Congressman Frederick P. Stanton to Augustus Schell, June 14, 1850

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, June 14, 1850.

DEAR SIR—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the committee's letter of invitation to the dinner to be given in your city on the 17th instant, to the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson.

It would give me great pleasure to unite with the Democrats of the city of New York in doing honor to their noble and patriotic fellow-citizen for his distinguished services in the Senate during the crisis through which our country is now passing. You have not made too high an estimate of those services; they demand the approbation of the whole country, and no applause which his immediate fellow-citizens can bestow will be dispropor ionate to their merit. If there had been "ten righteous men" of this stamp in our national councils at the commencement of the present controversy, it is not too much to say the country would have been saved; the difficulty would long since have been adjusted. I hope it is not yet too late for a consummation so devoutly to be wished—a consummation to which no man will have contributed more, by his original, uniform, and unswerving devotion to the Constitution, than the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson.

I regret that my duties here render it impossible for me to accept the invitation to be present upon so interesting an occasion. Be pleased to express to the committee my acknowledgments, &c.

I am, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

FRED. P. STANTON.

AUG. SCHELL, Esq., 40 Wall street, New York.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 441

James H. Holmes to John Brown, April 30, 1857

Lawrence, Kansas, April 30, 1857.

My Dear Friend Brown, — I have been anxiously expecting to hear from you direct, but have only heard through Mr. Wattles. I want to see you as soon as possible after you arrive in the Territory. I have settled at Emporia, six miles above the junction of the Neosho and the Cottonwood. My address is either Emporia or Lawrence, as you may choose. My letters all come and go safe. War, ere six months shall have passed away, is inevitable. Secretary Stanton has made a public speech in Lawrence, and says that those laws (the bogus) shall be enforced, and that the taxes shall be paid. The people shout, “Never!” “Then,” he says, “there is war between you and me, — war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt.” There will be no voting; no paying of taxes; and I think the Free-State men will remove the Territorial Government and set up their own. Then we want you. Please write. All your friends, as far as I know, are well.

Very truly yours,

James H. Holmes.¹

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¹ Holmes was at this time nineteen years old, the son of a New York broker, and had gone to Kansas to aid the cause of freedom. He has since been a journalist, and under President Lincoln was secretary of New Mexico. Brown used to call him “my little hornet.”

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 391-2