Few senators from Wisconsin have won a higher place in American political history or have achieved a greater national reputation than James R. Doolittle, who represented the state in the United States Senate during the troubled years from 1857 to 1869. Apparently interested in politics from his youth, he began to take an active part in affairs in his home state of New York as a Democrat. He joined the Republican Party in 1856, and during the Civil War proved himself a staunch supporter of the Lincoln administration. Doolittle's support of the Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson caused his virtual expulsion from the Republican Party. This fact combined with his earlier Jacksonian sentiments eventually caused Doolittle to drift back to the Democratic fold.
Doolittle's background was New England Puritan. His formal elementary education was obtained in his local community in western New York, and he graduated from Geneva (now Hobart) College in 1834. With the exception of his college years and a few years' practice of law in Rochester, he resided in Wyoming County until his removal to Racine, Wisconsin in 1851.
The papers prior to 1851 --In this valuable part of the papers, politics, national and local, is emphasized from beginning to end, for even after Doolittle left office he maintained a strong interest in national affairs. The first papers are letters of college days, written to his classmate, Montgomery Schuyler, and to his brother, but included are several flowery orations on political subjects. Later, under date of July 4, 1837, there is an oration directed against abolitionists. Its content shows that Doolittle early recognized that the racial problem and not slavery was the insoluble problem.
The few scattered remaining letters of New York state days pertain to New York politics. There is a copy of the cornerstone resolution, which he drafted for the New York State Democratic Convention in 1847, condemning the extension of slavery while guaranteeing it where it already existed. An 1848 letter to General Zachary Taylor inquires about the general's views on slavery, tariff, independent treasury, and patronage, and seems indicative of the fact that Doolittle considered him a possible Democratic nominee. There are several letters from G. W. Clinton, United States attorney at Buffalo, in regards to presidential nominations.
Early Wisconsin years --Doolittle's first interest in Wisconsin apparently was his profession, and there are few letters for those years. In 1856 he was appointed by Governor Bashford to a commission to revise and codify Wisconsin laws, and there are a number of letters from New York state lawyers in response to his inquiries about that state's codification efforts. In January 1857 Doolittle was elected to the United States Senate.
Senatorial years --The papers from 1857 to 1869 are the most valuable of the entire collection even though Doolittle seldom kept copies of the letters he wrote. Doolittle's family did not usually accompany him to Washington, D.C. As a result his letters to his wife in Racine throw considerable light on events in the Capital, written as they were by a man who was on intimate terms with two presidential administrations.
The letters pertain with varying emphases and in varying numbers to the Kansas question, expansion of slavery into the territories, Washington social life, the Mexican treaty under consideration in 1859, John Brown (including a particularly good letter written in December, 1859 to Doolittle as a member of the congressional committee that investigated the affair at Harper's Ferry), the Republican convention of 1860 and the campaign of that year, and the national capital during the winter of 1860-1861.
When the war came, letters on other subjects began--from Republicans seeking political appointments, from friends seeking intervention on behalf of sons in the army, from generals seeking promotion, from his own sons in the army, and from John Tapley, Racine postmaster, keeping the senator posted on political affairs in Wisconsin. Other letters have to do with dishonesty in the transport system, the campaign of 1862 in Wisconsin, and failure of the government to pay soldiers' wages on time. One letter contains a pen picture of Lincoln at inauguration. Doolittle was interested in colonization as a solution to the slavery issue, and there are several letters written in regards to such plans, among them one from E. O. Crosby in Guatemala in November 1861. One letter contains observations on Mrs. Lincoln, and as early as 1862 Doolittle was impatient at what seems to him the fanaticism of certain members of his party. The bank bill of 1864, prisons, and Lincoln's policy toward the South are subjects of additional correspondence.
In September 1865, Doolittle sent a letter to President Andrew Johnson in regard to Jefferson Davis and the position of the rebel states that is included in the collection. Leonard Farwell, former governor of Wisconsin, witnessed Lincoln's assassination, and may have been instrumental in preventing a similar attack on Vice President Johnson. An account of the affair written for Lyman Draper is among the papers. D.H.C. Moore, a southern cotton dealer, wrote to Doolittle about conditions in Arkansas, and Doolittle himself went on a trip of investigation through several southern states in 1866 and wrote letters home about his activities and observations.
About Reconstruction there is some material in regard to the National Union Convention of 1866 called to win support for President Johnson's policies. Doolittle was very active in promoting the convention, and was its permanent chairman. Relations between Johnson and Congress, elections of 1866, difficulties arising out of refusal of the Senate to confirm Presidential appointments, comments on Johnson, purchase of the Virgin Islands (which Doolittle negotiated in 1867 and which the Senate refused to confirm) are other matters to which letters of this period relate. In this period and all through the senatorial years personal letters from his sons may be found.
Post Senate years --After leaving the Senate, Doolittle continued to be active in national and state elections. The collection includes a report of the committee on permanent organization of the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1872 (Doolittle was chairman of the committee), letters on the election deadlock of 1876, a speaking tour of 1880, recollections in 1881 of his trip to New Mexico and Colorado in 1865 as a member of a congressional committee that investigated conditions among the Cheyenne, and copies of letters written to President Cleveland by prominent Democrats recommending Doolittle for diplomatic appointments. Cleveland was cool to the idea, apparently, and the President's supposedly erratic policy in regard to appointments comes in for discussion in the correspondence. There is a complete account of the charges made against Doolittle in 1885 (by the New York Times) that he had entered into a dishonest bargain during the Civil War with a government clerk to sell cotton. Affidavits secured by Doolittle to disprove the charge are here.
The miscellaneous papers of the 1890s concern the Illinois-Michigan canal, the estate of E. H. Pease (Doolittle's son-in-law), a letter from Carter Harrison on Chilean affairs in 1892, a copy of the senator's will, the case of Sarah R. Angle against the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway, Hawaii in 1893, Cleveland on Supreme Court appointments, and an article on the money question in 1896. There is a paper on Doolittle's career delivered at a family reunion in 1935 by John G. M. Pease.
Mowry and Pease Correspondence --The Doolittle papers did not come to the Historical Society at one time, nor are all original letters here. Just how the papers came into the possession of Duane Mowry, a Milwaukee attorney, is not clear; but Mowry chose to divide the papers among a number of institutions in addition to the Wisconsin Historical Society. His correspondence details the disposition of the collection and includes lists of items held by other institutions. Also included are numerous transcriptions of Doolittle papers made by Mowry. In addition the Society has attempted to acquire photostats of papers deposited elsewhere and these are scattered throughout the collection.
Speeches and Articles --Doolittle was an eloquent and able speaker, and much in demand. The speeches and writings in the collection are arranged in chronological order and they form valuable supplements to the letters, and are valuable as portrayals of his views on many subjects: temperance (1835), the campaign of 1844, Reconstruction, the Franco-Prussian War, imperialism, currency questions, monopoly, electoral reform trusts, tariffs (after 1888), voting reform and “household suffrage,” and the money question (1896). There are also addresses delivered at national Democratic conventions, campaign speeches and floor remarks, Fourth of July orations, speeches on the occasion of funerals, fairs, banquets (including the visit of Grand Duke Alexius to Milwaukee in 1871), reunions, a report of the board of arbitrators selected under an act of Congress of 1870 for the improvement of water communication between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan by the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, replies to charges of official misconduct while in the Senate by the New York Times, an account of his trip to Europe in 1867, and the “United States of America in the Light of History and Prophecy,” his favorite speech. There are a few papers here in regard to the reorganization of the University of Chicago, and to his trip to Louisiana in connection with the vote canvass deadlock of 1876. Also in this section are several scrapbooks which contain handwritten and printed copies of his speeches and remarks, as well as clippings on other topics probably collected for campaign purposes.
