AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS)
Boston: 25 April 1853. Letter. A 2-1/2-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED on a 8-1/4" x 6-3/4" sheet of paper folded in half by Sumner to Rev. John L. Blake. Sumner tells Blake that he has only his own copy of his book--ORATIONS & SPEECHES OF CHARLES SUMNER--but that Blake can find a copy in New York. He congratulates Blake on the success of his book and concludes: "My father to whom you kindly refer died at Boston in April 1839. I was at the time in Rome." John Lauris Blake (1788–1857) was an American clergyman and bestselling author, best known for the GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Creases from folding; mounting strip on verso. Very Good. Item #021254
Senator Charles Sumner, perhaps the most influential man in public life after Lincoln at the end of the Civil War, was a notable advocate for emancipation of the slaves and later for civil rights. He was severely beaten on the floor of the United States Senate by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina in retribution for Sumner's attack on Brooks's uncle, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act in his "Crime against Kansas" [May 19 and 20, 1856] speech. The beating nearly killed Sumner, and it took him several years to recover. The beating also contributed significantly to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery and has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse" and the use of violence that eventually led to the Civil War.
Price: $250.00