Amos A. Lawrence to John Brown, March 20, 1857

(Private.)

Boston, March 20, 1857.

My Dear Sir, — Your letter from New Haven is received. I have just sent to Kansas near fourteen thousand dollars to establish a fund to be used, first, to secure the best system of common schools for Kansas that exists in this country; second, to establish Sunday-schools.

The property is held by two trustees in Kansas, and cannot return to me. On this account, and because I am always short of money, I have not the cash to use for the purpose you name. But in case anything should occur, while you are engaged in a great and good cause, to shorten your life, you may be assured that your wife and children shall be cared for more liberally than you now propose. The family of “Captain John Brown of Osawatomie” will not be turned out to starve in this country, until Liberty herself is driven out.

Yours with regard,

Amos A. Lawrence.

I hope you will not run the risk of arrest.

I never saw the offer to which you refer, in the “Telegraph,” and have now forgotten what it was. Come and see me when you have time.

A. A. Lawrence.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 374; William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 127-8