Description:

John Brown accepts funds as agent of " National Kansas Committee," signing the document twice only weeks before his Christmas raid into Missouri: monies that were most certainly used to help fund his daring raid on Harper's Ferry less than a year later

JOHN BROWN (1800-1859) Important Autograph Document Signed twice, "John Brown," as " Agent of National Kansas Committee," 1 page, 7.75 x 3.5" on lined stationery, Osawatomie, Kansas, December 2, 1858, confirming receipt of $10 from the abolitionist preacher Samuel Lyle Adair (1811-1898), as well as " one pair Pants & one pair Mitts." Light folds, else fine condition.

The document reads in full: " Received of Rev S L Adair $10, Ten Dollars in part payment of the National Kansas Committee claim against Andrew Updegraff. John Brown Agent of the National Kansas Committee. Also received of same one pair Pants & one pair Mitts Decem[ber] 2d 1858. John Brown Agent of National Kansas Committee"

Following the Constitutional Convention Brown orchestrated in Canada in May 1858, Brown gathered volunteers for his raid into Virginia. However, a mercenary who worked with Brown, John Forbes, had attempted to expose Brown's plans to instigate a slave rebellion in Virginia and beyond to Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson and others. The main financial supporters of the 'Secret Six', George Luther Stearns and Gerrit Smith, recommended Brown delay his plans and lay low to ward off suspicion. As a means of diversion, Brown returned to Kansas in the fall of 1858 where he led a raid into Missouri on December 20 to free eleven slaves that he in turn helped ferry to Chicago and onto Detroit and Canada. (Incidentally, the trip from Chicago to Detroit was arranged by Alan Pinkerton.)

The threat of exposure, and some of his supporters' resistance to the radicalism of Brown's plans, also limited the funds that he could collect. It is quite likely that the $10 of which he noted receipt of here (together with the " Pants" and" Mitts" ) would have gone to support his own efforts, including the Christmas 1858 raid into Missouri and his more ambitious plans in Virginia.

The Reverend Samuel Lyle Adair was a graduate of Oberlin College and a prominent abolitionist who married John Brown's half-sister Florella Brown (1816-1865) in 1841. In 1854, the couple moved to Kansas Territory, settling near Osawatomie and were present for the attack on the town in 1856. Adair's home served as a refuge for John Brown when he arrived in Kansas in 1855, and he was an important conduit for financial support for free-state activities in the territory. During the Civil War, Adair served as a chaplain at Fort Leavenworth.

Andrew Updegraff (1816-1887) was also present at the 1856 raid on Osawatomie and suffered losses when pro-slavery 'border-ruffians' burned the settlement. (Reports of the House of Representatives 1860-'61,1861, pp.1256-1257)

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