep contrast to the chaos unfolding across America. On this date, roughly a month after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the Skirmish at Island occurred in Bates County, Missouri. A Union victory, the skirmish is notable as the first known event in which an African-American regiment engaged in combat against Confederate forces during the war.
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