(CIVIL WAR 1860 CONVENTION) Bragg Edward S A future Union g

Sale 2310 - Lot 93

Price Realized: $ 390

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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(CIVIL WAR--1860 CONVENTION.) Bragg, Edward S. A future Union general describes Charleston and the Democratic Convention. Autograph Letter Signed to wife Cornelia Coleman Bragg. 3 pages, 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches, on one sheet; short closed separation on center fold, minor staining on final blank. Charleston, SC, [29 April 1860]

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Edward Stuyvesant Bragg (1827-1912) was a Wisconsin lawyer when he was selected as a delegate to the infamous 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, SC. Making perhaps his first visit to the South, he made some wildly uninformed observations about the African-Americans he saw: "Sometimes we saw them at work in the field. All looked comfortable & happy, little thinking of the galling chains which northern philanthropists hear clanking on their feet. . . . We passed a nigger sitting in the hot sun, fishing in a mudhole, self-satisfied, happy as a clam, waiting for & wanting nothing but a bite." He described plans for a trip to "the plantation and see the nigger as he is--hear him sing & see him dance." Regarding the convention, he says that "We shall succeed in nominating our candidate. . . . your husband spoke on behalf of the Democracy of Wisconsin & was well received."