1850, Rochester, N.Y; G. A. Gooding to Marquis DeLafayette Lane, re: ethics

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In this 1850 letter Gustavus Adolphus Gooding, Rochester, NY writes to his friend Marquis De Lafayette Lane in Boston. Both men were 1849 graduates of Dartmouth College. He talks a disagreement with money and a common woman friend named Olive...and that virtue should play out...kick a man that's poor and go post haste to the Devil, and I say let them go, it is the best place for them...we are having the Monroe County fair...see what the people in this section of the world do for a living.....the woman are just as the model Powers took as his slave in the exhibition....it is not a sight for all the world....shall you go to see Jenny Lind when she comes to Boston?...isn't that running the thing into the ground, paying such adoration to a womansigned on second page G.A.Gooding. Letter is two pages, folds, else in overall very good condition. The sculpture by Hiram Powers was perhaps the most popular American work of art at mid-century. Over one hundred thousand people paid to see it during its 1847-1848 tour around the country. Powers himself supplied this gloss on the statue's sensational subject--a woman on sale as a sexual object. On the whole, however, American responses to the statue were silent about any relationship between Greek slaves and American slavery, even when it was exhibited in Southern cities like New Orleans. As the poet in The Independent notes, the American government even chose to use Powers' work as the centerpiece of the nation's exhibit at the 1851 World's Fair in the Crystal Palace in London.Please read scans of letter.Gustavus Adolphus Gooding and Marquis De Lafayette Lane. Both were lawyers, Gooding died at the age of 33. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS GOODING, son of Ebenezer and Mary Gooding, was born at Henrietta, N. Y., October 10,1825. He prepared for college at Monroe Academy and Genessee Wesleyau Seminary, at Lima, N. Y. After graduation he studied law in the office of Angle & Tucker, of Rochester, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar December 1,1851. In 1852 he removed to Lockport, Illinois, and commenced the practice of his profession as a partner with Mr. Mathewson, in which he continued until a short time previous to his death, in December, 1858. He married Miss Jennie Weeks, a daughter of Dr. Weeks, of Lockport, in 1854. He left two children: Jennie, born in 1855, and Minnie, born in 1857. A classmate thus writes of him: "He was successful as a "professional man, and won golden opinions. His ability was good; his kindness and attention to his clients and their interests, and his perfect integrity, were winning for him sure success, when consumption ended his business, and shortly after, in the year 1858, his life. He was a man of uncommonly fine appearance, and a gentleman who would engage attention among a "multitude." This is but a just tribute to his memory, and his career after graduating shows that, had his life been spared, the high opinions formed of him when in college would have been more than realized. "We shall ever cherish and honor his memory." MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE LANE, son of John and Mary Buggies (Usher) Lane, was born at Hollis, York county, Maine, June 11, 1825 and passed away on 15 Sep 1872. He prepared for college at Fryeburg and Yarmouth (Me.) academies. In August, 1849, he commenced the study of the law in the office of Robert B. Caverly, Esq., at Lowell, Mass., where he remained until January, 1851. At that time he became principal of the academy at Standish, Maine, where he remained until March, 1853, in the meantime continuing the study of the law in the office of the Hon. Horatio J. Swazey, at Standish. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, at Portland, Maine, in 1853, and commenced the practice of his profession at Hollis, Maine, immediately after, remaining there until October, 1855, when he removed to Portland, and continued the practice of the law there until 1859. He was then elected Judge of the Municipal Court of Portland, which office he held until October, 1862, when, having been appointed Consul at Vera Cruz, Mex... read more

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