John Perkins, Jr. (1819-1885) was an antebellum U.S. Representative from Louisiana, and then a senator in the Confederate States Congress during the American Civil War. He was born in Natchez, Mississippi. He graduated from Yale College in 1840 and was initiated, his senior year, into the Skull and Bones Society. He then graduated from the law department of Harvard University in 1842. He was admitted to the bar in 1843 and commenced practice in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also engaged in cotton planting. He was appointed judge of the circuit court for the district comprising Tensas and Madison Parishes in 1851. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1854. He served as chairman of the state secession convention in 1861. He served in the Confederate States Senate 1862ñ65. Following the war, he traveled extensively in Mexico and Europe. He returned to the United States in 1878 and spent the remaining years of his life in Louisiana and Canada. Offered here is an AUTOGRAPH DOCUMENT SIGNED, dated 1847, 1 page, approx. 7-3/4 x 9-3/4 in. Concerns business with Roland G. Hazard (1801-1888) American Financier, leading businessman, author and philosopher. He accumulated a large fortune in mercantile & manufacturing. While in New Orleans in 1841-42, he was threatened with lynching, he obtained, with great effort, the release of large numbers of free Negroes, who had been placed on chain-gangs. During the civil war he did much to sustain the national credit, and was offered an official position in the treasury dept., which he declined. He formed a friendship with John S. Mill, the noted philosopher. His own philosophical writings were read with interest throughout the English speaking world. He gave Brown University money which was used to endow the "Hazard" professorship of physics. His early connection with business in the South was so large that Southern newspapers warned Southern people not to buy "Hazard's goods." because he was opposed to slavery. He united with the Union Pacific railroad company to put it back on a solid basis through his personal involvement. VG.

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