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Files of John Brown's prosecutor Andrew Hunter relating to the trial.
This remarkable collection was taken from the files of Andrew Hunter of Charles Town, WV, who prosecuted John Brown in the 1859 trial, and soon became a rabid secessionist who served in the Confederate House of Delegates. When the Union Army occupied Charles Town in early 1862, part of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry camped in his office, and seized these documents as the spoils of war. They include an extremely scarce and controversial military pamphlet which was found in Brown's possession when he was arrested; letters to Andrew Hunter; two letters to John Brown; and memoranda relating to the trial.
THE DUTY OF THE SOLDIER.
A small pamphlet, "The Duty of the Soldier." 3 pages, 7¼ x 5¼ inches, on one folding sheet; folds, mount remnants on final blank, minor wear and foxing. No author, date, or place of publication is given, but it has the introductory lines, "Presented with respectful and kind feelings to the Officers and Soldiers of the United States Army in Kansas." In pencil at the top is the inscription "Found on Brown when taken prisoner at Harpers' Ferry." Many sources attribute authorship to the English revolutionary Hugh Forbes, who had helped train Brown's raiders before a falling-out. It urges the soldiers of the United States Army stationed in "Bleeding Kansas" not to obey immoral orders: "Should the soldiery of a Republic be vile living machines?"
We cannot find any other examples of this pamphlet in OCLC or at auction. Columbia University has a copy listed with its collection of John Brown's manuscripts, and another is tucked into an 1857 John Brown letter in the Theodore Parker papers at Massachusetts Historical Society.
Despite its scarcity, the text is known--the contents were widely reported after John Brown's capture. Most of it was published in the St. Louis Republic of 1 November 1859, which calls it "a specimen tract, many copies of which, together with sundry books, pamphlets, &c emanating from Forbes, were discovered in Brown's possession." The pamphlet was published in full in the Senate printing of James Buchanan's State of the Union Address given on 19 December 1859, "Message from the President of the United States," appended to Colonel Robert E. Lee's report on the "Disturbances at Harpers' Ferry," page 235-237. Richard J. Hinton published the text in his 1894 memoir "John Brown and His Men" (pages 615-618), with the note: "This paper was first written in Kansas or Iowa in the fall of 1856. As finally printed it was probably revised by John Henri Kagi. I first saw it in November 1857." Oswald Villard in his 1910 biography of John Brown ascribes authorship to Hugh Forbes and describes how Brown distributed the tract to soldiers in Kansas, as well as to political leaders and financial backers (pages 297-298). The text was published in the 1970 pamphlet "The Life and Writings of Hugh Forbes."
Despite the importance of this work, and its apparent wide circulation, this original printing of "The Duty of the Soldier" is almost unknown today. Even uninscribed, it would be an important discovery. With the inscription placing it on John Brown's body at Harper's Ferry, it moves nearly into the realm of a holy relic.
MANUSCRIPTS.
One-page memorandum, listing four legal points which were apparently offered by Brown's defense: he could not be guilty unless proved to be an American citizen; statements made by Brown after his arrest could not be admitted as evidence; any killings committed by Brown would not qualify as felony murder in the first degree; and statements made out of court should not be admissible as proof of treason. Unsigned, undated.
"A.H." (Absalom Hazlett), Autograph Letter Signed to "Dear Sir" [John Brown]. "Received your letter a few minutes ago and was glad to hear from you. Will bee ready when you want mee, if nothing happens mee." Indiana [County], PA, 14 July 1859. It is docketed on verso simply "Hazlett," and a pencil note reads "This was taken from Brown. It is written by Haslett." Haslett was a white Pennsylvania abolitionist who fought alongside Brown at Harpers' Ferry, escaped, and was captured in Pennsylvania. This letter was probably used in his prosecution as evidence of his participation; he was executed on 15 March 1860.
George B. Simpson, Autograph Letter Signed to Henry Wise, Governor of Virginia. Simpson, an inventor, urges Governor Wise not to blame the Brown raid on "the abolitionists of the north": "The head of this formidable organization is firmly seated upon the Mormon throne . . . Brigham Young." Governor Wise forwarded this, apparently to Andrew Hunter, with a note reading "See whether there is anything in this." Washington, 24 October 1859.
One-page transcript of "An interview between I.T. Martin, U.S. Marshall of the Western Dist. Of Virginia . . . and John Copeland, one of the Harpers' Ferry prisoners." John Anthony Copeland Jr. (1834-1859) was a free Black man from Oberlin, OH, already famous for leading a rescue of fugitive slaves in Oberlin, who served with Brown and was executed on 16 December. Here he answers 10 questions. Most notably, when asked "Who induced you to enter into the Harpers' Ferry movement," he replied that "Kagi & J. Brown Jr. wrote letters to Leary of Oberlin, which I saw and was induced to go into it." He identifies fellow Oberlin man Lewis Sheridan Leary as a raider, and asserts that "he was killed in the river near the rifle works." He also states that fellow Oberlin man Charles H. Langsdon met him in Cleveland and "knew I was coming to join Brown's company." The harsh interrogation of Copeland is discussed in Steven Lubet, "Execution in Virginia, 1859," in Faculty Working Papers of the Northwestern University School of Law, 2012. The interview is dated 26 October 1859.
A.E. [Ann Elizabeth] Amadon, Autograph Letter Signed to Col. Davenport and his fellow citizens of Charles Town. Urges that the Brown raiders be imprisoned indefinitely "in order that they may become sane men again," but not be turned into martyrs: "If you hang those men, I fear you will thereby lay the foundation for a civil war & this will be the overthrow & ruin of our country." She signs as "a friend to both the white & coloured race." Palmyra, OH, 10 November 1859.
Ann Elizabeth [Amadon], Autograph Letter Signed to "Mr. Brown and all those concerned with him." "I am sorry for you. The cause of freedom is good, but you took the wrong course to secure it. It was wrong in the sight of God. . . . May you live to know that slavery does not exist, but not by the edge of a sword." [Palmyra, OH], undated. A pencil note reads "The office was full of letters like this from every part of the country."
R.W. Bowyer, Autograph Letter Signed to Andrew Hunter as District Attorney. Discusses the movements in Canada of abolitionists Samuel Gridley Howe and Frederick Douglass, both suspects in the plot who had fled the United States: "I have ascertained that Dr. Howe and a friend . . . are at the St. Lawrence Hall. Fred'k is indisposed and obliged to keep to his room as his health is delicate, or from some other cause known best to himself. . . . I made a mistake I believe in stating that Fred sailed in the Anglo-Saxon. It should have been the Nova Scotian." He advises that any future reports would come under the clever code name "Dr. F'd D. Howe." Montreal, QB, 22 November [1859].
John H. Boyle, M.D., Autograph Letter Signed to Andrew Hunter. Reports on a suspicious patent medicine peddler named Lazarus B. McLain of New Lisbon, OH who had passed through Maryland and seemed to fit the description of John Brown. (McLain was a real person). Upper Marlboro, MD, 12 December 1859.
E.A. Gallagher, Autograph Letter Signed [to Andrew Hunter?]. Plans to attend the trial of Stevens and Hazlett; has secret evidence that may be useful in court. New York, 30 December 1859.
A letter from Captain Charles P. Horton to his mother, 26 April 1862, is included for provenance, although it does not relate to the Brown trial.
PROVENANCE.
The provenance of this lot is interesting in its own right. The trial was held in Charles Town, WV (then part of Virginia) in October 1859. These papers were in the Charles Town office of the district attorney Andrew Hunter (1804-1888). Soon the nation was at war, Charles Town was briefly part of the Confederacy, and in a little more than two years after the trial, Union troops occupied the town.
An inscription on one document reads: "This & the following papers were taken from the office of the district att'y in the C.H. at Charles Town, Va. in 1862." They were taken by Captain Charles Paine Horton (1836-1906) of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. As told in Quint's "Record of the Second Massachusetts Infantry," pages 67-68, Horton's regiment made a reconnaissance to Confederate-held Charles Town on 27 February 1862: "The regiment entered to the music of ‘John Brown's Body,' . . . chicken feathers filled the air, and . . . the Court-House was tenanted by companies of the Second."
We know that a different batch of John Brown trial papers were taken that day by a different 2nd Massachusetts captain, Samuel Quincy, and those were published in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society in February 1908 (pages 326-331). Apparently the two captains found the voluminous files during their occupation of the courthouse, and each took a small portion as spoils of war. Captain Horton's other military papers were dispersed in a Thomaston Place auction in 2020.
With—4 modern books on the Brown trial and a packet of reference materials.
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