Letter from Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax (1823­–1885) to Mrs. Jane Hoge concerning the House’s vote to abolish slavery

In an extraordinary understatement, Colfax’s cover letter to the philanthropist Jane Hoge describes the abolition of slavery as an “eventful incident in our History.” Hoge, with her friend Mary Livermore, organized the 1865 Northwestern Sanitary Fair, which displayed the record of House votes on the Thirteenth Amendment. These fairs raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Union war effort under the aegis of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which coordinated much of the aid offered to soldiers—medicine, bandages, blankets, clothing, and food—and visits to the wounded and dying. (The Library holds the Commission’s papers.) After the war, Hoge continued to work for the welfare of impoverished women and children in Chicago. Livermore became an activist for women’s suffrage, and both women wrote books detailing their experiences during the Civil War.