Autograph Letter Signed. Kingston, New Hampshire, March 16, 1829, to Rev. Martin Ruter, New Market, New Hampshire.

Small folio, two pages, plus integral address leaf, in very good, clean, and legible condition.

1819 Grandson of a Signer of the Declaration of Independence supports "Toleration" School for religious liberty.

The grandson of Josiah Bartlett, the fist Governor of New Hampshire and second signer (after John Hancock) of the Declaration of Independence was not as active in national politics as his brother, Josiah, Jr., who served in the New Hampshire State Senate and in the US Congress, but Levi took a strong interest in political affairs in his hometown of Kingston, as reflected in this letter to a Methodist clergyman who was also a pioneer educator, heading three schools he helped found: An Academy in his own hometown of New Market, August College in Kentucky, and Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, a distant forerunner of Wesleyan University.

Which is why Bartlett informed Ruter about a controversy over the founding of a new Academy in Kingston. But first he gave Ruter an account of proceedings at the town's Annual Meeting. Bartlett was apparently a Democratic-Republican in his politics and details the votes at the meeting between his party's candidates and their Federalist opponents, for local offices, for the state legislature and US Congress, and for Governor and US Senator. But the main subject of the letter was the establishment of a Kingston Academy and where it should be located:

"I am confident, if the place of setting it can be removed from the obligation to which we all agreed to be bound, can be altered, the only place must be on Mr. Loverens, to be generally satisfactory. North or South of these two places will produce such a collision, as can be remedied only by fixing a spot and opening a new subscription for that place. Mr. Sanborn has dealt with the subscribers in such a way, that his land now, on any terms, will be quite out of the question; notwithstanding the good opinion we may formerly have had of it. Justice will lead to Union, selfish policy may prove fatal to the best of causes. I shall ever disclaim the honor of being on the list of benefactors where justice and impartiality are thrown into background. I am conscious of the rectitude of my motives for the public good in the part I have taken in this business. But Calumny hath already attributed to my generosity unworthy motives never conceived by me. I have and still wish for the Public Good in this institution; if it can be had on righteous terms; under this view, any place between the two corners, that will promote the public good will suit me; But placed as I am, no consideration would induce me to consent to injustice. I say to you this, that I may not be considered as a mere automaton, as easily moulded to selfish motives as to the cause of Truth and Justice."

If the highfalutin rhetoric about choosing a school site seems curious, it can be understood with some background about the history of the proposed school. While it was incorporated by Methodists, at Bartlett's urging, they had specified that it should be a "Toleration Academy", open to all faiths - which appealed to Bartlett, who was himself a Universalist "apostate" from his family's Congregationalist leanings and was instrumental in having the Methodist founders accede to these "toleration" principles: "That this Academy shall never come into the hands of any one Religious sect or Denomination whatever but shall be known by the name of Kingston Toleration Academy….That no sectarian principle of Religion shall be taught in said Academy; only General principles of Doctrine and Rules of Morality, Piety, Benevolence & strict Virtue be taught, enforced & form a basis of Practical Religion. No one sect shall have greater liberties or privileges than another, all tolerated & all put upon an equality." This may be seen in the context of the larger "toleration" movement about to be embraced by the entire state of New Hampshire, which, at that very moment, after a long and heated debate, was about to pass a "Toleration Act" which provided "That no person shall be compelled to join or support any congregation, church, or religious society, without his express consent first had and obtained ... And any person may be leaving a written notice with the clerk of the society be exempt from any future expenses." Specifically, no citizen could be required to help pay funds for a school or any other religious-oriented institution which differed from his own religious faith.

It was poetic justice that the grandson of a "Founding Father" should be instrumental in supporting this cause of civil liberty within his own community.