This item consists of a small slip of paper approx. 6.75 inches long by 2.50 inches. Glued to this are three signatures clipped from other documents.

First is a bold ink signature of President Franklin Pierce. When it was clipped the scissors hit the top of the letter “F” but very little of it was affected. Paper has moderate surface dirt from age.

The second autograph is in pencil and reads “W. A. BUCKINGHAM” who was the Civil War Governor from Connecticut. Pencil has faded a bit but is still readable. The paper surface also has some moderate surface dirt.

The last is a bold ink autograph that reads “W. G. BROWNLOW” who was a pre-war newspaper editor and post-war Governor of Tennessee. When Brownlow signed his name he smudged the lower portions of the letters “G” and “B.” This clipping also has some surface dirt.

Well-known to history, Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th President of the United States (1853–57). He was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. His polarizing actions in championing and signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act alienated anti-slavery groups while failing to stem intersectional conflict, setting the stage for Southern secession and the Civil War.

Not so well-known is William A. Buckingham (May 28, 1804 – February 5, 1875) who was born in Lebanon, Connecticut. He attended the common schools and Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut but never attended college. Buckingham entered into a career in the mercantile industry, and in 1848 helped to organize the Hayward Rubber Company, a business that developed into a successful enterprise.

Buckingham served as the mayor of Norwich, Connecticut from 1849 to 1850, and again from 1856 to 1857. He also served as Norwich's town treasurer and a member of the city council.

Winning the 1858 Republican gubernatorial nomination, Buckingham was elected and served as the 41st Governor of Connecticut. He was reelected to the governorship the next seven years, serving from May 5, 1858, until May 2, 1866. During his tenure, he dealt successfully with the effects of an economic panic that occurred in the state and with the outbreak of the Civil War. Buckingham arranged for troops, with 54 companies enlisting instead of 10. Before the General Assembly appropriated $2 million for military expenses, Buckingham had begun borrowing money in his own name to finance Connecticut's war efforts.

The outbreak of the Civil War was the major reason for Buckingham’s long tenure as Connecticut’s governor. A strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln, he hosted Lincoln when Lincoln campaigned in Connecticut, and a personal friendship formed between them. When the President called on the Northern governors to assist him in prosecuting the war, Buckingham worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day. The state’s major correspondent with the Federal government, he read and answered letters from troops in the field and visited troops at war as well as at home. Concerned for the welfare of Connecticut troops, he oversaw much of the procurement of men and materials for the war, and he is quoted as saying to an official in Washington: “Don’t let any Connecticut man suffer for want of anything that can be done for him. If it costs money, draw on me for it.” It is estimated that Connecticut sent 54,882 soldiers to fight in the Civil War. Buckingham is known as a “War Governor” for his work.

Lastly, William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow (August 29, 1805 – April 29, 1877) was an American newspaper editor, minister, and politician. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. Brownlow rose to prominence in the 1840s as editor of the “WHIG”, a polemical newspaper in East Tennessee that promoted Whig Party ideals and opposed secession in the years leading up to the Civil War. Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history and one of the most controversial Reconstruction Era politicians of the United States.

Beginning his career as a Methodist circuit rider in the 1820s, Brownlow was both censured and praised by his superiors for his vicious verbal debates with rival missionaries of other sectarian Christian beliefs. And later as a newspaper publisher and editor, he was notorious for his relentless personal attacks against his religious and political opponents, sometimes to the point of being physically assaulted. At the same time, Brownlow was successfully building a large base of fiercely loyal subscribers.

Brownlow returned to Tennessee in 1863 and in 1865 became the war governor with the U.S. Army behind him. He joined the Radical Republicans and spent much of his term opposing the policies of his longtime political foe Andrew Johnson. His gubernatorial policies, which were both autocratic and progressive, helped Tennessee become the first former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866. Brownlow's policy of disenfranchising both ex-Confederate leaders and soldiers while utilizing state government to enfranchise African-American former slaves with the right to vote in Tennessee elections fueled the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1860s.  [ad]

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