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Home
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1492-1850
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1850-1900
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1900-1950
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1950-
Favorites
A selection of original sources
1850-1900
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Senator Daniel Webster's notes for his speech to the Senate supporting the Compromise of 1850, March 7, 1850 (Library of Congress
)
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U.S. Supreme Court decision in
Dred Scott v. Sandford
holding that slaves were not citizens and thus have no constitutional rights to be protected by the federal government or the courts, and that Congress violated the Constitution by banning slavery from federal territories, March 6, 1857 (National Archives)
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Transcript of interrogation of John Brown prior to trial leading to his conviction and execution for raid on Harper's Ferry (Digital History)
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Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglas debates in 1858 U.S. Senate election in Illinois (National Park Service/Abraham Lincoln Association)
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Letter of Abraham Lincoln to George Ashmun accepting Republican Party presidential nomination, May 23, 1860 (Library of Congress)
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Letter of Abraham Lincoln to Truman Smith rejecting suggestion that President-elect issue statement to re-assure the South of his intentions, stating in part that to do so "....would be wanting in self-respect, and would have an appearance of sycophancy and timidity, which would excite the contempt of good men, and encourage the bad ones to clamor the more loudly..." November 10, 1860 (Library of Congress)
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"Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify the Secession of the State of South Carolina from the Federal Union..." December 24, 1860 (South Carolina Department of Archives and History/teachingushistory.org)
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Draft of Lincoln's first Inaugural Address delivered March 4, 1861 (Library of Congress)
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Draft of Abraham Lincoln's instructions to Major Robert Anderson in command at Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, April 4, 1861 (Library of Congress)
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Letter of Mary Todd Lincoln to husband urging that he replace General George McClellan as commander of Union Army, November 2, 1862 (which he did three days after date of letter) (Library of Congress)
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Photograph taken by Matthew Brady of Confederate dead at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia, May 3, 1863 (National Archives)
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Map depicting deployment of Union and Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863 (Library of Congress)
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First draft of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address delivered November 19, 1863 (Library of Congress)
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Photograph of ruins of Richmond after burning by retreating Confederate troops prior to evacuation of city (Library of Congress)
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Account of Lincoln assassination in
The New York Herald
published April 15, 1865 (Library of Congress)
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Wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth and other assassination conspirators (Library of Congress)
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Harper's Weekly
cartoon depicting contrasting reactions of President Andrew Johnson and
New York Tribune
editor Horace Greeley to failure of Senate impeachment vote to convict President, May 30, 1868 (HarpWeek)
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Excerpts from a letter by Reverend H. W. Pierson recounting the violence of Ku Klux Klan against freedmen in Georgia, February 1869 (PBS)
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Drawing depicting
burial at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, of the remains of the officers of the Seventh United States Cavalry killed with General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876, published in
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
September 8, 1877 (Library of Congress)
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"The allies under the new flag--the Republicans and the monopolists train their guns on the workingmen" p
rint depicts Republican politicians along with banking and business allies under a flag "Down with the Workingman and Up with the Tariff, "aiming a cannon toward "Fort Labor" which is flying the flag of the "Workingmans Party," published in
Puck
newspaper, August 8, 1883 (Library of Congress)
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"
The Anarchist Riot in Chicago--A Dynamite Bomb exploding among the police" drawing depicts episode during McCormick Strike in Haymarket Square in Chicago published in
Harper's Weekly
, May 15, 1886 (Library of Congress)
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Cartoon depicting "robber barons" profiting from high tariff policies of McKinley Administration, April 1896 (Library of Congress)
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Report of destruction of U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor which contributed to declaration of war with Spain published in
Houston Post
, February 16, 1898 (Library of Congress)
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Letter to President William McKinley from Annie Oakley, offering the government the services of a company of 50 “lady sharpshooters” who would provide their own arms and ammunition should war break out with Spain, April 5, 1898 (National Archives)
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