This collection contains 9 letters and 2 documents related to the family of Ebenezer Jackson, Jr., of Savannah, Georgia, and Middletown, Connecticut. Jackson and his father wrote and received personal letters about contemporary political issues such as the Missouri Compromise, the 1860 United States Presidential election, secession, and the Civil War. Jackson also wrote to his father about his travels in Boston, Massachusetts, and offered advice to his brother Amasa, who attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in the mid-1820s.
Ebenezer Jackson, Jr., authored 4 letters in this collection. He wrote 2 letters to his father in which he discussed his impressions of Boston, a publication in support of the War of 1812 (March 13, 1814), and his Pennsylvania to Connecticut travel plans (July 5, 1825). Jackson's mother, Charlotte Fenwick Jackson, contributed to his first letter, urging her husband to keep "Harriette" in school. Ebenezer Jackson sent 2 letters to his brother Amasa, who attended the Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1820, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1823; he offered educational advice and congratulated him on his academic achievements.
Ebenezer Jackson, Jr., received 4 political letters from acquaintances. A committee in Middletown, Connecticut, strongly urged Jackson to accept his nomination for a United States Senate seat in 1834 and explained the reasons why he would be a strong candidate (March 13, 1834). Hezekiah Huntington wrote about political parties and the 1860 presidential election (August 21, 1860); former Florida governor Richard K. Call strenuously voiced his opposition to secession (January 19, 1861); and United States Senator Lafayette Sabine Foster affirmed his support for the Union's military efforts against the Confederacy, as well as his disdain for the peace efforts of Horace Greeley and others (January 27, 1863).
Ebenezer Jackson, Sr., sent 1 letter to William Van Deusen, in which he shared his opinions about the Missouri Compromise (March 25, 1820). He anticipated continued conflicts between the North and South over slavery, and mentioned the possible effects those conflicts might have on British opinion about the United States.
The collection's documents are an undated copy of a 1672 deed between John Stows and John Willcoke for land in Middletown, Connecticut, and an 1836 memorandum of the estate of Ebenezer Jackson, Sr., addressed to Mary C. Oliver of Boston, Massachusetts.
Ebenezer Jackson, Jr., was born in Savannah, Georgia, on January 31, 1796, the son of Charlotte Fenwick and Revolutionary War veteran Ebenezer Jackson. His brother Amasa attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in the mid-1820s. After graduating from St. Mary's College in 1814, Ebenezer Jackson, Jr., studied law in Connecticut; he had a legal practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1821 and 1826. Jackson then moved to Middletown, Connecticut. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1829-1832; 1849) and the United States House of Representatives (1834-1835). He married Hannah Saltonstall Hubbard (1815-1903) on September 1, 1840, and they had six children: Mary Selina (b. 1841), Eliza Anne (1843-1888), Robert Nesmith (1845-1915), Charles Eben (1849-1873), Katherine Frances (b. 1851), and Margaret Ellen (b. 1853). Ebenezer Jackson, Jr., died on August 17, 1874.
