GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/12/1884 - HFSID 3062

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS
George William Curtis sends an autograph letter about the candidate he supported at the convention.
Autograph Letter Signed: "George William Curtis", 3p, 4¼x6¾. Staten Island, New York, 1884 June 12. On his personal letterhead to Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont, whom Curtis had supported for President at the Republican Convention in Chicago, June 3-6, 1884. In full: "Thank you sincerely for your letter and I am glad for myself that in the blinding and fatal storm of the Convention one thing was clear, and that was the character and significance of the candidate whom I supported. Of course, to a life-long Republican the result was deplorable, and equally of course thousands of Republicans must decline to vote for a candidate whom they hold to be morally disqualified for the Presidency." GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS (1824-1892) was the lead editorial writer (1857) and then editor of "Harper's Weekly" (1863). He was in favor of emancipation, equal rights for African-Americans, native Americans and women, civil service reform, public education and environmental conservation. A lifelong Republican, Curtis refused to support his party's nominee of 1884, Senator James Blaine. In a "Harper's" editorial, Curtis summarized the three reasons why he and Independents opposed Blaine so vehemently: 1) his involvement in various scandals; 2) his imperialist foreign policy; and 3) his record as a spoils man who resisted civil service reform and reform in general. Four days after this letter was written, Curtis presided at a New York meeting of reform-minded Republicans, subsequently nicknamed "Mugwumps", who broke with their party. After unsuccessful efforts to persuade Edmunds to run as an Independent, most of these men voted for the Democrat, Grover Cleveland. Cleveland defeated Blaine, becoming the first Democratic President elected since the Civil War. Docketed on verso. Slightly creased and unevenly faded. Vertical fold touches "G" in "George". Adhesive residue at bottom edge. Overall, fine condition.