MOSBY, JOHN S. (1833-1916). ALS to J. A. J. Cresswell. Warrenton, VA, 22 June 1873. Mosby explains his political predicament within Virginia's discordant postwar Republican Party.

6 pages, 7 5/8 x 10 in., on "Office of John S. Mosby, Attorney at Law" letterhead. Marked "Private" in Mosby's hand, upper left.

Mosby undertakes to illuminate what he calls his "policy of trying to conciliate, through the judicious use of patronage, the best classes of the South into harmonious relations with the government." He writes that he has helped raise public sentiment in Virginia toward the Republican Administration, writing, " I never could have done this if I had in any way identified myself with the radical organization in Va. which is composed entirely of carpetbaggers and negroes."

He positions himself between the rock and hard place of being a pro-Administration Republican stuck between the Radical and Conservative segments of the party in Virginia. He writes of a strategy of running an independent candidate in order to break up the Conservative organization "and out of its remains build up an Administrative party composed of and led by the best men in the state."

He then very candidly characterizes the regional differences in the Party: "You must bear in mind the differences between the Republican party of the North composed of its best men and that of the South which is a mass of negroes led by a few adventurers."

Mosby names several of the "best Republicans in the State" who agree with him that these unsavory "Republicans" are not worthy of being elected to power, including Senator (John F.) Lewis and Judge (John C.) Underwood; and he names (Robert William) Hughes as "the only obstacle to victory in this State for the Administration," as he is a secessionist who "knows he stands no chance of election; he only wants to run in order to make himself a martyr in order to be rewarded for it."

John Andrew Jackson Creswell (1828-1891) was appointed Postmaster General of the United States by Ulysses S. Grant, serving in that capacity from 1869-1874. Though he was a Democrat in the 1850s, Creswell became a Radical Republican with the outbreak of the Civil War, working to prevent Maryland from seceding, helping to raise troops for the Union Army, and supporting Abraham Lincoln as a US Representative from 1863-1865. He even proposed a Constitutional amendment to ban slavery during his term. Creswell's name was mentioned as a possibility for the presidential or vice presidential nomination at the Republican Convention of 1868, though he did not end up being nominated. By the time he received Grant's appointment to Postmaster General, he was already an important and influential Republican, which explains Mosby's desire to relay to him the intricacies of Virginia's Republican Party.

A fascinating glimpse into Virginia's postwar political landscape, with candid commentary showing the discord within the state's Republican Party.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

The John Singleton Mosby Collection of Hugh C. Keen