Call Number:

C1289

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward C. Thomas Letters to Nicholas Biddle, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1801-1804 (inclusive)

Creator:

Thomas, Edward C.

Form:

Letters -- 19th century.

Abstract:

Consists of letters by Princeton graduate Edward C. Thomas to his friend and college classmate Nicholas Biddle about news of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).

Edward C. Thomas was a member of the Princeton Class of 1801. He returned to Princeton to study law with Robert Stockton. Nicolas Biddle is best know as a financier who served as president of Second Bank of the United States. Among other achievements, Biddle prepared Lewis and Clark's report of their exploratory expedition to the mouth of the Columbia River for publication, though his name is not on the ns2:title page.

The collection consists of twenty-six autograph letters of Thomas to his friend and college classmate Nicholas Biddle, chiefly about news of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University.) Thomas was plagued by ill-health during the time he wrote the letters. Though the bulk of the material is related to the College of New Jersey and its students, the letters also provide insight into social customs, balls in Princeton and Trenton, national and state politics, and race relations in the early years of the nineteenth century. The earlier letters were sent to Biddle in Philadelphia from Maryland; other letters were sent from Princeton where Thomas returned to the College to study law with Robert Stockton. In his letters Thomas writes about the riots of the senior class of the College of New Jersey and the students setting fire to the college library in Nassau Hall in January 1802, and about president Samuel Stanhope Smith's trip to Maryland to raise funds to rebuild the library. He writes about the thirty "Negroes" who were arrested for a plot to burn Baltimore, and the insurrections by "Negroes" in North Caroline in July of 1802. In several of his letters he writes about the political differences between the Federalists and the Republicans, the involvement of the American Navy fleet in fighting the Tripolitans in the Mediterranean and North Africa, and the capture of the frigate Philadelphia by the North Africans. Another topic which occupies a large portion of the correspondence is the young ladies whom Thomas meets at Princeton or while traveling, including President Smith's daughter, Susan. Thomas also writes about classmates and friends and their whereabouts, including Elias Ellmaker, George McLean Cummings, John Purdon, James Rogers, John W. Smith, and John Stoops.

The letters are arranged in chronological order.