After Joseph Smith (1805–1844), the founder of the Mormon faith, was killed by a mob in 1844, Brigham Young took over the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To escape anti-Mormon persecution, he led a vanguard westward, reaching the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. During the journey, he wrote this letter to his fourth wife, Harriet Cook Young (1824–1898), whom he had secretly married and left in Nauvoo, Illinois, urging her to come west. She arrived in Salt Lake City in September 1848. Gift of Edith Young Booth. Brigham Young Collection, Manuscripts Division.
FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION: See the finding aid for this item.
Two weeks after war had been declared, the orator, writer, and former slave Frederick Douglass wrote to clergyman William Sprague (1795–1876), “I find life no burden but rather a precious privilege. . . Once the cause of the country has become the cause of the slave, the difficulty of separating the one from the other, is a ground of hope that in the almost certain triumph of the country the cause of justice and freedom to the bondman will triumph.” Miscellaneous Slavery Collection, Manuscripts Division.
Charles Thomson served as secretary of the Continental Congress for 14 years. At Princeton, the first seat of Congress after the Revolution, he wrote this letter informing his wife Hannah (ca. 1729–1807) that Virginia had ceded its claims to land beyond the Ohio River to the newly sovereign United States. This territory, he says, “will give a great weight to the authority of Congress. It gives them the sovereignty and property of a country at least five hundred miles square.” Charles Thomson Letters, Manuscripts Division.
As Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), James Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States by adding more than 800,000 square miles and paving the way for westward migration. In this letter to Robert Livingston (1746–1813), who had negotiated the purchase with France, he announces the formal delivery of the “Province of Louisiana” to the United States for $15 million. James Madison Collection, Manuscripts Division.
Robert Fulton is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat in 1807, which revolutionized American transportation and commerce. He wrote this letter, with specifications for building a steamboat engine, to his partner Nicholas Roosevelt (1767–1854), a fellow inventor who introduced vertical paddle wheels for steamboats. Gift of Mrs. Marshall L. Brown in memory of Cyrus H. McCormick, Class of 1879. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 406, Manuscripts Division. 
As military secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), Adam Badeau witnessed the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. He describes the occasion in this letter to his friend, General James Harrison Wilson (1837–1925), commending both Grant and Lee for their dignity and magnanimity. Gift of Shirley W. Morgan. Civil War Letters of Adam Badeau, Manuscripts Division.
General James Harrison Wilson commanded the cavalry unit that captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis (1808–1889) on May 10, 1865. In this letter written three days later to his close friend Adam Badeau (1831–1895), military secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), Wilson vividly narrates the possibly apocryphal story of Davis’s attempt to escape disguised as a woman. Gift of Shirley W. Morgan. Civil War Letters of Adam Badeau, Manuscripts Division.
As state ratification conventions debated the new Constitution submitted to them in September, Thomas Jefferson wrote this letter, from Paris, to Uriah Forrest (1746–1805) expressing both his admiration for the framers and his concern over the “seeds of danger” they had sown by presuming that succeeding rulers would be as honest as themselves. Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915. André de Coppet Collection, Manuscripts Division.
Struggling to provide for his army, Confederate General Robert E. Lee wrote to the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis (1808–1889), to plead for supplies lest he be forced to retreat for lack of food. Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915. André de Coppet Collection, Manuscripts Division.
Mary Todd Lincoln wrote this letter on mourning stationery to her friend Elizabeth Blair Lee (1818–1906). In it, she grieved over her husband’s death but also looked forward to the nation’s future, sharing her thoughts on the presidential aspirations of Secretary of State William Henry Seward (1801–1872) and General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885). Gift of P. Blair Lee and E. Brooke Lee. Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division.
After Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election in November 1860, seceding states seized federal forts within their own borders. In this confidential letter to politician Francis Preston Blair (1791–1876), Lincoln orders that federal forts lost before his inauguration in February 1861 must be retaken afterwards. In April 1861, his attempt to send supplies to Fort Sumter in South Carolina resulted in the first shots fired in the Civil War. Gift of P. Blair Lee and E. Brooke Lee. Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division.