Putnam, William A. [Autograph Letter Signed, Louisville, KY, May 22, 1864 to his brother, George A. Putnam, Rutland, Worcester Co., MA] folio, 4 pages, folded, light damp-stain, accompanied by original mailing envelope, in good clean legible condition. Putnam, a southern sympathizer, writes to his brother in the north, who disagrees with his positions. He discusses, in this letter, in the most racist terms African Americans, newly freed slaves, their "inherent inferiority," politics, the constitution its "destruction" by Lincoln and the government, the War, the Fort Pillow massacre, etc. "…I was somewhat amused when in the course of conversation he said that free niggers could not come into Illinois, no sir, the door is barred against our being ever troubled with them. I said and still you Ill. Have sent some two hundred thousand men to take away their masters' land, corn and bacon and set them free, as they suppose, to go where they please at the north, but when these free niggers knock at your door to warm their shins and beg a morsel for their little ones, your only answer will be "Go away niggers, we have set you free and now go about your business"…concluded that it looked hard to exclude a free man from the rights guaranteed to freemen by the constitution. I told him that the same power that had broken the constitution of Kentucky by taking the slaves for soldiers would soon find a way to break a hole in the constitution of Illinois big enough to push the nigger through…"You do not care a damn for the nigger" "give him his freedom and let him keep his end up if he can, and if not let him go under" when you have most positive evidence that he is of so inferior race that he must be cared for, and that be cannot keep his end up. This is bad humanity. As for "the whole country being better off without it" I believe if it had never been brought to this country by our ancestors and the English, (for the South never imported one) it would have been better for the country…" Price: USD 650.00 other currencies   order no. 723    inquire

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