The papers consist chiefly of correspondence with prominent public figures. Also included are an autobiographical sketch of Janney; an essay on baptism read in and approved by the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends in September 1897, of which five thousand copies were printed for distribution; an Epistle in answer to those received by the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends; A Recollection of Interviews with Abraham Lincoln; an autographed photograph of Janney; and a brief statement by Robert Augustus Toombs on the consequences of the election of John Charles Fremont.

The correspondence is concerned with the collecting of funds for the National Washington Monument Society; the appointment of a postmaster for Columbus, Ohio, in 1861; Ohio politics during the Civil War; medical and sacramental use of alcohol; the liquor traffic; and the Indiana appropriation bill.

Among the correspondents are John Andrews, William Tully Bascom, William Baxter, Samuel Fenton Cary, George P. Coler, George Bruce Cortelyou, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, Samuel McPherson Janney, Thomas Francis Meagher, Edward Sylvester Morse, Joseph Hodson Outhwaite, Noah Haynes Swayne, Booker Taliaferro Washington, and Elisha Whittlesey.