Lot
1975 
[Slavery] "Evansport, Indiana, June 10th 1842", dateline on folded letter to Dr. Joseph A. Boggs, brother of former Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, it was sent privately to Weston, where it entered the mails with red "Weston Mo. Jun 30" cds and manuscript "12½" rating, the writer is asking the doctor's help in finding a position in Missouri, citing a very strange reason: "…part of the object of this letter is to obtain of you information as to some good location in your state to which I believe I should prefer emigrating - as you have the privilege of keeping negroes without making equals or amalgamationists or whatever you please to call it of them. There are a great many abolitionists in this county & the subject will probably create some excitement here at no very distant day. I profess to be as much a friend of liberty as other men. And I would subscribe to the doctrines of equality too if the blacks could be removed to Africa but under existing circumstances I think the primitive principle of self preservation justifies slavery in this country…"; he also extends condolences to the doctor: "I have just heard of the assassination of your brother. That is shocking & strange & demands a most efficient & vindictive retribution on the part of the state…", Lilburn recovered from the assault of a Mormon fanatic who sought revenge for the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri; couple minor stains, Very Fine. Estimate $500 - 750.
Lilburn Williams Boggs (1796 — 1860) was the sixth Governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840. He is now most widely remembered for his interactions with Joseph Smith and Porter Rockwell, and Missouri Executive Order 44, known by Mormons as the "Extermination Order", issued in response to the ongoing conflict between members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and other settlers of Missouri. Boggs was also a key player in the Honey War of 1837.
Boggs, who was from Independence, moved to a house within the City of Zion plot in Independence after the Mormons were evicted from Missouri and after he left office. His home was three blocks east of Temple Lot. On the rainy evening of May 6, 1842, Boggs was shot by an unknown party who fired at him through a window as he read a newspaper in his study. Boggs was hit by large buckshot in four places: two balls were lodged in his skull, another lodged in his neck, and a fourth entered his throat, whereupon Boggs swallowed it. Boggs was severely injured. Several doctors - Boggs' brother among them - pronounced Boggs as good as dead; at least one newspaper ran an obituary. To everyone's great surprise, Boggs not only survived, but gradually improved.
Realized: $475