Correspondence of John Thompson Brown

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Letters from February 1835, until his death in November 1836; manuscripts of four articles written to oppose the candidacy of Martin Van Buren for President. The closing sessions of the State Legislature of 1834-1835 are reported in the letters at the beginning of this box. The party spirit runs high in Petersburg as the "Jackson party" opposes John Thompson Brown (March 1835). He is involved in a street fight with an opponent in which he receives a black eye, but the argument is made up after he wins the election (April 1835). Before the next session of the legislature, John Thompson Brown is occupied in collecting more material on the question of slavery (August 1835), and prepared three long drafts written in opposition to the candidacy of Martin Van Buren for President of the U.S. Undated drafts of notes on legal cases are included at the end of the 1835 section. Henry Brown, Jr., the brother of John Thompson Brown, died in May 1836, while on a buying trip to Philadelphia and New York for his Lynchburg store. The trip of John Thompson Brown to meet the body of his brother, and his activity in settling his brother's affairs in Lynchburg are reported in the letters included in this box. At the end of July he takes his family to his father's home, Otter Hills, near New London in Campbell County, for the funeral sermon of Henry Brown, Jr. While there he contracts an illness which keeps him there until his death on 26 November 1836. 104 items.

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