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CoUection: SAUNDERS, WILLIAM LAURENCE, COLLECTION
Р.Г.27.1-27.4
Raleigh, North Carolina
1775-1890, n.d.
Physical Description: 656 items: letters, telegrams, bills, receipts, accounts,
newspaper clipping, brochure, extracts, will, and miscellaneous papers.
Acquisition: From Biennial Reports: 1908-1910 . 115 letters and other documents
transferred from capitol by Secretary of Historical Commission, relating to
Saunders ' term as secretary-treasurer of the University of North Carolina
Board of Trustees and to his work on Colonial Records: 1928-1930, 471 items
( 1881-1885 ) transferred from office of Secretary of State.
Description: papers cf William Laurence Saunders (1835-1891; for biographical
sketch see Samuel A. Ashe, ed. , Biographical History of North Carolina, vol.
IV, pp. 381-390) include letters to him on political, historical, and univer¬
sity matters relative to his work as Secretary of State (1879-1891) , editor
of Colonial Records of North Carolina ( 1881-1891) , and as secretary-treasurer
of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees (1875-1891) •
Correspondence relating to political affairs includes letters from
United States Senator Matt W. Ransom, 1882, concerning chances of the Demo¬
cratic Party in North Carolina attracting "old-line" Republican voters and
asking Saunders to recommend someone to compile agricultural statistics for
the United States Department of Agriculture; from United States Senator L.
Q. C. Iamarr, 1882, concerning the re-election of Zebulon B. Vance to the
United States Senate; from Peter M. Hale, 1883, concerning the publication
of a weekly Democratic newspaper; from Thomas J. Jarvis, Minister to Brazil,
1887, urging Saunders to become a candidate for governor of North Carolina;
from, United States Representative H. H. Cowles, 1888, requesting that he sup¬
port Adlai E. Stevenson for vice-president. . Other letters refer to the polit¬
ical strength of the Democrats, the Radicals, and the Negroes in North Carolina
Correspondence relating to historical matters includes letters from W.
Noel Sainsbury reporting progress in copying the oolonial records of North
Carolina in the Public Record Office, London; and letters from many others,
particularly Joseph 3. Cheshire, Jr. and Graham Daves, concerning research,
copying, and collection of colonial records available in the United States.
Additional letters are from the president of Trinity College concerning a
lecture on "North Carolina During the Revolution"; from Charles C. Jones,
author of History of Georgia (1883) concerning autograph letters; from
Zebulon B. Vance concerning 'an article, which he considered slanderous,
