Scope and Content Note
The papers of the P. Phillips family span the period 1832 1914. The papers include the writings of Eugenia Levy Phillips and her parents, Jacob Clavius Levy and Fanny Yates Levy, but the bulk of the material relates to the law practice of her husband, P. Phillips (1807-1884), and his son, W. Hallett Phillips, prominent lawyers before the United States Supreme Court. Material concerning their practice is found primarily in the letterbooks, in the dockets, and in the legal record books. The collection is organized in eight series: Journal; General Correspondence, Letterbooks; Subject File; Autobiography, Speeches, and Writings; Legal File; Financial Papers; and Miscellany.
Although Eugenia Levy Phillips was an ardent Southerner, as shown in her journal written during her internment, P. Phillips apparently played an inactive role in the Civil War. There is a gap in the otherwise inclusive series of letterbooks for the period 1862 to 1867, but the period is scanned in his autobiography. Both P. Phillips and his son were champions of the disadvantaged. The elder Phillips was interested in California and the United States and Mexican Claims Commission, Key West and the slave trade, judicial reform, and in securing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
There is little biographical material on W. Hallett Phillips, but something of his character can be gleaned from his notebooks, translations and miscellaneous writings. His idealism is shown in material on the preservation of Yellowstone National Park, support of the Cuban revolution, investigation of a lynching at Hahnville, Louisiana, and the defense of the rights of the Moki (Hopi) Indians of Arizona.
Correspondence is generally on legal matters and includes James B. Campbell, Edmund Strother Dargan, John Forsyth, George Wilkins Guthrie, John Marshall Harlan, William R. King, William A. Maury, Medill McCormick, Moses Cohen Mordecai, Richard Olney, Hoke Smith, Edwin McMasters Stanton, A. B. Stickney, and William Yerger.