Original P.T. Barnum Hand written letter 1856 to Senator William D. Bishop

Description

Phineas Taylor Barnum
(July 5, 1810-April 7, 1891)
Was an american showman, Politician and Businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum and Bailey Circus(1871-2017)
William D. Bishop. (September 14,1827-February 4, 1904)-
Was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut's 4th district from 1857 to 1859. He was also a member of the Connecticut house of Representatives in 1872, and in the Connecticut Senate from 1866 to 1874. He was president of the
Naugatuck
Railroad Company and New York and New Haven Railroad Company.
So much has been written about P.T. Barnum that it's hard to know what is factual and what it not. One thing that amateur historians like to say is that P.T. Barnum once said "There's a sucker born every minute" In fact P.T. Barnum never said that, in reality Phineas Taylor Barnum was probably the most
honest and upstanding man of character in the 19th century. 1856 was
as a very tumultuous year for P.T. Barnum, he had invested his fortune in the Jerome Clock Company in the early 1850s so he could get the company to move to Bridgeport Connecticut and his new industrial area, but the company went bankrupt in 1856, taking Barnum's wealth with it.This started four years of litigation and public humiliation. In an amazing act of generosity and kindness to such a great man, the city of Bridgeport and several prominent world figures all agreed to help Barnum out of his financial troubles.
Mr. William Bishop
said it was unusual for citizens to meet together to express sympathy with one who had lost his fortune. It was very common for the people and the press to eulogize a man when he was beyond the reach of human sympathy. He thought it was far better to tender a man the marks of approval while he was yet alive and could appreciate it. Applause... For along time in this city they were accustomed to bury their dead among the living. Mr. Barnum had done more than any other man to secure this city the most beautiful
cemetery
in Connecticut. He alone had secured to the city what it had never had before,-a public square. On the east side of the river he had almost completed a school house, a thing that which could be said of no other man. Loud Cheering.. If material aid were needed, he should be proud to assist in raising it. The meeting was characterized throughout by the greatest of enthusiasm. Nor was sympathy, all his neighbors offered him a loan of ,000, if that sum would meet the emergency.
P.T. Barnum responded to the people with this letter " Many people have urged me to accept their gratuitous services. I have, on principle, respectively declined them all. I have made it a point to never ask the public on personal grounds, and should prefer, while I can possibly avoid that contingency, to accept nothing from it without honest conviction that I had individually given it in return a full equivalent. While favored with health, I feel competent to earn an honest livelihood for myself and family. More than this I shall certainly never attempt with such a load of debt suspended in terrorem over me. While I earnestly thank you, therefore, for your generous consideration, gentleman, I trust you will appreciate my desire to live un-humiliated by a sense of dependence, and believe me, sincerely yours.
P.T. Barnum"