Lot 276: [ Books ]

Sumner, Charles. Autograph Letter Signed by Charles Sumner, to L. Bradford Prince. 12 lines, in ink, on sheet 20x13 cm. (8x5"). Philadelphia: Oct. 29, 1856 Charles Sumner (1811-1874), longtime Senator from Massachusetts with radical anti-slavery sympathies, writes to autograph seeker L.B. Prince, My Dear Sir, I rejoice to find a young man dedicating himself to the truth. Accept my thanks for your kind sympathy & believe me, my dear sir, faithfully yours, Charles Sumner." The letter was written a bare five months after Sumner was brutally attacked on the Senate floor by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, resulting in severe injuries that kept he from senatorial duties for three years while he recovered. The Massachusetts General Court reelected him in November of 1856 despite his absence, feeling the empty seat in the Senate chambers served as a powerful symbol of free speech and resistance to slavery. Provenance: L. Bradford Prince, Governor of New Mexico Territory. Foxed with some soiling and staining; good.