Richard J. Hinton

Before Colonel Richard J. Hinton ever wrote to Sophia Emery Realf, he had already begun the painful work of gathering what remained of Richard Realf — not the body, which had been buried in California, but the poems, letters, memories, explanations, and contradictions that survived him.

Hinton was no stranger to Realf’s world. Like Realf, he was English-born; like Realf, he had gone into the antislavery struggle in Kansas; like Realf, he had been drawn into the long shadow of John Brown, though he had not been in Canada with Brown and Realf, nor at Harper’s Ferry. He was a journalist, abolitionist, soldier, and a man accustomed to causes. He was working at the San Francisco Post when Richard moved there, intending to rebuild his life. Before Realf committed suicide, he left directions that his poems should be collected and published, if possible, for the benefit of “Lizzie and the boy,” and in Realf’s will, he left Hinton the rights to publish his poems.

But a life cannot be gathered like loose pages and made whole by affection alone. Before the end of 1878, Hinton started writing to people who knew Richard and those he hoped had copies Richard’s poems.

Sarah Whapham was Realf’s sister, and at least some of his letters to Mrs. Whapham survive in the Richard J. Hinton Papers in the Kansas State Library.

905 13th St. NW

Washington, D.C.

Feb. 2, 1879

Dear Madam:

Your two packages reached me all right. Of course the purely family details I’ll keep back, much of the balance will [be] of the greatest service.

There are one or two things I must make plain. I cannot do the work I am engaged on real justice, unless I know all the main points of Richard’s career — noble & doubtful. There are annoying persons who know the last, to accuse and criticize, if I write my own knowledge of the other. In order to correct false impressions I must know how much was real. It will be wise to tell me the facts now only suggested — not necessarily for publication, but my guidance.

You hint at some mystery from the winter of 1859 to the spring of 1862. Perhaps you do know that slurs and accusations have appeared in print — not defined but suggested. I will keep sacred, as you would, the evil or doubtful.

Again, Realf left in the will, directions as to his wife & boy. I find his Lizzie’s picture in an envelope marked “my beloved wife.” He told me she was his wife — again he said over and over again that he was to send for her to California & on getting a divorce again he would marry her. She would by being acknowledged in that state have been his wife before the law. I want you to write me simply and kindly the facts — we in California feel bound to honor her. What you last wrote is so sacred I must make no mistakes. What you say shall be sacred.

I know very much of your brother’s life that you would not — and which would not be used — but we must make this biography his vindication, not mistakes but the truth.

You will be prouder of him than ever after it’s done, I think. Rossiter Johnson has sent in material; also Guesses of the Beautiful.^⁠[1] I hope England material will come soon.

I am looking over newspaper files. If you have one or two such charming letters at that address to your husband in 1870, I’d like them.

Write me soon.

Yours,

R. J. Hinton

Hinton’s letter to Sarah Whapham reveals the burden he had taken upon himself. Realf had not merely left poems to be collected. He had left behind competing claims, unfinished explanations, mysteries and people still living who could be wounded by telling the truth.

He does not yet know that Richard had married Sophia Graves in Indiana in 1865. It is also somewhat doubtful that he understood the familial relationship between “Lizzy” and Sarah.

What Hinton did understand was that any biography of Realf would have to make some defenses, but not false ones. He asked Sarah for “all the main points of Richard’s career — noble & doubtful.” The word was carefully chosen. He did not write “life.” He wrote “career.” He meant the public course of Richard’s actions: Kansas, John Brown, England, New Orleans, Texas, Washington, the war, journalism, poetry, reform. Hinton knew that the noble parts of that career could not be protected by hiding the doubtful ones. Others, he warned, knew enough of the darker passages “to accuse and criticize.” If he wrote only from affection, his book could be attacked. If he knew the truth, he might at least avoid plain error.

The most troubling shadow for Hinton lay between the winter of 1859 and the spring of 1862. That was the interval after Harper’s Ferry and before Richard entered the army. It included his departure south, his New Orleans and Catholic episode, his time in Texas, his guarded return to Washington, and withdrawal among the Shakers in Ohio. Sarah had apparently hinted at something in this period, but not fully explained it. Hinton pressed gently but firmly. He wanted the facts “not necessarily for publication, but my guidance.”

The letter also shows that Hinton was already caught in Richard’s domestic wreckage. Realf had left instructions that his poems, if published, should benefit “Lizzie and the boy.” Hinton had found Lizzie’s photograph marked “my beloved wife,” among Realf’s effects in San Francisco. Realf had told him she was his wife, and had said repeatedly that he meant to send for and marry her once he could secure a divorce. Hinton therefore felt, as he wrote, that “we in California feel bound to honor her.”

In that sense, Hinton’s first letter to Sarah that survives in the record contains the whole tragedy in miniature. He wanted to preface Realf’s poems with a biography that would vindicate the poet’s life. To do that, he needed the truth — not the caricature that had followed Realf through the newspapers, and not the affectionate legend his friends might prefer. But every truth Hinton touched led him deeper into the tangle.

He was already corresponding with Ann Good, who knew Richard in Ohio; the Reverend Alexander Clark, who had known him in Philadelphia; and Sarah Realf Whapham, who could speak to Richard’s childhood in England, perhaps more.

What Hinton did not yet know was that Richard’s only lawful wife had recently written to Alexander Clark. And that Sarah knew Richard had married a woman during or after the war, one Realf had told his sister had died.

NOTES

¹ Guesses of the Beautiful were the poems were published in England when Realf was twenty-years old.