Saturday, August 1, 2015

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn to Edward Clark, January 15, 1857

We have made the rifles subject to Captain Brown's order, as we wrote you. From Mr. Winchcll's account, we conclude that you will find them in the Territory, and in the hands of the Central Committee.1 In the quarrel between the National and the Central Committees, we hope you will keep yourself strictly neutral, and inform us how the case really stands. We hear charges of misconduct from both sides. The order of Captain Brown will not probably be issued till spring, if it is at all, since his use of the rifles depends on a contingency which may not occur.
_______________

1 Originally they had been forwarded to this committee, as appears by the following note:—

State Kansas Aid Committee Rooms,
Boston, Sept. 30, 1856.

Dear Sir, — At a meeting of this committee it was voted. That the arms purchased by Dr. Cabot, in accordance with a vote of the committee, passed September 10, be forwarded to the Kansas Central Committee at Lawrence, with instructions that they be loaned to actual settlers for defence against unlawful aggressions upon their rights and liberties.

GeorGe L. Stearns, Chairman.
H. B. Hurd, Esq., Chicago.


SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 368-9

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