3

OverviewVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Complete

continue it, with the assurance that we are doing all we can and will not lose sight of or neglect the matter.

We had funds in abundance in 1862 & 3, which were invested unfortunately in Confederate Securities. i sent you the last that came into my hands in 61.

I am Very Respy
Your obt svt

G.R. Fairbanks
Gn'l Tr.
Messrs Hyatt, McBurney, & Co
Charleston, S.C.

Here follow a dozen points of Sewanee history for which these two letters constitute the oldest original-source documentation.
The 1867 letter is a present the earliest known signed and dated record of the University's active bill payment during the early years of the Confederacy. The letter is also unique as original-source documentation that money both came in and was disturbed in 1861 and was still "at our disposal" in the winter of 1861-62.
The 1868 letter is at present the earliest known signed and dated attestation that the University 'had funds in abundance" in 1862 and even in 1863. In those early years the University, as such, did not invest money. It was handled by the owning dioceses, all of which (obviously, if coincidentally) were in seceded states. These two letters again constitute the earliest, possibly the only, documentary evidence specifying that the great funds had been "invested" (the word in each letter) in "Confederate currency" and in "Confederate securities." Both letters use the adverb, "unfortunately," though such investment would certainly have been normal procedure.
More personally, Fairbanks here uniquely testifies that "the last [money] that came into my hands" was in 1861, and that he dispensed it properly at that time. "Funds in abundance" continued to exist (Confederate bonds were not worthless until the war was over), but these letters again uniquely document that after some moment in 1862 finances were frusterated: "could we have communicated with our fiscal agents we could readily have discharged the balance in currency during the War."
Again these letters are the earliest official attestation to the fact that post-bellum efforts to collect on the old pledges had yielded exactly nothing- not one dollar- as of October, 1867. At the same time they attest genuine hope that it might still be possible to "realise a portion"- by no means all- of the promised support. Though efforts to collect from various dioceses continued for another decade, Fairbanks' 1868 letter is a unique example of official admission that University officials had become "hopeless of obtaining anything at home."
Many documents attest the extraordinary efforts of Quintard, but this 1868 letter may be the earliest to imply that without him the University would not have been rekindled successfully. It is heart-warming to have in writing this personal complaint to the 43-

Notes and Questions

Nobody has written a note for this page yet

Please sign in to write a note for this page