EP 7.14

But wait there’s more! (cheese clip) Just a short time earlier we find in a letter written from Brace to his father, in a response to a letter where his father apparently found “rather foolhardy.” Braces response is a typical father son exchange. Son, you’re being an idiot, Dad, don’t worry, I’m invincible. I had the same conversation with my father. Though with a little extra context added we may find his response to dad a little more intriguing. “It isn’t so much from a reckless desire of exposing myself that I am apt to act so, as from a want of feeling that there are dangers I have to use my reason almost always, to convince me I ought to flee from danger. I am not naturally susceptible to fear. Now, that night, I did not once think of danger from the riot. However, I shall not risk my life ever from mere bravado, you may be assured.” Now what exactly is Charles Loring Brace talking about here? This quote is from a short addendum he attached to a letter dated to his father April 11, 1849, at this time Brace is studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. I feel like we have talked about a riot on this show around this time, maybe a little after April, more like May. Oh, yeah May 10, 1849, that was the date of the Astor Place Riot. Well, well, well, Mr. Brace. You just seem to find yourself in some very interesting places at some very interesting times. Now I don’t know his exact extent in the riot, it doesn’t sound like he was involved in any way, I can’t seem to track down the letter where his father is calling him foolhardy, but it seems likely he was there in more of a spectator capacity. You know probably just gonna catch a play down at the ol’ Astor Place Opera House, and wouldn’t you know Ned Buntline is there with the boys to wreck shop. Now any normal person would immediately turn tail and go home at the first sign of trouble, especially a fresh Yale Graduate currently attending Union Theological Seminary to further his theological studies. His whole life ahead of him, with nothing but goals of helping the poor and needy, surely he wouldn’t stick around just for the stake of sticking around. Though it may be easy to stay calm in such a situation and observe it so closely, if one had prior knowledge of the event. I’m not saying he did (Ben Shapiro, I’m just asking questions), but intense observation, rather than retreat is a surely curious response to bullets and bricks being thrown about. Especially with the added context that the letter to Frederick John Kingsbury with the quote “sometimes think it might be better for me to be entirely separated from you all for a while.” is dated June 25, 1849, just one month after the Astor Place Riot. You’ll discover on this journey that Charles Loring Brace has a very interesting habit of finding himself in very high places at the exactly wrong time. Or right time, depending on what side of the fence you stand on.