Description:

James Frank 1843 - 1915 Outlaw Frank James, referencing "Hanging Judge" Parker and reminiscing about Confederate glories



Single page on lined stationery and inscribed in indigo ink, with blindstamp in upper right corner. Addressed to recipient Frank P. Blair from Dallas, TX on January 23, 1890. Signed "Yours truly, Frank James" at bottom. Comes with postally used envelope addressed to "Mr. Frank P. Blair, National Hotel, Washington, D.C.", postmarked from Dallas, TX with 2 cent stamp, and with stamps indicating receipt in Washington verso. Letter is in very fine condition with expected folds and scattered foxing; edge wear to opened left side of envelope. Letter measures 5" x 8".

Alexander Franklin "Frank" James (1843-1915), along with younger brother Jesse James, was a member of the Missouri-based James-Younger gang. Frank James was a Civil War veteran, serving as a Confederate guerilla in the Missouri State Guard. While in the service, James participated in many "bushwhacking" style raids perpetrated against Union targets, experience that informed his later robberies. Historians estimate that Frank James was involved in at least four bank robberies during his twenty-one-year long career, but after his surrender to Missouri state officials in 1882, he served only about one year of jail time. Frank James's later years were spent mostly in the West, where he did odd jobs including telegraph operating and fruit picking. For example, it is possible that Frank James was a shoe salesman at Sanger Brothers department store in Dallas when he penned this letter to Frank P. Blair in 1890.

This letter constitutes Frank James's response to a letter sent by Blair inquiring about accusations levied against Isaac Charles Parker (1838-1896), better known as "Hanging Judge" Parker, in the Civil War. Frank James replies: "I know nothing as to the fact of charges alleged against Judge Parker during the war." After the Civil War, Parker, a known racist, obtained a reputation as a severe judge in Indian Territory.

Frank James continues by praising the father of the recipient, Missouri Congressman and Senator Francis P. Blair, Jr. (1821-1875), for supporting the enfranchisement of former Confederates during Reconstruction. Frank James writes: "This much I do know however, Ex-Confederate Soldiers of Mo. [Missouri] will not soon forget the grand and humane fight made by your noble father and Col. Jno. F. Phillips for the enfranchisement of those who had been proscribed under the regime of Rodman and Drake." The John F. Philips (1834-1919) mentioned in the letter was Frank James's defense attorney in Gallatin, MO in 1883. Drake and Rodman, spoken of so disparagingly by Frank James, were Missouri politicians who supported a Radical Republican agenda in Missouri. The so-called "Drake-Rodman Constitution" advocated for the post-war disenfranchisement of Missourians who had supported the Confederacy.

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