Scope and Content Note
The papers of Louis Freeland Post (1849-1928) span the years 1864-1940, with the bulk of the material from the period 1900-1922. The collection consists of a diary, correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous biographical material and printed matter. The papers document Post’s wide-ranging interests, especially his support of Henry George and the single tax, his Swedenborgian religious views, his policies favoring the civil rights of radicals, and his optimistic view of society and progress. A main feature of the correspondence is a file of letters to and from William Jennings Bryan described on receipt as correspondence selected by Post of their communications. The collection is organized into four series: Correspondence, Article and Book File, Miscellany, and Addition.
The writings consist of articles, book drafts, and copies of published books. The articles were written for various national magazines as well as newspapers such as the Daily Democrat, Day Star, Public, and New York Standard. Included in the book manuscripts is Post’s unpublished autobiography, “Living a Long Life Over Again.” There are also manuscripts of The Deportations Delirium of Nineteen-Twenty and The Prophet of San Francisco. Among the published books in the collection are copies of The Ethics of Democracy, What Is the Single Tax?, and The Basic Facts of Economics.
The Miscellany includes two scrapbooks of note. One records Post’s correspondence with the Hackettstown Gazette and other newspapers while he was in South Carolina covering Ku Klux Klan trials as a government stenographer. The other relates primarily to the attempted impeachment of Post as assistant secretary of labor because of his policies relating to the deportation of political dissidents and radicals. Also in Miscellany is material pertaining to an alleged buried treasure in South Africa supposedly hidden at the time Paul Kruger, president of Transvaal, made his escape to Holland, and a file containing Russian loan data.
An Addition to the collection includes correspondence, writings, and other material of Post’s wife, Alice Thacher Post, as well as a diary, letters, articles, poems, speeches, and a scrapbook of Louis Post.