Posted on 06/04/2019 5:12:28 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.
Posting history, in reverse order
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.
PETERBORO', June 4, 1859.
CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN.
MY DEAR FRIEND, — I wrote you a week ago, directing my letter to the care of Mr. Stearns. He replied, informing me that he had forwarded it to Westport; but as Mr. Morton received last evening a letter from Mr. Sanborn, saying your address would be your son's home, — namely, West Andover, — I therefore write you without delay, and direct your letter to your sou. I have done what I could thus far for Kansas, and what I could to keep you at your Kansas work. Losses by indorsement and otherwise have brought me under heavy embarrassment the last two years, but I must, nevertheless, continue to do, in order to keep you at your Kansas work. I send you herewith my draft for two hundred dollars. Let me hear from you on the receipt of this letter. You live in our hearts, and our prayer to God is that you may have strength to continue in your Kansas work. My wife joins me in affectionate regard to you, dear John, whom we both hold in very high esteem. I suppose you put the Whitman note into Mr. Stearns's hands. It will be a great shame if Mr. Whitman does not pay it. What a noble man is Mr. Stearns!1 How liberally he has contributed to keep you in your Kansas work!
1 To those who could read between the lines, this letter disclosed the whole method of the secret committee. No one of them might know at any given time where Brown was, but some other was sure to know, — and in this one note four persons are named who might be at any time in coromnnication with Brown wherever he was, — George L. Stearns, Edwin Morton, F. B. Sanborn, and Mr. Smith himself. The phrase “Kansas work” misled none of these persons, who all knew that Brown had finally left Kansas and was to operate henceforth in the slave States. The hundred dollars given by Mr. Smith April 14, added to the two hundred mimed in this letter, and the note of E. B. Whitman, of Kansas, which Brown received from Mr. Smith, make up five hundred and eighty-five dollars, or more than one-fifth of the two thousand dollars which he told Brown he would help his "Eastern friends" raise. Those friends were Stearns, Howe, Higginson, and Sanborn, — for Parker was then in Europe, and unable to contribute.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 524
June 4, 1859.
Brown has set out on his expedition, having got some eight hundred dollars from all sources except from Mr. Stearns, and from him the balance of two thousand dollars; Mr. S being a man who, “having put his hand to the plow, turneth not back.” Brown left Boston for Springfield and New York on Wednesday morning at 8.30, and Mr. Stearns has probably gone to New York to-day, to make final arrangements for him. Brown means to be on the ground as soon as he can, perhaps so as to begin by the 4th of July. He could not say where he should be for a few weeks, but letters are addressed to him, under cover to his son John, Jr., at West Andover, Ohio. This point is not far from where Brown will begin, and his son will communicate with him. Two of his sons will go with him. He is desirous of getting some one to go to Canada, and collect recruits for him among the fugitives, — with Harriet Tubman or alone, as the case may be.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 524-5
"Later that summer Brown rented a farmhouse (the Kennedy farm) in western Maryland, a mere five miles north of Harpers Ferry, as his secret staging base for the attack on the federal arsenal across the Virginia border."
Raising the mill on the Fourth of July would fit with that.
See reply 4 above. I’m out of practice for posting here.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Hi.
War in Europe. Eighteen fifty nine.
War in Europe nineteen sixteen.
War in Europe nineteen thirty nine.
War in Europe...
5.56mm
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
KEENE, N. Y., June 9, 1859.
DEAR SIR, — After being delayed with sickness and other hindrances, I am so far on my way back, and hope to be in Ohio within the coming week. Will you please advise the friends all of the fact, and say to them that as soon as I do reach, I will let them know where I will be found. I have been middling successful in my business.
JOHN BROWN.
J. HENRIE, ESQ.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 523
June 10. Garibaldi makes progress in Northern Lombardy; he has reached Como, and is lighting up what may prove a formidable insurrection in the Austrian rear.* I predict Milan will be abandoned before July, though the operations of the Allies seem neither vigorous nor enterprising. This invasion of Garibaldi’s is the only bold and brilliant move yet made in the campaign.
* After his failure in 1848-49, Garibaldi had lived and prospered in the United States. Now in Italy again, he was ready to make the most of the spirit of Italian nationalism kindled by the successes of Cavour and Napoleon III.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
The Austrian Empire never devised a solution to the nationalism aroused by the French Revolution and Napoleon and the 1848 revolutions. I don’t think there was a solution. Time rant out in 1919.
Good morning prof.
“Garibaldi”
Wasn’t there an Italian Navy battleship by that name?
5.56mm
Thanks.
I knew you would know.
5.56mm
Oops, wrong Garibaldi...
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