The Life and Letters of John Brown: Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia
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Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe: The Greek Revolution
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A Bronson Alcott: His Life and Philosophy, Volume II
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(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was an American journalist, author and philanthropist.
Background
He was born on December 15, 1831 on his ancestral farm in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, United States, the fifth of the seven children of Aaron and Lydia (Leavitt) Sanborn, and the sixth in descent from John Sanborn, who settled in Hampton in 1640. His father was a farmer and, when his son was born, clerk of the town.
Education
He completed his preparatory schooling at Phillips Exeter Academy and entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 1852. He enjoyed his college life, but from his teachers he derived far less than from Theodore Parker, whose preaching he attended regularly, and from Ralph Waldo Emerson, on whom he first ventured to call in 1853. Sanborn graduated from Harvard in 1855.
Career
After graduation he removed to Concord, Massachussets, where at Emerson's suggestion he had already opened a school. It was a happy move, for Concord was his spiritual home.
He was soon in the thick of the abolition movement. As secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Charities, the first established in America, he went on a tour of inspection in the West in the summer of 1856 and, although he did not actually enter Kansas Territory, brought back with him an enduring interest in the problems of that region.
The next January he met John Brown in Boston, was captivated by the man, and became his New England agent. He was apprised of Brown's intentions at Harpers Ferry, did what he could to dissuade him, but, when dissuasion proved futile, aided him. Later, he refused to leave Massachusetts to testify before a committee of the United States Senate, grounding his refusal on an appeal to the doctrine of state rights, and on Feb. 16, 1860, the Senate ordered his arrest. Sanborn retreated twice to Quebec but returned on the advice of his friends. The sergeant-at-arms of the Senate delegated the power to arrest him to one Carleton of Boston, who with four assistants apprehended him at Concord on Apr. 3, 1860.
He was released at once on a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge E. R. Hoar; a posse comitatus chased the arresting party out of town; and the next day the state supreme court, by a decision written by Chief Justice Shaw, ordered Sanborn's discharge.
To newspaper work, philanthropy, and literature he devoted the greater part of his long life. He succeeded Moncure Daniel Conway as editor of the Boston Commonwealth (1863 - 67) and was a resident editor of the Springfield Republican (1868 - 72). He had been a correspondent of the Republican since 1856 and remained on its staff until 1914.
In 1863 Gov. John Albion Andrew appointed him secretary of the state board of charities. This office was the first of its kind in the United States, and Sanborn made it important and influential.
He retired as secretary in 1868 but remained on the board and was its chairman from 1874 to 1876; from 1879 to 1888 he was state inspector of charities.
He lectured at Cornell University, Smith College, and Wellesley College, and joined with William Torrey Harris in establishing the Concord School of Philosophy.
His publications include: Henry D. Thoreau (1882); The Life and Letters of John Brown (1885), a fourth edition of which was issued under the title John Brown, Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia (1910); Dr. S. G. Howe, the Philanthropist (1891); A. Bronson Alcott: His Life and Philosophy (2 vols. , 1893), with W. T. Harris; Memoirs of Pliny Earle, M. D. (1898); The Personality of Thoreau (1901); Ralph Waldo Emerson (1901); The Personality of Emerson (1903); New Hampshire (1904); New Hampshire Biography and Autobiography (1905); Michael Anagnos (1907); Bronson Alcott at Alcott House, England, and Fruitlands, New England (1908); Hawthorne and His Friends (1908); Recollections of Seventy Years (2 vols. , 1909); and The Life of Henry David Thoreau (1917). He died at his son's home in Plainfield, N. J. , and was buried in Concord.
Achievements
As a newspaper man he was noted for his blistering criticism of various Massachusetts politicians. As a secretary of the Massachusetts Free Soil Association, he instituted a system of inspection and report for state charities that has been widely copied, made himself an expert on the care of the insane, and drafted many bills that were enacted into law. He published many magazine articles and did much editorial work on the literary remains of his friends: Henry D. Thoreau (1882); The Life and Letters of John Brown (1885), Dr. S. G. Howe, the Philanthropist (1891); A. Bronson Alcott: His Life and Philosophy (1893) and others.
He was a founder and officer of the American Social Science Association, the National Prison Association, the National Conference of Charities, the Clarke School for the Deaf, and the Massachusetts Infant Asylum, and for all of them he worked hard and effectively.
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Membership
He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Personality
He had a practical sagacity and knowledge of the world that many people lacked. In some conservative circles his reputation as a subversive thinker lingered even into the twentieth century. Retaining his faculties to the end, he never lost his passion for liberty and justice or his admiration for the great men whom he had known in his prime.
Quotes from others about the person
Walt Whitman described Sanborn as "a fighter, up in arms, a devotee, a revolutionary crusader, hot in the collar, quick on the trigger, noble, optimistic. "
Connections
On Aug. 23, 1854, he was married to Ariana Walker, who was on her deathbed and succumbed eight days later. On Aug. 16, 1862, he married his cousin, Louisa Augusta Leavitt. They had three sons, the poet Thomas Parker Sanborn, genealogist Victor Channing Sanborn, and Francis Bachiler Sanborn.