Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 284

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(WEST--TEXAS.) James Burns Wallace. A northern abolitionist argues that the Texas Revolution is entirely about slavery. Autograph letter signed "J.B.W." to brother William A. Wallace of Plymouth, NH. 3 pages, 10 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet; disbound, minor worming, 1 1/2-inch seal tear. With transcript. Canaan, NH, 14 June 1836
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James Burns Wallace (1813-1853) was an abolitionist merchant and teacher in Canaan, NH. In this letter he reflects on the economic forces behind the Texas Revolution, and calls Sam Houston a "crusader . . . in order to perpetuate slavery."

"If there is any inequality in the laws of the land, it ought to be in favor of the oppressed. If I lift my arms in defense of rights not my own, it will be for the oppressed. The Mexicans, formerly one of the most powerful nations on this continent, and in 1500 the most enlightened, and now perhaps as much to boast as their would-be more enlightened neighbors, have set them an example worthy of imitation. These children of the sun have proclaimed liberty to the slave by solemn edict. Now, who are the invaders? The Mexicans or Americans? . . . The sole cause of this war was the introduction of slavery in Texas. And Houston, a fugitive from justice from his cradle, like another Peter the Hermit has commenced a crusade against the children of the sun in order to perpetuate slavery in Coahuila and Texas, a Mexican state. . . . What a fine slave-cattle market it will make. The foreign slave trade was abolished and considered a piracy. . . . The foreign trade was abolished to give protection and greater encouragement to the home trade. It cannot be denied. Virginia is a slave-raising state, and the Mississippi is the channel through which her manufactures force their surplus slaves into Louisiana and Texas."