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The Barbourville (Ky.) Debating Society minutes concern the group's weekly meetings in the late 1830s. Each set of minutes contains attendees' names, the number of affirmative and negative votes regarding that week's question, and the next week's discussion topic. Members discussed subjects related to national and state politics, finances, penal codes, gender, and morality.

The Barbourville (Ky.) Debating Society minutes (122 pages) concern the group's weekly meetings between May 27, 1837, and November 16, 1839, with breaks between November 18, 1837-March 10, 1838, and August 4, 1838-March 30, 1839. The first entry and those that immediately follow the breaks contain the society's 3 constitutions. In addition to meeting minutes, the volume includes a 2-page membership list.

Most sets of weekly minutes list the names of attending members, the names of members selected to debate that meeting's assigned topic, the results of the society's vote, and the topic to be discussed at the following meeting. The minutes also reflect administrative matters settled during meetings, frequently regarding the admittance of new members and the election of officers. The Barbourville Debating Society mainly discussed political matters; some topics were debated on multiple occasions. Issues for debate included banking and taxation, the death penalty, revision of the Kentucky constitution, the admission of Texas to the Union, the relative worth of wealth and talent, the intellectual capacity of men and women, foreign immigration to the United States, the propriety of sanctioning divorces, and the desired amount of government funding for education and infrastructure. On at least two occasions, the society considered whether Native American removal or slavery was the greater evil, and on one occasion they considered whether the United States government could be justified in its actions against the Seminole tribe (July 13, 1839). The society also debated the legacies of politicians such as Andrew Jackson and Napoleon Bonaparte, and discussed the possibility of Henry Clay running for president in 1840.

• Bradley, Erwin Stanley. Union College, 1879-1954: Written in Commemoration of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Its Founding. Barbourville, Ky.: The College, 1954.
• Cobb, Ann. Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1922.

This collection contains 4 incoming letters that Dr. Henry A. True received from acquaintances, as well as 1 letter that True wrote to a friend. The letters primarily concern travel, politics, and the writers' lives.

This collection contains 4 incoming letters that Dr. Henry A. True received from acquaintances, as well as 1 letter that True wrote to a friend. The letters primarily concern travel, politics, and the writers' lives.

Columbus Tyler wrote to Henry True from Charlestown, Massachusetts, on August 13, 1834, and December 12, 1835. His first letter concerns the upheaval surrounding the Ursuline Convent Riots and the preparation of local military forces, who stood ready to intervene. In a letter from Louisville, Kentucky, S. B. Owen reminisced about life in New England, remarked on some differences between the two locales, and recounted his journey from New York (February 6, 1835). Writing from New York City, a third acquaintance expressed his frustration at True's lack of correspondence and discussed political issues such as the Whig Party's nomination of William Henry Harrison for president over Henry Clay (March 13, 1840). The final item is a letter that Henry A. True wrote to John D. Philips about his distaste for steamboat travel and his recent difficulties with taxation (May 20, 1836).

This collection is made up of letters that Isaac Fletcher wrote to Epaphras Bull of Lyndon, Vermont, while serving in the United States House of Representatives in 1839 and 1840. He discussed party politics, the presidential election of 1840, and other subjects.

This collection is made up of 13 letters that Isaac Fletcher wrote to Epaphras Bull of Lyndon, Vermont, while serving in the United States House of Representatives in 1839 and 1840. Fletcher discussed Whig party politics and political issues, such as the difficulty (and process) of electing a Speaker of the House, a contested election in New Jersey, state political conventions, and the presidential election of 1840, which he mistakenly assumed would result in Martin Van Buren's comfortable reelection (August 9, 1840). Some of the letters refer to prominent politicians such as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

The John Cooper papers contain letters written by John Cooper, Sr., of Easton, Pennsylvania, to his son, John Cooper, Jr., in which he discussed his land and business interests and his political views.

This collection consists almost exclusively of correspondence written by John Cooper, Sr., of Easton, Pennsylvania, to his son, John Cooper, Jr., of Erwin (and later Coopers Plains), New York. Cooper's correspondence often focused on land and on business matters, and he frequently mentioned various crops he grew. Cooper also gave his son business and personal advice; on April 18, 1836, he wrote, "By this time you probably know the fate of your Dam and Saw Mill. If indeed they are swept off by the flood, as we fear, I will pay for the erection of an other [sic]." Though business was a common theme in his letters, Cooper did not shy away from expressing his anti-Jacksonian political views, despite warning his son, "I beg of you to take care what you write & how you write. Political Letters may at any rate now be dispensed with. The die is cast. The vote to the Southwest places the Administration on better ground than before & that cause is gaining ground in every direction" (August 20, 1828).

• December 5, 1829: "In about two days Andrew Jackson must come from behind the fence & I predict a confirmation of the Sentiment which I constantly communicated to you...that he is not a friend of the American System, the essence, Spirit[ual] Substance of American Independence. He can't disguise any longer at any rate."
• March 28, 1837: "There are several hundred on the poor list & receiving charity in some form. Several of them Leading Politicians. Altho no more deserving the name of Freeman than the Virginia Slaves. Indeed they are unfit for freedom & would be better off, as well as more useful, under the rule of reasonable Masters...I was something of an Abolitionist until I discovered this frightful state of things- able bodied Men & women are ashamed to work; but not to beg & even insult those whose Industry & Economy has enable them to acquire something."
• March 24, 1839: "Altho I think the claim of Maine is probably right I still think she had better proceed slowly & remember that it is a National question & no State had authority to proceed to a War without she is so Authorized to do by the National authorities. It is too much like the act of an Individual who takes the Law in his own hands... As to a war, I have no idea of it. It would be madness, except as an Ultima Ratio." [Aroostook War]
• May 17, 1840: "We have nothing new since I wrote you that I know of Tippecanoe is going ahead at a great rate & will be taken into the Presidential Chair with a great majority as Washington & Jackson had. All seem to think something must be wrong in administration in time of Peace, expending the whole revenue of the Country...With the Purse & the Sword they have nearly nullified our Republican Institutions. I think however that I see the handwriting on the Wall...Nor will we now despair of the Republic."
• March 17, 1842: "If Jackson should come to my door in the Midst of a Shower of Rain, I would not know how to ask him in; but I would furnish him an umbrella & show him the way..."

The Joseph Shipley, Jr., collection is made up of business and personal correspondence related to the Shipley and Bringhurst families of Wilmington, Delaware. Most items are letters to Joseph Shipley, Jr., a native of Wilmington who was involved in shipping and banking in Liverpool, England, in the early to mid-19th century.

The Joseph Shipley, Jr., collection (1 linear foot) contains business and personal correspondence related to the Shipley and Bringhurst families of Wilmington, Delaware. The earliest items include letters to Joseph Bringhurst from correspondents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who commented on the cotton trade and finances from 1813-1817. The bulk of the collection is made up of business and personal letters to Joseph Shipley, Jr., from 1819 to the mid-1850s. Shipley, who lived and worked in Liverpool, England, regularly heard from merchants and family in Philadelphia and Wilmington and sometimes in New York and Manchester. The collection also includes some letters that Shipley wrote to his brothers. The Shipley correspondence often pertains to the shipment of cotton and other goods between the United States and Europe, to banking, and to family news from "Brandywine Mills."

Writers sometimes commented on current events or political affairs, such as elections, the advent of the "Native American" (Know Nothing) party and tensions between nativists and Irish Catholics in Philadelphia (May 14, 1844, and July 14, 1844), the "Oregon question," and the Mexican-American War. A letter from August 15, 1832, informs Shipley about the alarm over the cholera epidemic in Philadelphia. Several letters from the early 1840s mention the decline of the Bank of the United States, such as Richard Price's letter of October 30, 1840, which includes financial figures related to the bank. Shipley's later correspondence concerns personal and family matters, and he often received letters from his nieces and nephews in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The last items are letters written among members of the Bringhurst family. In one letter, Edward Bringhurst wrote to his wife Sarah about attending a religious service at the Sistine Chapel, presided over by the Pope (April 9, 1851). The collection also includes bills of lading, receipts, and indentures.