Lot 62 email save

John Minor Botts Speaks Before the African Slave Ch

Sign In to see what this sold for

BOTTS, John Minor (1802-1869) was admitted to the bar in 1830, commencing practice in Richmond. He moved to Henrico County, Virginia and engaged in agricultural pursuits and was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1833 to 1839. Botts was elected a Whig to the United States House of Representatives in 1838, serving from 1839 to 1843. He was unsuccessful for reelection in 1842, but was elected back in 1846, serving again from 1847 to 1849. Their, he was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs from 1847 to 1849. Botts was once again unsuccessful for reelection in 1848 and again in 1850. He was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention from 1850 to 1851 and resumed practicing law in Richmond in 1852. Botts was a delegate to the Southern Loyalists' Convention in 1866.^tAutograph Letter Signed, "Jno. M. Botts" 2p. quarto, October 16, 1856, Richmond, Virginia, and reads in part: "...For the last fortnight I have been able to do nothing but attend to private funeral matters on my own account & on behalf of my friends all growing out of my late speeches at the African Church & in Petersburg - which has so damaged my political engagements that I find it will absolutely impossible for me to be at Wytheville as presumed and as I earnestly desired it to be. I had made previous arrangements to be in the North Western part of the State where I should have been before this...Whenever I am about to make a speech some fellow sends me a challenge...It seems to me a systematic game with them to destroy or rather to prevent the influence it has received among the democracy...In lieu of a visit I shall send you several hundred copies of my speech for distribution...Excuse me for not saying more & for the manner in which this is said as I have nearly 200 unanswered letters before me..." About VG.^tThe speech referred to was Botts' famous "Speech on the Political Issues of the Day, Delivered at the African Church in the City of Richmond, August 8, 1856."

View Raynors' Historical Collectible Auctions next auction.

Similar lots up for auction