Harper’s Weekly – February 26, 1859

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | February 26, 1859

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Tax-chick]

Sounds like your medium is a fraud. I hope she’s pretty, at least.

[BroJoeK]

Thanks for the laughs!

[Tax-chick]

Any time. Leaping off into the murky future ... I had a certain level of appreciation for Dan Sickles, because he was popular with his men. Then I read a biography. Maybe being a well-liked officer was his one good trait.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 11 (reply #32.)

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Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, March 1859

March, 1859

My lectures are over [for the season]. One of the last was at Dedham, and I stayed at Edmund Quincy's charming, English-looking place. Did you ever hear of an English traveller who, looking out of Mr. Ticknor's window, pointed out as the only two Americans he had seen who looked like gentlemen, W. Phillips and Edmund Quincy?

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 72

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com

[BroJoeK]

"Maybe being a well-liked officer was his one good trait."

I don't know what cadence calls they march to today, but back in the day ("ante-modern"?) we worried a lot about somebody named "Jody" who was having all the fun while we slogged through mud & bullets:

"Ain’t no use in going back
Jody’s got your Cadillac

Ain’t no use in calling home
Jody’s got your girl and gone

Ain’t no use in feeling blue
Jody’s got your sister too!

Sound off -- one, two
Sound off -- three, four
Cadence count -- one, two, THRE FOUR"

So I might imagine troops could admire a commander who murdered his "Jody" and got away with it!

Crazy, man! ;-)

[BroJoeK]

From Lincoln's words here it sounds like there were plenty of RINOs in those days too -- the sorts who'd vote for Democrats like Douglas out of fear Lincoln Republicans might actually believe in their own values.

I just wonder if they were called "never-Lincolners"?

[Tax-chick]

Dan Sickles was a serial philanderer.

[colorado tanker]

LOL!

[Homer_J_Simpson]

John Brown to His Family, March 2, 1859

SPRINGDALE, CEDAR COUNTY, IOWA, March 2, 1859.

DEAR WIFE AND CHILDREN, ALL, — I write to let you know that all is yet well with me, except that I am not very strong. I have something of the ague yet hanging about me. I confidently expect to be able to send you some help about team, etc., in a very few days. However, if I should be delayed about it longer than I could wish, do not be discouraged. I was much relieved to find on coming here that you had got the draft sent by Mr. Painter. He has been helping me a little in advance of its being due, since I got on. Do not be in haste to buy a team until you can have time to get further word from me. I shall do as fast as I can; and may God bless and keep you all!

Your affectionate husband and father.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 490

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 28 (reply #13.)

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas

[Tax-chick]

Sheldon Cooper didn’t discover a new element, either.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Franklin B. Sanborn to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, March 4, 1859

March 4.

Brown was at Tabor on the 10th of February, with his stock in fine erudition, as he says in a letter to G. Smith. He also says he is ready with some new men to set his mill in operation, and seems to be coming East for that purpose. Mr. Smith proposes to raise one thousand dollars for him, and to contribute one hundred dollars himself. I think a larger sum ought to be raised; but can we raise so much as this? Brown says he thinks any one of us who talked with him might raise the sum if we should set about it; perhaps this is so, but I doubt. As a reward for what he has done, perhaps money might be raised for him. At any rate, he means to do the work, and I expect to hear of him in New York within a few weeks. Dr. Howe thinks John Forbes and some others not of our party would help the project if they knew of it.1

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1 Dr. Howe gave me the following letter at New York, Feb. 5, 1859 : —

JOHN M. FORBES, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, — If you would like to hear an honest, keen, and veteran backwoodsman disclose some plans for delivering our land from the curse of slavery, the bearer will do so. 1 think I know him well. He is of the Puritan militant order. He is an enthusiast, yet cool, keen, and cautious. He has a martyr's spirit. He will ask nothing of you but the pledge that you keep to yourself what he may say.

Faithfully yours,
S. G. Howe.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 493

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com

[Tax-chick]

That’s some very descriptive language there. It would have been interesting to see the “stock in fine erudition.” I can’t quite figure that out.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Could "his stock in fine erudition" be an awkward way of saying he was an effective speaker?

And that mill Brown is preparing to open back east - what could that be?

[BroJoeK]

Sanborn, Higginson, Smith & Howe -- four names mentioned here were members of Brown's "Secret Six".
The other two were Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister, and George Stearns, a wealthy metal products manufacturer.

1. Sanborn was a teacher & journalist.
   
2. Higginson was a Unitarian minister.
   
3. Smith was a wealthy heir to part of the John Jacob Astor fortune.
   
4. Howe was a doctor.

The letter mentions John Forbes as "not of our party".
Railroad magnate & philanthropist, Forbes did not contribute to Brown's raid but did support other abolitionists.

A trained Marxist will tell us that Brown & his supporters were just the New England wool industry hoping to disrupt Southern cotton production and so raise prices for their own woolen products.
I've never seen evidence to support such Marxist claims.

[Tax-chick]

Hmmmm ... it’s all very mysterious!

[Tax-chick]

Very interesting, thanks!

I’m underwhelmed by the Marxist economic understanding. I would attribute the support of John Brown to a mixture of sincere anti-slavery belief and the thrill of conspiracy.

[BroJoeK]

Brown was a wool producer, an expert who supplied higher quality wool, and did have a beef against the low prices paid for cheap wool by New England wool cloth manufacturers.
His second bankruptcy resulted from a trip to England in 1849, hoping to sell his wool at higher prices there.
But the Brits were not willing to pay more for American wool and that ruined Brown.
Brits did buy higher quality Marino wool from Australia & New Zealand.

"Merino sheep were introduced to Vermont in 1802.
This ultimately resulted in a boom-bust cycle for wool, which reached a price of 57 cents/pound in 1835.
By 1837, 1,000,000 sheep were in the state.
The price of wool dropped to 25 cents/pound in the late 1840s.
The state could not withstand more efficient competition from the other states, and sheep-raising in Vermont collapsed.[11]"

For comparisons, cotton prices in New Orleans peaked at $.15 per pound in 1835, fell to $.05 in 1848, rising back to $.12 in 1856.

So one might well speculate the reasons for Brown's 1849 bankruptcy were a combination of:

1. A bust in the boom-bust wool market.
   
2. New England & British manufacturers unwillingness to pay premium prices for American wool.
   
3. Brown's less than persuasive sales personality??

Wool merchant, John Brown, circa 1847: