Name/Title
PamphletEntry/Object ID
2017.9.1R5Description
Bound booklet including the two letters cataloged in association with catalog records 2017.9.1R2 and 2017.9.1R3, along with auxiliary information. No covers, bound with three staples, printed on 6 x 8.5" paper. No covers, 12 pp.
The first is a printed letter, "To his excellency John F. Hartranft, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and includes the following text:
"Sir,-
Enclosed please find a copy of a letter sent to each member of the Appropriation Committee of the State Legislature [this presumably refers to the letter cataloged as object 2017.9.1R2].
We ask of you your careful attention to this subject, feeling sure that you will do all in your power to prevent injustice to Soldiers' Orphans and disgrace to the State.
The colored people will have much cause to be dissatisfied with a discrimination against the Soldiers' Orphans of their race, of Bridgewater School should now be disbanded for want of the aid asked of the Legislature. Yours truly," Edward S. Buckley, Benjamin P. Hunt, James A. Wright, William Still [Trustees], and William W. Justice, Secretary, of 122 South Front Street.
The second letter, published on pp.2-3, was sent to each Member of the Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives and includes the following text:
"Dear Sir,-
There is before the Appropriation Committee, a bill for the benefit of the Superintendent of the Bridgewater School for the year beginning June 1, 1876.
Also a bill for $1600, being the amount advanced to us, to keep the School in operation from June 1, 1875, to March 1, 1876.
The School is too small to be supported by the regular State appropriation and cannot be consolidated with an other, as is done with white schools, because the children are colored. Unless the State grants the aid asked for, the Bridgewater School will be disbanded; such children as have homes will be sent to them, and others to the almshouse. This will be a great injustice to the Colored Orphans, and a disgrace to the State. The White Orphans had been collected into schools four years before the Colored Orphans were gathered. Here was a serious loss of care and education by the Colored Orphans, but a saving of $120,000 by the State. With the assistance of those associated with us, we raised $20,000, bought the Bridgewater Property and collected the Children at our own expense. No appropriation will be asked by us for damages to the School, when disbanded, although the Legislature is constantly granting assistance to the Superintendent of each Orphans' School when closed. We are unable to furnish the money required over and above the State appropriation to continue the School. We hope the Legislature will grant to the Colored Orphans a small portion of the money saved to the State by its neglect of them for four years, and thus protect them from further injustice in being sent home before the White Orphans. Yours truly, Wm. W. J., Sec. 122 S. Front St." This letter is "signed" by Edward S. Buckley, Benjamin P. Hunt, William Still, and James A. Wright, and was written by William W. Justice, Secretary of the School for Colored Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans.
A series of 1876 letters written to various newspapers are then republished. These include those The Times, The North American and United States Gazette, the Daily Evening Bulletin, The Press, the Pittsburgh Gazette, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The "Bridgewater Property" is the State Home for Colored Soldiers' Orphans and was located in Bridgewater, Bucks County.Collection
Pamphlet Box Collection