1859 Letters

Osawatomie, KS - 11 January 1859

Dear children... I have but a moment in which to tell you that I am in middling health

Cambridge, MA - 4 February 1859

I always thought (forgive me) that the Hebrew parts of "Dred" were a mistake.

Tabor, IA - 10 February 1859

I am once more in Iowa, through the great mercy of God.

Andover, MA - 12 February 1859

I am like the dry, dead, leafless tree, and have only cold, dead, slumbering buds of hope on the end of stiff, hard, frozen twigs of thought...

Lexington, VA - 19 February 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to sister Laura Arnold... Your letter respecting Thomas reached me this morning

Springdale, IA - 2 March 1859

I confidently expect to be able to send you some help about team, etc., in a very few days.

St Louis, MO - 9 March 1859

ulysses grant to father jesse march 9th, 1859

, MA - 29 March 1859

Your sermon I have read carefully, and think you have expressed yourself with your usual clearness and thoroughness and unflinching sincerity...

Lexington, VA - 11 April 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to J. Jaquelin Smith... I am gratified to learn that you contemplate making a European tour

Westport, NY - 16 April 1859

Had a first-rate time at Peterboro ; got of Mr. Smith and others nearly one hundred and sixty dollars

Leavenworth City, CA - 30 April 1859

W.T. Sherman letter to brother John Sherman...Steamboats arrive in twos and threes each day, loaded with people for the new gold region.

Lexington, VA - 9 May 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to sister Laura Arnold... Dont get brown bread for me as I have ceased to use it

Boston, MA - 13 May 1859

I wrote you from Troy last week, saying I had sent on the balance of articles I intended to buy...

Boston, MA - 16 May 1859

They must none of them think I have been slack to try and urge forward a delicate and very difficult matter.

Boston, MA - 19 May 1859

...I think it quite certain that I shall very soon be off for the southwest...

London, ENG - 31 May 1859

I have an intense interest in your new novel.

Keexe, NY - 9 June 1859

After being delayed with sickness and other hindrances, I am so far on my way back...

St Louis, MO - 15 June 1859

sam clemens tells of how life has changed after becoming a full pilot on the missouri river

Paris, FRA - 19 June 1859

John Sherman letter to William Sherman... If there are unhappy people here, I have not seen them.

Akron, OH - 23 June 1859

I now enclose five dollars to help you further about getting up a good loom. We start for the Ohio River to-day.

Chambersburg, PA - 30 June 1859

We leave here to-day for Harper's Ferry, via Hagerstown.

Chambersburg, PA - 12 July 1859

In quire for letters at Chambersburg for I. Smith & Sons, and write them at Harper's Ferry as soon as any does come.

Chambersburg, PA - 22 July 1859

Dear friends... Oliver, Martha, and Anne all got on safe on Saturday of the week they set out.

Chambersburg, PA - 27 July 1859

I need not say, do all your directing and sealing at home, and not at the post-office.

Chambersburg, PA - 0 August 1859

Dear friend...I forgot to say yesterday that your shipments of freight are received all in apparent safety ; but the bills are very high, and I begin to be apprehensive of getting into a tight spot

Chambersburg, PA - 2 August 1859

If Watson and D. should set out soon after getting this, it may be well. They will avoid saying anything on the road about North Elba...

Syracuse, NY - 11 August 1859

By the way, the impression prevails generally that a certain acquaintance of ours headed the party that visited St. J. in Missouri lately.

White Sulphur Springs, VA - 13 August 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to sister Laura Arnold... The inflammation or irritation of my throat passed down so low as to make me afraid to let Dr. Green treat me

Chambersburg, PA - 16 August 1859

We all want to hear from you ; but we do not want you all to write, and you need only say all is well, or otherwise...

Syracuse, NY - 18 August 1859

... called on Dr. Howe, who, though I had no letter of introduction, received me most cordially. He gave me a letter to the friend who does business on Milk Street ...

St Louis, MO - 20 August 1859

ulysses grant to father jesse august 20th, 1859

Lexington, VA - 27 August 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to sister Laura Arnold... I returned last Tuesday evening from the White Sulphur Springs, and under the blessing of Providence my health had much improved

Castle Chillon - 1 September 1859

We are all here except Fred, and all well. We have had a most interesting journey, of which I must give a brief account.

Chambersburg, PA - 8 September 1859

I do not know what to advise about fattening the old spotted cow, as much will depend on what you have to feed her with ...

Cambridge, MA - 13 September 1859

I only know that I believed our war with Mexico (though we had as just ground for it as a strong nation ever has against a weak one) to be essentially a war of false pretences

St Louis, MO - 23 September 1859

ulysses grant to father jesse september 23rd, 1859

Chambersburg, PA - 1 October 1859

You must all send to John hereafter anything you want should get to us

Chambersburg, PA - 8 October 1859

If Martha and Anne have any money left after getting home, I wish it to be used to make all as comfortable as may be for the present.

Lausanne, SUI - 9 October 1859

Here we are at Lausanne, in the Hotel Gibbon, occupying the very parlor that the Ruskins had when we were here before.

Charleston, VA - 21 October 1859

I am here a prisoner, with several sabre-cuts in my head and bayonet-stabs in my body.

St Louis, MO - 24 October 1859

ulysses grant to brother simpson october 24th, 1859

St Louis, MO - 31 October 1859

sam clemens the pilot writes a light hearted letter to friend of the family.

Lexington, VA - 31 October 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to sister Laura Arnold... Last week I mailed a letter to Mr. Arnold requesting him to visit me

Charleston, VA - 31 October 1859

I suppose you have learned before this by the newspapers that two weeks ago to day we were fighting for our lives at Harper's Ferry

Charleston, VA - 31 October 1859

Your most kind letter has reached me, with the kind offer to come here and take care of me.

Charleston, VA - 1 November 1859

You know that Christ once armed Peter. So also in my case I think he put a sword into my hand...

, MA - 7 November 1859

one can't help liking old Brown, so brave and outspoken, and his tragic history gives him the picturesqueness and pathos of an Ugolino.

Charleston, VA - 8 November 1859

I am supplied with almost everything I could desire to make me comfortable, and the little I do lack (some articles of clothing which I lost) I may perhaps soon get again.

Charleston, VA - 8 November 1859

When you get home, please enclose this to Mrs. John Brown, North Elba...

Charleston, VA - 12 November 1859

Dear brother... I would answer that my sons, as well as my wife and daughters, are all very poor...

Charleston, VA - 15 November 1859

Your kind mention of some things in my conduct here which you approve is very comforting, indeed, to my mind.

Charleston, VA - 15 November 1859

I am very grateful for all the good feeling you express, and also for the kind counsels you give, together with your prayers in my behalf.

Charleston, VA - 16 November 1859

...yet nothing can so effectually minister to my comfort as acts of kindness done to relieve the wants or mitigate the sufferings of my poor distressed family.

Charleston, VA - 17 November 1859

I am under many obligations to you and to your father for all the kindnesses you have shown me, especially since my disaster.

Charleston, VA - 19 November 1859

I suppose I am the first since the landing of Peter Brown from the Mayflower that has either been sentenced to imprisonment or to the gallows.

Charleston, VA - 21 November 1859

I am very glad to learn from yourself that you feel so much resigned to your circumstances, so much confidence in a wise and good Providence

Charleston, VA - 22 November 1859

I intended to convey this idea, that it was my object to place the slaves in a condition to defend their liberties, if they would, with out any bloodshed...

Charleston, VA - 22 November 1859

Dear children... When and in what form death may come is but of small moment.

Charleston, VA - 22 November 1859

Dear children... That is exactly the thing I have wished you all to do for me, to be cheerful and perfectly resigned to the holy will of a wise and good God.

Charleston, VA - 23 November 1859

Although you write to me as a stranger, the spirit you show towards me and the cause for which I am in bonds makes me feel towards you as a dear friend.

Charleston, VA - 24 November 1859

You have laid me and my family under many and great obligations. I hope they may not soon be forgotten.

Charleston, VA - 24 November 1859

I have but very little idea of the charges made against Mr. Griswold, as I get to see but little of what is afloat.

Charleston, VA - 25 November 1859

You will doubtless agree with me in this, that neither imprisonment, irons, nor the gallows falling to one's lot are of themselves evidence of either guilt, "infatuation, or madness."

Charleston, VA - 27 November 1859

It (your effort) at any rate takes from my mind the greatest burden I have felt since my imprisonment...

Charleston, VA - 27 November 1859

it is exceedingly gratifying to learn from friends that there are not wanting in this generation some to sympathize with me and appreciate my motive, even now that I am whipped.

Charleston, VA - 27 November 1859

I am obliged to occupy a part of what is probably my last Sabbath on earth in answering the very kind and comforting letters of sister Hand and son

Charleston, VA - 28 November 1859

I leave it to an impartial tribunal to decide whether the world has been the worse or the better for my living and dying in it.

, MA - 28 November 1859

The Virginians have tried to implicate several distinguished names, having found them among Brown's papers, but they were merely letters written in sympathy...

Charleston, VA - 29 November 1859

I now get daily more than three times the number of kind letters I can possibly answer, I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of saying a few words to a stranger

Charleston, VA - 29 November 1859

I have asked to be spared from having any weak or hypocritical prayers made over me when I am publicly murdered, and that my only religious attendants be poor little dirty, ragged, bareheaded, and barefooted slave boys and girls

Charleston, VA - 29 November 1859

Jeremiah G. Anderson was fighting bravely by my side at Harper's Ferry up to the moment when I fell wounded...

Charleston, VA - 29 November 1859

It does indeed give me pleasure and the greatest encouragement to know of any efforts that have been made in behalf of my poor and deeply afflicted family.

Charleston, VA - 30 November 1859

I would most gladly comply with your request most kindly made in your letter of the 26th inst., but it came too late.

Charleston, VA - 30 November 1859

I am waiting the hour of my public murder with great composure of mind and cheerfulness

Charleston, VA - 30 November 1859

I have only time to give you the names of those that I know were killed of my company at Harper's Ferry...

Harper's Ferry, WV - 1 December 1859

robert lee writes his wife mary about john brown from harper's ferry, dec 10th 1859

Charleston, VA - 1 December 1859

I am very cheerful, in hopes of entering on a better state of existence in a few hours...

Charleston, VA - 1 December 1859

I give to my son John Brown, Jr., my surveyor's compass and other surveyor's articles

Charleston, VA - 2 December 1859

It is my desire that my wife have all my personal property not previously disposed of by me...

Lexington, VA - 12 December 1859

Thomas Jackson letter to sister Laura Arnold... Your letter stating that you are teaching the children yourself has given me concern

New Orleans, LA - 12 December 1859

W.T. Sherman letter to brother John Sherman...I hoped you would be theoretical and not practical, for practical abolition is disunion, civil war, and anarchy universal...

Washington, DC - 20 December 1859

abraham lincoln -- From a Letter to J.W. Fell. December 20, 1859

Washington, DC - 24 December 1859

John Sherman letter to William Sherman... It was a thoughtless, foolish, and unfortunate act.

Florence, ITL - 25 December 1859

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, hoping to spend the next one with you.