Page 53
“…Duff Green’s claim…”
“…outside Gadsby’s Hotel…”
“He struck Green on the head…”
“…to draw a dirk…”
“Blair paid $300…”
“…the opium that had become his habit.”
“…agitated by religious subjects…”
“…he once fired a pistol…”
“…lodgings at Mrs. Tim’s…”
“…letters that were waiting for him.”
“…to resign his seat…”
“The huge man was moved to tears…”
“…to place a period…”
“…armbands of mourning…”
“…Miss Edmunds’s school for young girls…”
“…gas lighting…”
“The fine ladies of Philadelphia…”
“…three or four pretty girls…”
“…a humorous anecdote…”
“..Duff Green’s claim…”
The Newbern Sentinel (New Bern, NC), January 7, 1833, p. 2.
“…outside Gadsby’s Hotel…”
The Newbern Sentinel (New Bern, NC), January 7, 1833, p. 2. The paper is reprinting a letter from Blair that was printed in the Washington Telegraph on December 25, 1832.
“He struck Green on the head…”
The Newbern Sentinel (New Bern, NC), January 7, 1833, p. 2.
“…to draw a dirk…”
The Newbern Sentinel (New Bern, NC), January 7, 1833, p. 2.
“Blair paid $300…”
James Blair’s Wikipedia page claims that the diaries of John Quincy Adams place the figure of Blair’s fine at $300. I was unable to verify this, but Adams’s diary does describe the Blair-Green fight in some detail. Adams’s diaries are available digitally from the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the entry is dated “December 1832,” with individual days listed inside the entry. The fight is described in entry for December 24.
“…the opium that had become his habit.”
The Vermont Patriot and State Gazetter (Montpelier, VT), April 21, 1834.
“…agitated by religious subjects…”
The Burlington Weekly Free Press (Burlington, VT), April 11, 1834.
“…he once fired a pistol…”
Freeman, J. B. (2019). The field of blood: Violence in Congress and the road to civil war, p. 52.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 96.
“…lodgings at Mrs. Tim’s…”
The Burlington Weekly Free Press (Burlington, VT), April 11, 1834.
“…letters that were waiting for him.”
Numerous accounts of Blair’s suicide differ on the precise details. John Quincy Adams’ diary entry, dated April 2, 1834, disagrees with later newspaper accounts—I went with the newspaper accounts. (See “Blair paid $300…,” above.)
The Sentinel and Democrat (Burlington, VT), April 11, 1834.
“…to resign his seat…”
The Vermont Patriot and State Gazetter (Montpelier, VT), April 21, 1834.
“The huge man was moved to tears…”
The Vermont Patriot and State Gazetter (Montpelier, VT), April 21, 1834.
The Sentinel and Democrat (Burlington, VT), April 11, 1834.
“…to place a period…”
The Vermont Patriot and State Gazetter (Montpelier, VT), April 14, 1834.
“…armbands of mourning…”
The Sentinel and Democrat (Burlington, VT), April 11, 1834.
John Quincy Adams diary, entry dated April 2, 1834. (See “Blair paid $300…,” above.)
“…Miss Edmunds’s school for young girls…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 130.
“…gas lighting…”
Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 34.
“The fine ladies of Philadelphia…”
From Hardy Vickers Wooten: Diaries, 1813-1856, p. 46, held at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama. Although Wooten was not in Philadelphia at precisely the same time as Sims, they became colleagues and friends in Alabama.
“…three or four pretty girls…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 130.
“…a humorous anecdote…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 134-35.
