Lot #10 Letter praising executed radical Abolitionist John Brown as “the Man of the Century”

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Description

Heading:

(African American, 1860)

Title:

Letter praising executed radical Abolitionist John Brown as “the Man of the Century”

Author:

Lesley, John Peter

Place Published:

Philadelphia

Date Published:

March 28, 1860

Description:

4pp.+stampless address leaf. Autograph Letter Signed. To his nephew Benjamin Smith Lyman in Paris, France.

Recovering from a long illness and looking forward to returning to his geological surveying and writing, Lesley seemed somewhat depressed by the state of the country and envious of his nephew’s residence in Paris. Buried in his long letter is this somewhat astounding remark, “Brackett has made the most magnificent bust of John Brown you ever saw. George Stearns sent us a copy (photo...) It is splendid beyond description and more like the gods of old than any modern man. He was certainly the Man of the Century…”

A staunch anti-slavery Republican, Lesley also writes in this letter about a “great speech” by Abolitionist orator Wendell Phillips, who was severe in his criticism of New York Governor William Seward, then the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination before being upstaged by Lincoln. Two years before, Seward had given a speech on the “Irrepressible Conflict” with the South over slavery, but he was now trying to backtrack, moving from what Lesley called the “absolute and ideal” to the “possible and practicable…the same old dualism.” Lesley joked that it was an example of Seward’s equivocation, his “may can must might could would should” political rhetoric. Lesley was impatient with equivocation. His wife, who had met Brown’s widow after his death, had privately praised the Harper’s Ferry raid as “a mad scheme and yet how characteristically heroic and martyr-like”. Her husband clearly agreed. With the country bitterly divided on the eve of Civil War, what moved him to declare his admiration was a letter from his friend, wealthy Massachusetts industrialist George Luther Stearns.
Stearns was one of Brown’s “secret” supporters before the abortive insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, who, faced with the possibility of legal prosecution, were forced to shy away from open acknowledgment of involvement with a revolutionary who had just been executed for treason. After Brown’s arrest, Stearns he had fled to Canada to avoid prosecution, but had now returned to face an inquiry. Three years later, after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Stearns would openly hold a “John Brown party” at his home, with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Julia Ward Howe, Louisa May Alcott, Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison in attendance, at which he would unveil the sculpture of Brown by sculptor Edward Brackett, who had seen Brown in prison before his execution. This letter reveals that, in 1860, Stearns had he had already sent a picture of the bust to Lesley, which had inspired the Geologist to praise the subject of Brackett’s work as “the Man of the Century.”

Condition:

Small hole from seal opening, affecting a few words of handwriting; very good.

Item#:

318245

Headline:

Geologist lauds the treasonous John Brown
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Sale 774: Americana - Travel & Exploration - Aeronautics - Maps, Prints & Views (#774) 10/20/2022 11:00 AM PDT Closed Starts Ending 10/20/2022 11:00 AM PDT

Lot #10 Letter praising executed radical Abolitionist John Brown as “the Man of the Century”

Sale 774: Americana - Travel & Exploration - Aeronautics - Maps, Prints & Views (#774) 10/20/2022 11:00 AM PDT Closed
Starts Ending 10/20/2022 11:00 AM PDT