A Guide to the Samuel B. T. Caldwell's Address, 3 August 1850 #OM 008

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection open for research

Use Restrictions

Physical characteristics and conditions affect use of this material. Photocopying not permitted.

Preferred Citation

Samuel B. T. Caldwell's Address (OM 008), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from Loudoun County in 1995 per memorandum of understanding between the County of Loudoun and the Town of Leesburg, 3 Aug 1994.

Alternative Form Available

None

Accruals

1989.0005

Processing Information

Processed by Emily Hershman, 17 July 2007

Formerly catalogued as NUCMC 65.

Samuel Brooks Tobie Caldwell was born on 8 Jan 1792. He lived in Newburyport, MA until he was about twenty-four years old. He came to Leesburg, VA and began publishing a newspaper called The Genius of Liberty in 1816 (the first issue of the paper appeared in January 1817). However, Caldwell found the printing business a difficult one, and sold the paper to B.W. Sower on 13 Oct 1819. Though he continued to sell stationary supplies for several years, he found the business unprofitable.

From 1831-1832, Caldwell was a Loudoun County representative in the Virginia House of Delegates. As a delegate, Caldwell met other prominent Virginia citizens and helped to found the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society on 29 Dec 1831. He bought a grist mill at Wheatland in 1848, which he traded for the Catoctin Mill on the south fork of Catoctin Creek in 1859. In the Census of 1850, he is listed as a merchant, but in 1860 is listed as a miller. Samuel B. T. Caldwell died on 29 Mar 1866 and is buried in the Leesburg Presbyterian Churchyard.

Scope and Content

Caldwell's address was published as a broadside on 3 Aug 1850. It was written in order to express Caldwell's political views on reform issues, and is particularly concerned with the voting rights of western Virginians.

Caldwell begins the broadside by stating the importance of reform issues such as extension of voting rights, abolishment of the executive council, and alterations to the county court system to the current election. He then mentions the 1829 debate over constitutional reform and a committee of prominent Virginians that was created to question candidates about their position on reform issues. He notes that almost every man questioned asserted that all free white citizens should have equalized representation. Caldwell uses this reference to the 1829 committee in order to express his own affirmative views on equalizing representation, adding that such a stance was taken by the most prominent men of the day. He insists that there can be no justification for those who are willing to deny the west voting rights, unless they are troubled by a "fear of oppressive taxation." This position, Caldwell asserts, which values property over people, denies the fundamentals of American government and undermines the political power of the vast majority of citizens. Furthermore, Caldwell feels that there is too much concern over taxation and that taxes are and should be proportional to the property of the individual. He adds that the west exceeds the east in agricultural and industrial production, adult literacy, and productive labor, making them worthy depositories of political power. Caldwell concludes that he is in favor of thorough voting rights reform.

The broadside is the only document in this collection