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Letter from a Key Witness in the 1842 Trial of James “Yankee” Sullivan famed Bare-Knuckle Fighter and California Ballot Box Stuffer.
Highstown, NJ: 1843. 2 pp. manuscript letter on single 8vo leaf, separate address leaf. An intriguing letter bearing on the James Sullivan trial and illegal prizefighting in America in the 1840s. On September 13, 1842 Thomas McCoy, after a 181-round pummeling in makeshift ring on the banks of the north river just upstream from New York City, became the first American prizefighter to die during a bout. Then an illegal activity, prizefighting in New York was largely promoted and sanctioned by Irish organized crime. History, and the present letter, records McCoy’s match as having been promoted in large part by one James “Yankee Sullivan” Ambrose (a good friend of McCoy’s opponent, Christopher Lilly). Following McCoy’s demise Lilly fled to England before standing trial. However, Sullivan did not manage to abscond from the Empire State before being indicted for manslaughter. He received a two year sentence but, thanks to some underworld chicanery, was out in six months. The present letter relates directly to Sullivan’s trial. In it, Edmund Spragg, self-described as being without “the benifit of mutch learning” and witness for the prosecution in Sullivan’s trial, is writing to the prosecuting attorney, future congressman William Nelson, seeking leniency for a series of misdeeds which he contends he was goaded into by Sullivan and his codefendant Joseph Murphy (mentioned in period newspaper articles as a promoter of the fight as well as pictured and named in an 1849 print of a Sullivan title bout). Spragg remarks: “you are awair of an affray that touk place at wite Plains about the time that Sullivan and others were to be tried in witch I unforthunly was ingaged I have sins bin informed that it was a plot got up for the pirpres of driving me from the Court by publishing a pasel of stuf in the Hearald to hirt my felings and wen I asked the repor the reason that he don it he insulted me in the grocs manner, I unfortuntly struck him and then Clearade out witch just suted Murphy and his friends who was at the bottom of the whole of it.” Spragg goes on to give further details about these matters, including a P.S. about Sullivan being “the most active man in all theais fights.” Following his release, Sullivan emigrated to California; where he would make a name for himself as a ballot-box stuffer and general reprobate. His end came at his own hand, in a prison cell where he wad being held by the San Francisco vigilance committee. William Nelson (1784–1869) was born at Crum Elbow Creek in Dutchess County, New York, but made his professional career as an attorney in Peekskill, Westchester County. Most notably, Nelson became friends with Abraham Lincoln while the two were Congressmen in the late 1840s, and it was this friendship that likely prompted Lincoln to make a brief stop in Peekskill on his way to the White House to assume his presidency. Outside of his congressional role, Nelson served multiple stints as District Attorney for Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties and “ranked high” among fellow attorneys “not so much for eloquence or skill at the bar as for industry, good common sense, and integrity. His sterling qualities were appreciated by the people, and brought him a large and lucrative practice...” (Scharf). Nelson founded the Peekskill Academy in the early 1830s, a co-ed school that, in spite of its early success, quickly became a military academy for boys and gained national prominence. REFERENCES: Scharf, John Thomas. History of Westchester County, p. 543. CONDITION: Very good, old folds.
Item #2924
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