Mar 30, 2023 - Sale 2631

Sale 2631 - Lot 59

Price Realized: $ 2,470
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Ephraim W. Bull. Letter warning that Franklin Sanborn would be summoned for his support of the John Brown raid. Autograph Letter Signed "E.W. Bull" to George M. Brooks. 2 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet, plus docketing on final blank; mailing folds, text faded but legible, minimal wear. With complete transcript. Washington, 11 January 1860
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The subject of this letter is Franklin B. Sanborn (1831-1917), an abolitionist teacher from Concord, MA. He was a leader of the famed "Secret Six" who provided support for John Brown's October 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry. His involvement was exposed within two weeks of the raid. On 21 January 1860 he refused a summons to testify to the congressional committee which was investigating the raid. On 3 April, federal marshals arrived in Concord to arrest him, but a large body of local supporters prevented them from getting Sanborn in the carriage, and then a local judge issued a writ releasing him.

This letter was written by one of Sanborn's well-connected Concord supporters, who had gone to Washington in the early days of the investigation to learn more about the danger Sanborn faced. He visited with congressmen Charles Russell Train and Henry Wilson, reported confidentially that the committee would be summoning Sanborn soon, and asked his friend to contact Sanborn:

"Feeling solicitous about our friend Sanborn, I have inquired particularly as to his liability, and am constrained to say that if he is not certain that his position is impregnable, he will take such precautions as his judgment may suggest. He will be sent for in a day or two. I get this from very high authority. The committee do not of course, let their doings be known, but I have heard what I know about it, as I have said, from the best authority. I cannot use their names even to you since the communication was confidential. . . . Have the goodness to communicate with S. He is a child in politics (begging his pardon) and may be committed in that infernal John Brown matter."

The letter's author Ephraim Wales Bull (1806-1895) of Concord, MA was active in state and local politics, serving in the Massachusetts legislature in 1856 and 1857, and is best known today as the discoverer of the still-popular Concord grape. Bull was active in the Concord meeting to celebrate Sanborn's escape on 5 April, and posted bond for Sanford the following week, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson and others. This letter was written to George W. Brooks, who served as Concord's representative in the Massachusetts legislature.