["Peace." An album of autographs]

Autograph album, small 4to (7  1/2  x 4  3/4  in.; 190 x 121 mm), comprising 118 leaves containing more than 230 signatures and autograph inscriptions by American political and military leaders, authors and reformers, all but 5 of the signatures and sentiments inscribed on the album's leaves (both recto and verso), the others being cropped and mounted; minor spotting on a few leaves.  Bound in suede with red morocco head and tail strips, cropped signature of the album's originator ("A. Foster") mounted on the front endpaper; some rubbing and soiling. 

Autograph album, small 4to (7 1/2 x 4 3/4 in.; 190 x 121 mm), comprising 118 leaves containing more than 230 signatures and autograph inscriptions by American political and military leaders, authors and reformers, all but 5 of the signatures and sentiments inscribed on the album's leaves (both recto and verso), the others being cropped and mounted; minor spotting on a few leaves. Bound in suede with red morocco head and tail strips, cropped signature of the album's originator ("A. Foster") mounted on the front endpaper; some rubbing and soiling.
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A collection of autographs for peace.  The album was begun in 1844 by Foster, a Boston Congregationalist minister who was a member of the American Peace Society.  Foster, in turn, left the album and resposibility for its continuation to his son-in-law, Samuel Fiske, a clergyman who enlisted in the Union Army and died of wounds incurred at the Battle of the Wilderness.  Both Foster and Fiske asked prominent figures of their time to inscribe and sign sentiments regarding peace on the album's leaves, and the next generation of the family continued the tradition.  Later signatories sometimes signed their names below sentiments inscribed decades earlier, endorsing these sentiments on peace and war.  The last inscriptions appear to have been made in 1924. 

Nine Presidents are represented in the album:  John Quincy Adams.  Autograph sentiment, signed 11 lines, 10 April 1844, a statement titles "Peace" and beginning "We believe that universal and permanent Peace belongs to the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God . . . ," a statement which fifteen other Congressman and Cabinet officers (including Henry Clay) added their names —  John Tyler.  Autograph document signed, being 2 pages on the virtues of peace, 15 April 1844, ending "Peace Love & Prosperity go hand in hand & so does War — hate & Desolation" — Grover Cleveland.  Autograph sentiment signed 30 May 1904: "I believe that peace should always be the first sign, not only of Christianity but of advancing civilization among the nations of the earth" — William McKinley.  Signature on verso of leaf 46 — Theodore Roosevelt.  Endorsement, signed February 1904: "I believe that peace should always be the first sure sign, not only of Christianity but of advancing civilization among the nations of the earth" — William H. Taft, Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover.  autograph inscriptions, all dated 1922 — Calvin Coolidge.  Autograph inscription signed, 1924, "Thy ways are the ways of peace."

Congressmen, Cabinet members and Supreme Court members in the album include: David Atchison and "Champ" Clark, endorsing the sentiment of Thomas Hart Benton, 1844, Edward Everett, Charles Evans Hughes, William H. Seward, Daniel Webster ("... The peace of the world must be the wish of every good man in it"), and Daniel Woodbury.

Contributions by literary figures include Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Greenlief Whittier, Bret Harte and his editor James T. Fields.  Military and naval figures in the album include Winfield Scott, A. T. Mahan, John Pershing, George Dewey, and Charles Wilkes. 

American from all walks of life added their inscribed votes for peace—social reformers, industrialists, and inventors: Jane Adams, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomoas A. Edison.

A unique collection of sentiments on behalf of the peace movement, assembled over eight decades.  A typed transcript of all the inscriptions is included with the lot.