An 1861 Anti-Secessionist Letter from an Exuberant California Unionist, in the Original Rare ‘Internal’ Pony Express Envelope

Unbound

1861 · San Francisco

by WARE, John

San Francisco, 1861. Unbound. Near Fine. Autograph Letter, Signed. Quarto. 2pp. San Francisco, June 12, 1861. Posted from San Francisco by John “Johnnie” Ware and addressed to Rev. Thomas B. Fox, owner and editor of the “Christian Examiner, Boston”. Folded in the original mailing envelope with its cover annotated “Pony Express” in ink at upper left corner. Franked with a red Type II three cent Washington stamp (Scott #26) canceled by a New York City postmark dated July 1, which indicates that this envelope had been enclosed within another while it traveled eastward via the Pony Express. Both the folded letter and envelope are near fine overall.
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John Ware is identified in an 1865 San Francisco City Directory as a “porter” – i.e., coleporter/colporteur: a traveling salesman of religious books, pamphlets, and subscriptions. He may well have been a relative of the famous Unitarian minister Henry Ware, Jr., a mentor of Ralph Waldo Emerson who had previously served as editor of the *Christian Examiner*. In his letter, Ware presses Fox for his payment due, noting “Julia says ‘ask Fox for what commission he means to allow me for the list of subscribers. I don’t want any pious books for commission.’” Considering the letter cost him two dollars to send by Pony Express, Ware must have been anxiously anticipating his remuneration. In the letter, Ware also humorously, but vehemently, declares his pro-Union stance and relates how the political climate in California had shifted:

“My Dear Fox, How are you? & What are you? Major, Col., Sergeant, Ensign, Chaplain, Commissary, or what? Perhaps Secessionist, as you always take philosophical views of things. I am not so sure that . . . the secessionist cause is . . . not the one to sympathize with. We don’t want the South after we have licked ‘em. I am a post mortem decessionist. Kill the rattlesnake, keep his musical bones as a trophy; & then throw him over the wall. It does one’s soul good . . . to see the Southerners trampled in this section where they have bullied over [us] so long with dirk and bludgeon. The State has been moved so many degrees North morally, of late, that it’s cold weather all the time. . .. I am still busy speaking in the State on The War, & Washington, & Webster, & Lexington; & on the Fourth I am to speak at a tremendous gathering in Sacramento. On every hand, I get complimented & thanked for important service in knitting the Union Sentiment & pushing back the early Southern insolence. It would do you good to see how I am loved by our Brigand-brethren. / Last Saturday night I returned from a three week visit to the region of Mt. Shasta … Julia says ‘ask Fox for what commission he means to allow me for the list of subscribers. I don’t want any pious books for commission.’ Give my love especially to Wheelock, Johnnie Ware. O if Wheelock could see Mt. Shasta!”

Since Pony Express mail departed San Francisco only on Wednesdays or Saturdays, Ware’s letter must have been dispatched on June 12th, 15th, or possibly June 19th for it to have reached New York by July 1st. Regardless of mailing date, it would have left San Francisco via steamship bound for Sacramento. There, it was placed on a train to Folsom for further transport by horse-mounted Pony Express riders. Upon arrival in New York, the ‘interior’ envelope was removed from its exterior cover, postmarked, and sent on to Boston.

A scarce surviving Pony Express letter, which flourished for only 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861, with good Civil War era content relating to California. (Inventory #: 581067)

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