Our mining company will consist of between twenty-five and
thirty well equipped with tools. You can tell Uncle Dan it will be impossible
for me to visit him before next spring. If my life is spared, I will be tired
of work by that time, and I shall visit my relatives and friends in Iowa, if I
can get leave of absence. At present, I am bound by all that is honorable to
continue in the course. We go in to win, at all hazards. So if you should hear
of a failure, it will be after a desperate struggle, and loss of capital on
both sides. But that is the last of our thoughts. Everything seems to work to
our hands, and victory will surely perch upon our banner. The old man has had
this operation in view for twenty years, and last winter was just a hint and
trial of what could be done. This is not a large place,2 but a
precious one to Uncle Sam, as he has a great many tools here. I expect (when I
start again travelling) to start at this place and go through the State of
Virginia and on south, just as circumstances require; mining and prospecting,
and carrying the ore with us. I suppose this is the last letter I shall write
before there is something in the wind. Whether I shall have a chance of sending
letters then I do not know, but when I have an opportunity, I shall improve it.
But if you don't get any from me, don't take it for granted that I am gone
up till you know it to be so. I consider my life about as safe in one place
as another.
_______________
2 Haper’s Ferry.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 545
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