Scope and Content Note
The Levi Woodbury Family Papers include correspondence, diaries, speeches and writings, financial and legal papers, genealogical notes, an autograph collection, scrapbooks, clippings, and other material relating to Levi Woodbury (1789-1851), his son, Charles Levi Woodbury (1820-1898), and other family members. The collection spans the period 1638-1914 but is concentrated chiefly in the years 1804-1897. Levi Woodbury's papers, which make up three-fourths of the collection, provide an insider's view of United States policy and politics during the first half of the nineteenth century.
The largest segment of the papers is the General Correspondence file. A major portion of the file documents Levi Woodbury's cabinet service, especially as secretary of the treasury (1834-1841). The executive branch perspective of Jacksonian policy is clearly evident in the controversy surrounding the Bank of the United States, the removal of deposits, the Specie Circular, and the Panic of 1837 as well as the operation of customs houses and land offices.
Correspondence dealing with national politics also figures prominently in the file. Letters received during Woodbury's cabinet and senatorial years (circa 1824-1845) concern the presidential elections of 1824 and 1828, the nomination of Martin Van Buren in 1836, and the Democrats' loss of the presidency to the Whigs in 1840 and their success in 1844. Most of Woodbury's outgoing correspondence during these years is in the form of letterpress copies which have been segregated as a separate subseries. The copies are of poor quality and are often difficult to interpret. Some of the most informative material consists of letters from around the nation describing local elections and reactions to administration policy.
Significant correspondents include George Bancroft, Thomas H. Benton, John Helferstein, Isaac Hill, Jesse Hoyt, Henry Hubbard, Andrew Jackson, Dutee J. Pearce, Robert Rantoul, William C. Rives, Richard Rush, Martin Van Buren, Nathaniel West, Campbell B. P. White, and Silas Wright, Jr.
Woodbury's national government service is also documented in memoranda, notes, reports, and speeches in the Speeches and Writings file; diary entries relating to his years as secretary of the navy, in the Journals and Diaries file; and in clippings and scrapbooks of clippings in the Miscellany. There is relatively little in the papers pertaining to Woodbury's years on the Supreme Court. His early years as student, lawyer, judge, and governor are covered most completely in the General Correspondence, Speeches and Writings, and Journals and Diaries files. His memoranda on self examination, personal reflections, and an autobiographical sketch done in 1817 provide insight into his formative years. In addition to Woodbury's diary entries, the Journals and Diaries file contains a copy of a journal by Captain John Cahoone aboard the Vigilant in 1829, ships's logs kept by a Captain Levi Woodbury, 1780-1881, and a lengthy diary kept by Woodbury's daughter, Virginia L. (Woodbury) Fox, 1860-1878.
The Family Correspondence series and the Family Papers: Administrative and Financial File contain material written by or relating to Woodbury's extended family. The most numerous and important letters in the Family Correspondence are those exchanged by Woodbury and his wife. Woodbury's letters, many of which are in draft form, are concerned with personal, family and political matters and cover much of his courtship and married life. Also important in these files are letters written by Isaac Barnes, Montgomery Blair (mostly to Charles L. Woodbury), Asa G. Clapp, Asa W.H. Clapp, Nehemiah Eastman, Virginia L. (Woodbury) Fox (mostly to C. L. Woodbury), Charles L. Woodbury, Elizabeth W. (Clapp) Woodbury, and Ellen C. deQ. Woodbury (mostly to C. L. Woodbury). A folder of general correspondence of Gustavus V. Fox, assistant secretary of the navy, 1861-1865, is also present, although most of the correspondence postdates his government service.
The Genealogical Notes series consists chiefly of notes on the Woodbury and related families. Largely the work of Charles L. Woodbury and his sister, Ellen, the notes probably provided the basis of Charles Woodbury's Genealogical Sketches of the Woodbury Family: Its Intermarriages and Connections,, published posthumously and edited by Ellen C. deQ. Woodbury (Manchester, N.H., John B. Clarke Co., 1904).
The Miscellany series includes an autograph collection compiled by Charles L. Woodbury and others, two Indian treaties (1713 and 1717), contemporary copies of letters from Charles II and Queen Anne, and a letter from John Hancock to his wife regarding Congress's imminent flight from Philadelphia (1777). Copies of documents retained by the donors are inserted in the collection. Letters addressed to Levi Woodbury and once a part of this autograph collection have been interfiled in the General Correspondence file. The Miscellany series also contains biographical material on Levi Woodbury, including a memoir by his son (1881), and on Charles L. Woodbury, naval documents from the papers of Gustavus V. Fox dealing with fiscal matters and contracts (1847-1850), declarations of the crew of the Lillias (1860), and a report on the "Naval Defence of Sweden" (1867); appointments and citations; and printed material.
The papers of Charles L. Woodbury contain his general correspondence, subject files, and speech and writings files. Two scrapbooks and clippings associated with Charles L. Woodbury are filed among the Miscellany. Of primary interest in these papers is material relating to the United States- Canadian fisheries dispute of the 1880s. Letters, notes, and clippings document the seizure of various United States vessels and Woodbury's legal work directed toward modification of the Washington Treaty of 1871. There is also material case related to Samuel F. B. Morse's telegraph patent and on matters relating to the estate of Mary A. Taylor. Civil dockets of Woodbury's years as United States district attorney for Massachusetts are also present. The remainder of his papers contain drafts and notes of articles and speeches. Correspondents include William L. Putnam, George Steele, Charles H. Woodbury, and Gordon Woodbury. Although the last two mentioned are relatives, their letters, aside from two by Gordon Woodbury, have not been placed in the Family Correspondence series, since they deal primarily with business matters.