GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/19/1868 - HFSID 33714

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS
The 19th century journalist writes a letter presenting his brother in law, Civil War Major General Francis Barlow, to US Senator George Edmunds
Autograph Letter signed: "George William Curtis.", 2 pages, 5½x8. Staten Island, New York, 1868 June 19. In full: "My dear Mr. Edmunds. Will you allow me to present to you my friend & brother in law, Major General Barlow. Lately our secretary of late, who comes to Washington for business which he will inform you.- Very respectfully yours" 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 Blacks, Native Americans and women, civil service reform, public education and environmental conservation. Curtis, who declined an invitation to become editor of the "New York Times", was known for speaking on the critical issues of the day, and he authored some 40 books and pamphlets. GEORGE FRANKLIN EDMUNDS (1828-1919) was a US Senator from Vermont (1866-1891). Edmunds was a junior Senator in 1868, having been appointed to the seat on the death of Senator Solomon Foote in March 1866, but he had already played a prominent role in the recently concluded impeachment trial of President Johnson, and would later hold important posts, including chairing the Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, and as Speaker Pro Tem (1883-1885). FRANCIS CHANNING BARLOW (1834-1896) was already well known when he received this introduction to Senator Edmunds. Known as "the Boy General," he had risen from private to major general and command of a division in the Civil War. Seriously wounded in the front lines at the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg, the audacious officer was nursed back to health both times by his wife Arabella, who had crossed enemy lines under flag of truce to care for him at Gettysburg. Arabella had died of typhus in 1864, and Barlow remarried Ellen Shaw, the sister of the Col. Robert Gould Shaw (white commander of the black 54th Massachusetts Regiment immortalized in the film Glory. Curtis was married to another sister, Anna Shaw. Curtis and Edmunds would cross paths again in 1876, when Edmunds held the decisive swing vote on the Electoral Commission which decided the disputed 1876 Hayes-Tilden Presidential Election. Barlow, though a fellow Republican and recently Attorney General of New York (1871-1873) was assigned to write a report to the Commission. His report favored the claims of Democrat Tilden, thus effectively ending his political career.Normal mailing folds. Ink show through from verso on both pages. Right ½ inch of page is affixed to a 1x8 piece of paper. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.