Page 46 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript Americana - Sale 2310 - April 16, 2013

“THE GULF STATES . . . INSISTED UPON BREAKING UP THE CONVENTION”
92 ● (CIVIL WAR—1860 CONVENTION.) Johnson, Bradley T. Pair of letters
from a secessionist delegate to the 1860 Democratic convention. Autograph
Letters, signed only as “yr devoted husband,” to wife Jane Claudia Saunders Johnson, with
accompanying stamped and cancelled envelopes addressed to “Mrs. Bradley T. Johnson” in
Philadelphia. 3 pages on one 4to sheet, and 4 pages on one 8vo sheet; minimal wear.
Charleston, SC 23 April 1860 and Frederick, MD, 26 May [1860] [1,000/1,500]
“WE SHALL CARRY OUR POINT, WHICH IS TO PLACE MARYLAND FULLY BY THE SIDE OF
THE SOUTH.” Bradley Tyler Johnson (1829-1903) was a Maryland delegate to the 1860
Democratic National Convention, which split the party into warring Union and Secessionist
camps. Johnson was a leading advocate of secession, and once war began, helped form the 1st
Maryland Infantry, CSA, reaching the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederacy.
The first letter is dated Charleston, SC on the first day of the convention, 23 April 1860.
Johnson already saw trouble brewing: “The Gulf states are raising the d—-l. They called a
meeting of the south on Saturday night & insisted upon breaking up the convention unless
their demands were gratified. . . . If they withdraw, Douglas will be nominated at once. The
south will concentrate on our man [Robert M.T.] Hunter, then try Breckenridge, then some
other southern man.”
The second letter was written in Maryland, three weeks after the first convention adjourned in
failure, and three weeks before it was scheduled to reconvene in Baltimore. Johnson seems
resigned that his faction’s strategy will break up the party: “We are having a big fuss, or prepar-
ing for one. . . . I find my course meets general approval all over the state & I shall be fully
sustained. . . . We think we shall carry our point, which is to place Maryland fully by the side
of the south. . . . I think Douglas will be nominated or break up the party, & his nomination
will break it up, so either way there are great difficulties ahead, almost sure distruction.”
93 ● (CIVIL WAR—1860 CONVENTION.) Bragg, Edward S. A future Union gen-
eral describes Charleston and the Democratic Convention. Autograph Letter
Signed to wife Cornelia Coleman Bragg. 3 pages, 93/4 x 71/2 inches, on one sheet; short
closed separation on center fold, minor staining on final blank.
Charleston, SC, [29 April 1860] [300/400]
Edward Stuyvesant Bragg (1827-1912) was a Wisconsin lawyer when he was selected as a
delegate to the infamous 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, SC. Making
perhaps his first visit to the South, he made some wildly uninformed observations about the
African-Americans he saw: “Sometimes we saw them at work in the field. All looked comfort-
able & happy, little thinking of the galling chains which northern philanthropists hear clanking
on their feet. . . . We passed a nigger sitting in the hot sun, fishing in a mudhole, self-satisfied,
happy as a clam, waiting for & wanting nothing but a bite.” He described plans for a trip to
“the plantation and see the nigger as he is—hear him sing & see him dance.” Regarding the
convention, he says that “We shall succeed in nominating our candidate. . . . your husband
spoke on behalf of the Democracy of Wisconsin & was well received.”