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MS. report on Revolutionary War memorial

Title: Ledger Book containing 19 pages of manuscript copies of letters and reports on the establishment of a memorial in New York City for Revolutionary War prisoners
Author: **
Description: 19 pp. in large early 19th century ledger book, with a few of the remaining pages used for accounts, most are blank. 16¾x10½, split calf.Fair copies of letters and reports from 1808 relating to the establishment of a memorial for Revolutionary War prisoners, specifically "our unfortunate countrymen on board the Jersey Prison ship" anchored in New York harbor. The 19 pages comprise the Records of the Wall-About Committee, a committee comprising 7 members of the Tammany Society or Columbian Order, which latter organization was to form the New York political machine of Fernando Wood and his ilk in the mid-19th century. The aims of the committee are clearly stated in the preliminary report: "The severe yet humble, the intolerable yet obscure fate of those victims to the cruelty of their and their country's oppressors shall not be unrecorded, but shall be stamped on our memories and engraven on every heart, that beats with the blood, or glows with the sentiments of a citizen, of a son of America, shall it be told, shall it be proclaimes to the world..." Though the originals which this ledger book records are dated 1808, the few other entries (of various unrelated accounts) are dated 1848-1852, and it is not known the exact date the copies were made. Nonetheless, a rare and significant record of the activities of one of the leading benevolent societies of the day, which was to morph into a political organization whose very name bespoke corruption.
Heading: (Tammany Society)Place Published: [New York]
Publisher:
Date Published: 1808-[c.1848]