I received a note from you some two weeks since, and I have deferred writing either to yourself or Mr Bradburm because the people here in favor of Sunday lectures have been tardy in getting in motion.

The subject had not been much canvassed prior to the receipt of your letter, and nothing definite has yet been arrived at. You are aware, I suppose that it takes time to bring about a thing of this kind. However, the prospect now is that it will be accomplished, and before many days I expect to be able to extend an invitation to Mr Bradburn to come here, or perhaps some other person will do it in my stead.

I thought it most expedient to write this to you under the circumstances, especially as so long a time has elapsed since you wrote.

If an invitation is extended to Mr Bradburn it will be directed to your care. You will oblige me by acquainting him with the purpose of this letter.

Dear B.: ____ about [?] us [?], ____ ____ I left Boston, if you had [?] told me what I said to you about a conversation of his with Linton, [?] of New Bedford. I told him you had work. He asked [?] a little reassured [?]. He then ____ to me, & wished to know if he should write him on the subject. I, often times ____, told him he ought. ____ the letter on the opposite side of this half=____. I have an odd feeling about this whole thing. I feel it might place [?] me in a false position, & finish [?] your racial intercourse to a ____ ____ quite congenial to you. I know nothing of Linton. You [?] will keep this paper.

North Chelsea [?]

Friday, Sept. 16, [?] ’55

Dear Spooner:

I give up visiting the city to-day, because I am not very well, & shall need all my strength for our passage by railroad, to Bangor, on the morrow.

I do not see, with sufficient clearness, the ____ of your invention, to justify me in urging, on my own account, any one to advance the money you need. Perhaps, however, I may find someone who would be disposed, after examining the invention, to advance the necessary means, from his faith in its worth. If so, I will commend him to you; of course, without appraising him, myself, of the nature of your discovery.

I think we may be about some two weeks.

Most Sincerely Yours,

Geo. Bradburn.

Boston Saturday Apr. [?] 21-1855

Dear Bradburn,

Sarah Hoyt sets out for Wisconsin next monday morning - will be in Cleveland on wednesday - stop one day there - would be very happy to see yourself and Mrs Bradburn. She will stop at Mr Witt’s - I hope you will both find it convenient to call on her.

She is going to Fin du Las, Wis. to teach music.

I write this in great haste and have hardly time to think of any thing else to tell you, except what I have already written. The Hildreths are about going to Auburndale for the summer. I have little to tell you of myself. My book is nearly written, and partly printed - but will not be published perhaps for a year or two - will make 400 pages, or more - hope to make a fortune by it - Should have written you had I any thing important to tell you - Have felt very sorry to hear that you have been in ill health - hope you are better now - Do write me - had hoped you would come in [?] here to live - My love to Mrs Bradburn.

Yours truly,

L. Spooner

[The following is upside down on the bottom of the page.]

Lysander Spooner, of Boston: Old By __stand.

____ ____, get - Nanny [?]

____ ____ - ____

____ Jan. 31 Milburn [?]

Cleveland, May 18, 1855.

Dear Spooner:

When your last reached me, I was suffering so under there ____ of fever & ____, that I did not try, even, to find when that fine daughter of our friends, the Hoyts, arrived, or whether or not she came to Cleveland at all.

As the best means of driving that discuss from my system, I have concluded to make a protracted sort of clamming[?] excursion. We mean to leave here early next month. At what ____, precisely, we shall ____ the Summer, if you are really to have a Summer, this year, down East, I do not know; but it must be near Boston, & at a point where the cost of keeping body & mind [?] together shall be as little as will consist with the preservation of that union.

I am glad you “expect to make” your “fortune by” your new book; for really, - whatever may she come of that expectation, - There pleasure of hope is usually greater than its fruition. But I remember, too, that you are no Christian, “hoping against hope”.

What strange duress[?] in the political world, you have had in ____! But I have been quite out of that world, for the last year & a half, & ____, as in the state of my health [?] I could only doze [?], over my ____. - I was sorry to find so many Free Soilers, Hale & Wilson among them, falling into Know Nothingism. This going for “the nippers” [?] at the sort [?] of “the puddies[?]”, strikes [?] me as not exactly the thing, for intelligent people who have souls to save. [?] I trust you are not “one of ‘em”. I do not know but I referred to this subject in a former note to you, & may have been expecting myself. I had a bit of pleasant correspondence respecting it with ____ ____.

Once in a while, I get a glimpse of our friend French. He continues his editing, down here at Painesville, with what ____, though, I hardly know. He has considerable [?] to say against Know Nothingism.

I had a letter, a few days ago, from “Noggs”, & answered it in reason [?] for the answer to reach him at Niagra[?] Falls. [?] The enclosed one addressed to him I fear would not reach him, if sent thither; & not really knowing where his address at the East now is, I venture to send it to you, as an easy way [?] of getting it to him. ____ will probably mail him, or [?] use [?] some one in intercourse with him, ____ often his ____.

My doctors tell me I need seven months of quiet, within [?] the scent of ocean air. I shall try to get it, though it will have cost me great pains to do so.

Most Truly Yours,

Geo. Bradburn.

Cleveland, May 23, 1854.

Dear Spooner:

I was glad, & so was my wife, to receive, through Mr. Koenance[?], a message of love from you; with a casual intimation, that you were about getting “a patent”.

I suppose I understand for what the latter is to be, & begin already to solace myself with the hope, that I may yet find something to rest on.

What is the difference between your old friend M. Lion[?], & my old friend Chose; I mean Anti-Slavery wise? The latter has done what he could to narrow the forth-coming Phila. [?] platform to a couple of meassne[?] plouhs.[?] But he tells our old-fashioned friends, that they must be careful, that the man to be placed on that platform is of great anti-slavery breadth, yet free from all fanatical or fantastic notions, touching measures generally, & construing the Constitution in particular. To which man is especial all that[?] points, I hardly need say.

But I am for either “a representative man”, or one who can win, that is, “an available man”, as Gov. C. would say, or one through whom some “practical advantage” can be derived to “the cause”. And I do not believe I have in[?] either. If he, & them such as he, will force us upon a narrow platform, I will do my best to secure a candidate for it of corresponding dimensions. And that, I say, is necessary, in order to make his grand “availability” principle “practically” available”. He professes not to think so; which makes me query, if his own unfortunate - unfortunate, [?] I mean, in reference to any immediate Presidential prospects - reputation for breath, may not, of course vary unconsciously to himself, have something to do with our non-agreement.

I declare I don’t know but I am taking almost a malicious pleasure in pressing those who have so long offended me, with the doctrine of “availability”; a doctrine which hardly could have existed in the absence of some formulation for that of “total depravity”! This, really, the only opportunity which has occurred in a Presidential contest, of applying the doctrine. I say that, because I believe there is a chance of electing an Anti-Nebraska man, provided we shall nominate one who has never done good enough to make himself infamous with “the people”; though I do not believe that chance is at all as good as many a wiser man than myself believes it to be. And even you will not deem it ____ to go for some such man as ____ with a chance of winning two articles of my creed, than it was to go for so ____ any a man as ____ with certainty of Cosing [?] the whole ____.

A very active A.S. in this State has intense abhorrence of Judge M. Lion[?] & an implied faith in the immaculateness[?] of Dr. Bailey. He declares he would sooner go for the Devil than for the Judge. Yet Bailey tells ~~the~~ me Lean’s friend, that the other [?] A.S. man can be drawn to the support of the Judge, [?] should they get him nominated, & that he himself “prefers Mr. Lion[?] to Fremont[?]”! How rampant[?] is Hawking!

I see, that Sumner has lost his dignity. That loss must be the cause’s gain. (See p. 5.)

Have [?] your feelings changed towards Gerrit Smith? I inferred, from an observation of y his, that they had. I would be glad to believe it. But I do believe “the cause” would not have suffered, if he had done more for its individual advocates, even at the cost of doing less for sunday [?] public charities. My selfishness, however, may mislead me.

My health is decidedly less bad. But I am not yet the man I hope to be. My ears trouble me; but my surgeon [?] assures me it is not because “they are too long” - The cause which he explained for the ____ of a “distinguished” Doctor of Divinity in this city.

I have just read the ____ account of the assault on Sumner, yesterday. Most an atrocious act it was! If B.P.[?] Wade, of this State, or Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts had been present, I think the sufficiently[?] ____ to might have been sent to “his own plan”. The five-hundred-dollar bonds under which the suffice[?] was placed, was a worse thing than his assault. It does, sometimes, seem to me, that those scoundrels ought to be sent in their own way. Grisley[?] confessed, that he would, “for the good of” his “country, have ~~know~~ knocked down” his assailant, “if” he “could”! Well, “all things” shall “work together for good to those who love” the cause. And I must believe, that, though Sumner may have been injured physically perhaps for life, the assault help him psychologically. ____, a partly good judge, & who must have heard Webster’s biggest speeches, said, so Giddings [?] told me yesterday, that Sumner’s ____ speech was the ____ one he had ever listened to, in either House of Congress.

Of Sen. Granger, who has been, in a speech before the lower House of Congress, repeating some of your ideas, I know not whether he is a man to all ____ to what he ____. But it would have been alike modest & honest in him to have made some acknowledgement of his indebtedness to “one Lysander Spooner”.

I see your friend French, occasionally. He has got up a campaign paper, for which he calls “The Barkleons[?]”. I wish it may profit him, & import strength to his own, for I suppose we all need to be strengthened in the spinal region. I had hoped Gov. C___ would confer some office on French, since the latter’s was the first ____ to ____ the former’s name for the Gubernatorial Chair of Ohio. But the truth is, C___ , in distributing the executive favor of the Commonwealth has sought to conciliate enemies, rather than acknowledge obligations to friends, as a means, of ____, of achieving something “available to the cause”. I tried to induce the Governor to give the Canal [?] Collection ____ of Cleveland to a man well qualified for the post, & having for it the warm recommendation both of all the best portion of the business men of the city, & of that of the Free Soilers. The man was our only abolitionist. But I had not permit interest in his case & was only ____, since he is very poor, to help a fine family belonging to him. But the office was given to an old Whig, whom our friend has had or many years, to such on the ____, & who had become a rampant Know-Nothing, though giving his vote, I suppose, to chase, under the “____” which was then affected. That is a specimen of his appointments. And after all, I doubt if they will “avail” to give him the votes for either the Phila. nomination, or the Preliminary should he ____ the former. ____, even in politics, “____ is great gain”. These things, I can not speak of outside. But they do afford me, for, though I have no personal intent in them, I can but wish the power of office to be used with some reference to the ____ poor, when this can be done without injury to “the public service”.

I suppose Hildreth, though not well pleased with the “slavery” of his present position, may fix his residence in New York for a year at least. I ____ the state of things which makes it expedient for such a man to give his breath to fill the sa broad sheets of even such a craft as “The ____”. Still, his compensation is far greater than that of most editors.

Our ____ had, a few days ago, a ____ presented to her; whereat “all hands” ____ to ____ more than it I “feel to do”, since I in [?] no certain ____ for rejoicing at the birth of one, [?] until it shall have been seen what ~~that~~ one’s life has been.

I saw our friends, the Hoyts. I have heard nothing, nor have I heard ____ of of theirs, since I was at their house. I desire to be remembered by them.

With the love of Francis & of my own, I am

George Bradburn

Boston May 25-1856.

Dear Bradburn,

The Cleveland Herald of May 9^th, which you sent me, was not recd until yesterday. It shows that you are a little more of a compromiser than I was aware of. Although I was aware that you had some proclisties[?] that way. I have thus far been in a very enviable state of indifference as to the coming election. I may possibly become more interested in the course of the canvass, if there should be enough fighting in Hanras[?] and enough broken heads at Washington, to arouse my sympathies for the individuals concerned. But as to the political results, I have great doubts which party would, by its success, do most, or least, for freedom. If the Democrats succeed, it is to be hoped, and may reasonably be expected, that they will sufficiently outrage the rights and feelings of the north, to incite them (the north) to get up on their hind legs, and declare that they are men. But if the free soilers succeed, I fear they will be so well satisfied with themselves, that they will aim at nothing further, and will continue to go on all fours, like good honest asses, [?] as they always have done. I am, therefore, politically, a neutral, with a little preference, perhaps, in favor of the success of the Democrats. If I had an confidence that the freesoilers would do any thing substantial for freedom, I would give them my good wishes. But I ~~think~~ fear they are too servile to ever hate slavery with any heartiness, until they have had their own noses nibbed [?] in it. And if this kind of baptism be necessary, I wish it to be done effectually, [?] as it most likely will will be, ~~if the~~ during the next four years, if the Democrats prevail.

I expect to receive my patent this week for the invention I spoke to you of and I have great confidence that it is going to be valuable. I wish I had the money for it now, that I might give my attention to other things. I think the world is “perishing for lack of knowledge”, which I could give them; and I every day reproach myself for being engaged in any such commonplace business as making money, or getting a living. But since the world does not sufficiently appreciate my genius to buy my books, I have no alternative but to ask them to buy my beds and chairs. If I should establish a good reputation for beds and chairs, that may prove such a stepping stone to public favor, that I may ~~sometime~~ hope to resume [?] my profession of and for, philosopher, reformer, and oracle, with better success than I have hitherto met with.

You see what brilliant visions I am indulging myself with and I have no doubt I shall have your hearty prayers my success, especially in the mechanical department.

I heard that Kitteredge [?] had gone to Madison, Wisconsin, to take charge of a Water [?] Gin [?] and I think it likely it is so.

Give my love to Mrs Bradburn.

Yours truly,

L. Spooner

An indignation meeting was held at Faneuil [?] Hall last night, on account of Sumner. Hillard, [?] Malley, [?] Pelag [?] Chandler [?] and same made speeches, apparently with a view to crawling back into the good graces of Mayor [?] Chasetts. [?]

New = York, Oct. 18, 1859.

Dear Spooner:

I wish to know the course [?] of proceeding, to obtain a patent for a mechanical invention. I am as utterly ignorant in the premises as an idiot would ____ be. I seek the information for a friend. He is somewhat apprehensive that his invention , may be ____ by new mechanical ____ to construct a model of it, should he ___ ___ one. I believe that both ___ & a description of the ___ thing invented are required to be sent to the office in Washington! Would the former answer, if need in a _____ way, as ____ mechanic might ___ be it, provided it would service to shield the invention? Or, must it be handsomely ____ , in order to be ____ in so ____ ___ ___ in the Patent Office? And what precautions are needed to prevent piracy? Remember, in this case of yours, ___ ___ from ___ ____

ILLEGIBLE – TOO LIGHT

P.S. Of course, you’ll [?] not ____ to visit your next to Cleveland, Ohio.

P.S. 2nd. Would it be of use for Mr Muether [?] to visit Washington personally?

Please send your answer to the patent part of this letter James Atwater [?], Care of William Atwater [?] & Co., 94 Chamber Street, New - York. I make this request at ____ ____ to save time.

I shall be glad to hear from you at any time, at Cleveland, so long as I shall be there, &, when I shall leave to be there, I will, of course, let you know. I had hoped to see you, again, before leaving Boston. But I could not contrive to do so, conveniently. And I left with the hope of returning thither, before very long, to deliver some Lysander Lectures. That hope, however, may be disappointed, & I shall be glad [?] to have it.

Louis [?] Tippan [?] told me he should be right glad to have your pamphlet distributed, as you proposed to Smith if the money could be raised; would even pay for the distribution himself, had he $30,000 to spend. Gooddell thinks he could almost move the _____ hall, had he such friends to help him as Garrison has.

G.B.

[This letter seems to be missing the introduction]

[On the left hand margin it reads]: mailed at ____ Sept. 14 1859

Mrs. Haughton [?] ____ Miss B. as quite an attractive person; graceful, & intellectual, with grand blue eyes, & a spirited face. Does not think she ever really loved Mr. S., but believes she would have married him soon enough, had he been in possession of the means of giving her a home, which was what she most felt the need of, felt the need of so much that she would have taken almost any respectable man to secure it, if ~~he loved h~~ satisfied he loved her, as she believed S. to do; was something of a coquette, willing enough to hold on to S. until she should be offered a man who could house her, & no doubt intended no harm by doing so. Didn’t think her treatment of S. wholly injurious, [?] when the two used to much here. When he was evidently all aflame, sh & very sincere & earnest, she would give another, even in the same room with him,

[next page; it seems as if some of this letter may have been torn off]

to understand it was pretty much all gammen[?] on her part; doing so by aside looks, gestures, perhaps words, & what not.

Mr. H. does not think B. was very attractive, such a woman as a man would be particularly likely to fall in love with. He says she was smart, though.

H. Remarked, on hearing Mrs. Houghton’s observations, that they confirmed her original opinion, that Miss B. was not a woman of principle. Yet Mrs. H. ~~does~~ did not seem to assent to that opinion. Her notion, however, about ^A

A: [in different handwriting] Miss B.’s not having S., has probably been modified, somewhat, by some little account I gave her of the former’s letters to Mr. S.

I have not yet had a chance to learn if the other Mrs. H. has heard from Miss B. suspect she has not.

I do not know to=day, that we shall return to Boston so soon as next week. We do not find either board or a house, as yet.

With F.’s [?] regards, I am truly yours,

Geo. Bradburn

____, Sept. 29, ’59.

Dear Spooner:

The article was sent to Mr Atlantic, about the first of August last, with a note from myself to Underwood, [?] who lately returned the paper, saying it ~~was~~ ~~marked~~ had been sent back to him marked “R”. I am to presume that Lowell did not know, when he so branded it, who wrote it; but

only because the ~~part~~ Professor professes to accept or reject papers without knowing their authorship.

I have reced enough of the Atlantic, not to be able to imagine why the “Leaves” were excluded, if ~~you~~, or you fancy, they are not weak, & the editor did not mean to turn up his nose at one whom he doubtless regards as an unlittered [?] fanatic. N. was polite enough to say it would have given him pleasure to return me a different answer.

You & I probably do not differ as to what was meant to be “the sentiment” of that article. I was willing enough to ____ Lowell, by letting him see, that such a radical as he I know he ____ me to be, is not without some “reverence[?] for the part”.

So; I have done nothing to get my name before the public as a Lecturer, this year. I have had such ill luck, hitherto, in that way, that I have not the heart to work for myself in that direction, any more. I feel, too, that there is an indelicacy in pushing myself forward, notwithstanding the same is done by so many others. Last year, I wrote George Risley[?] deriving him to have my name put into the Tribune list of lecturers. But I heard nothing from him, & saw nothing of my name in any subsequent emendation of that list.

I meant to follow up the “Leaves” with others, should they be accepted; the norm being one under which I could say almost anything, & yet people within my the sphere of the pulpit[?] - as employed by myself.

I have just sent to T.L. Severance, Atlantic[?] Bank, a key of our storage=room, with a request for him to do, instantly, an errand for Fannie[?]. He never needs jogging, but should you be able to stop round to the bank, & tell him of this, it may help facilitate the matter.

Bradburn.

[Manchester, ____]

Sylvan Ritred [?] 6. Sept 67.

L. Spooner Esq.

Sir I had the pleasure a few days since of receiving yours of the 29 th saying you inclosed [sic] to me No Treason N^o. 2 which come [sic] safely to hand - also a second copy - for which I sincerely thank you. I fear my intrusive correspondence has become an annoyance to you, as to the Republican to whom you were so kind as to send a copy of your pamphlet. I seldom see that paper. Did you get the Advocate I sent you? I showed the first NP. to several friends and by some means they have lost it which I regret very much. The truth is the Southern papers are afraid to publish any thing ofthe [sic] however much approved.

You are no doubt well apprised of the situation of Mo. and Tenn. under the guardianship “Fletcher & Brownlow and the further South the worse if possible. Had our leading politicians have been of your opinion of what constitutes Treason ten or twenty years ago, in my opinion we should never have had the desolating war through which we have just passed. And even now if the “infernal Bureau” and all the managers were annihilated and a conciliatory cause toward the South pursued time would obliterate the past: but never, never while the present policy is continued - instead of a reconciliation the intolerable oppression only increases the hatred and ill will of the South whatever the subsidized papers may say. But I may now be saying to [sic] much.

Again sir I thank you for your kindness and would it were in my power to reciprocate your favors.

Your friend and humble servant

In: S. Briekey [?]

Captain Drayton [?]

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

I see by my weekly Commonwealth, just arrived, that an effort is about to be made in Boston to aid Capt Drayton. Lest the friends of humanity in your good city may think that we in Philadelphia have been remiss in this matter, I feel it a duty to let your readers know what has been done by persons here, through me and by myself for Capt Drayton & his family, & for Capt Sayres[?].

For the whole four years that these men were in prison, I paid the rent of Capt. Drayton’s [?] house - supplied his family with fuel, and with many other necessities of life, writing them nearly every month, and furnished a committee of ladies [?] with the means to set up a little shop for Mrs D.: all amounting to $ 648.20

Sent to S.P. Blanchard [?], Boston, to aid the committee in procuring counsel

$ 101.00

Sent to Capt. D. G. [?] when in prison, & gave them since coming out, in checking one quarter’s rent in advance $ 198.50

Expenses of Mrs Drayton to, at, and from Washington, to aid in the husband’s release

$ 72.00

Omiting re [?] $8.00

Total $ 1027.76

Beside this, at the advice of Horace Mann in February 1851, I entered into an agreement with Daniel Rutcliffe Esq, [?] at Washington to pay him $1000 for engaging to use his influence and exert his labours to effect the release of captives D. G. [?] by getting the signatures of the owners of the slaves of the Pearl [?] to a release of all claims against them. Of this sum I was to pay $400 down, and the balance $600, in case he was successful in getting the men out of prison that sp Fall. He was not successful, and of course the $600 was never mailed. Indeed I got but $120 of this sum pledged, so that had I been able to get no more from the friends of the cause, I should have been obliged to pay the balance of $480 myself. Of the $400 paid down, it is due to that great-hearted philanthropist, Gemitt [?] Smith, to say that he paid one half: the other two hundred dollars we was contributed by friends in this city.

You see therefore that $1427.76 have passed through my hands alone to aid these men; and I know that something else was done for ~~Mas~~ Captain Drayton by others in this city, as well as f by persons in various parts of the country, in answer to the occasional appeals the National Era. [?]

Charles D. Cleveland.

Philadelphia January 2. 1854

Will the editor of the Commonwealth please in sert [sic] the above in the Daily & Weekly, and oblige his friend.

Ch [?] D. Cleveland

Please let the print be carefully read, particularly the figures.

[Copy of Prof. Cleveland’s article to the Boston Commonwealth - Jany. 2/54]

Copy.

“Captain Drayton.

To the editor of the Commonwealth,

I see by my weekly Commonwealth, just received, that an effort is about to be made in Boston to aid Capt. Drayton. Lest the friends of humanity in your good city may think that we in Philadelphia have been remiss in this matter, I feel it a duty to let your readers know what has been done by persons here, through me, and by myself, for Capt. Drayton [?] and his family, and for Capt. Sayres. [?]

For the whole four years that these men were in prison, I paid the rent of Capt. Drayton’s house - supplied his family with fuel, and with many other necissaries [sic] of life, visiting them nearly every month, and furnished a committee of ladies with the means to set up a little shop for Mrs D.; all amounting to $648.26

Sent to J.P. Blanchard, Boston, to aid the Committee in

procuring counsel $101.00

Sent to Capt. D. & S. when in prison, and gave them since

coming out, including one quarter’s rent in advance $198.50

Expenses of Mrs Drayton to, at, and from Washington, to

aid in her husband’s release $72.00

Printing to [?] $8.00

Total $1027.76

Besides this, at the advice of Horace Mann in February 1851, I entered into an agreement with Daniel Ratcliffe [?] Esq, at Washington, to pay him $1000 for engaging to use his influence, and exert his labors to effect the release of Captains D. & S. by getting the signatures of the owners of the slaves of the Pearl [?] to a release of all claims against them. Of this sum I was to pay $400 down, and the balance $600, in case he was successful in getting the men out of prison that Fall. He was not successful, and of course the $600 was never ~~paid~~ raised. Indeed I got but $120, of this sum pledged, so that had I been able to get no more from the friends of the cause, I should have been obliged to pay the balance $480 myself. Of the $400 paid down, it is due to that great-hearted philanthropist, Gemitt Smith, to say that he paid one half: the other two hundred dollars was contributed by friends in this city.

You see therefore that $1427.76 have passed through my hands alone to aid these men; and I know that something else was done for Captain Drayton by others in this city, in answer to the occasional appeals in the National Era. [?]

Charles D. Cleveland

Philadelphia January 2-1854

Will the Editor of the Commonwealth please insert the above in the Daily & Weekly and oblige his friend. Chs.[?] D. Cleveland.

Please let the proof be carefully read, particularly the figures”.