April 17, 1857.
Friend Brown, —
I have received your letter containing twenty dollars, and have given it over
with contents to Allen & Wheelock, who will attend to your requests. I
shall leave to-night for New York City, and may not be back again to look after
the things. Please send any directions you wish to Allen & Wheelock. The
Boston people have done nobly, especially Mr. Stearns. Dr. Howe has not
forwarded the articles named in your letter. As soon as received, I will place
them in the hands of Allen & Wheelock. I thought it best to give them your
letters, so that they might attend to your requests understandingly. They will
be secret.
Will you allow me to suggest a name for your company? I
should call them “the Neighbors,” from Luke, tenth chapter: “Which thinkest
thou was neighbor to him who fell among thieves?”
Our Virginia scheme is gaining strength wonderfully.1
Every mail brings me offers of land and men. The press universally favors it, —
that is, so far as we care for favor. It is bound to go ahead. You must have a
home in Western Virginia.
Very truly your
friend,
Eli Thayer.
_______________
1 Lest it should he thought that this refers to
Brown's plan for compulsory emancipation (which was not then disclosed), I
hasten to say that this “Virginia scheme” was a combination of political
campaigning and land speculation, which Mr. Thayer had originated and put in motion
at a place named by him Ceredo, in West Virginia.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 383
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