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William Cabell Rives Letter, Accession #1273-a , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
This letter was purchased by the Library from Halvor Americana of Clarendon Hills, Illinois, on April 6, 1988.
This collection consists of a letter from William Cabell Rives (1793-1868) to his son, Alfred Landon Rives (1830-1903), August 5, 1856, which discusses Rives' hopes that the committee, chaired by [James Alfred] Pearce (1805-1862), will allow him to edit the papers of President James Madison. Rives did write a three volume work entitled History of the Life and Times of James Madison between 1859 and his death in 1868, and also edited Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, with Philip Fendall, by order of Congress, 1865.
Rives also mentions Pearce's "handsome and able letter on the Presidential election" expressing his negative opinion concerning the "Know Nothing" Party and its presidential nominee, Millard Fillmore (1800- 1874). Rives argues that Fillmore has proved his fidelity to the country by "actual trial in the administration of the government" and deserves to be re-elected. Rives disliked the Democratic nominee, James Buchanan (1791-1868), because of his involvement in the writing of the Ostend Manifesto.