Tuesday, March 14, 2017

James H. Holmes to John Brown, 3 p.m., April 30, 1857

Lawrence, Kan., 3 o'clock, P. M., April 30, 1857.

Dear Friend Brown, — This morning I received your letter which came by the way of Tabor, and also your letter which came through the mail. I had previously written you a short letter. I now write to let you know that I have received them, and to answer them hastily; though I presume you will leave Springfield for Kansas ere this reaches you. I do not think there is any disposition to “back down” by the Free-State men, other than by the speculators; and they are, as a class, never to be relied on, of course. I have full faith in the virtue of the Free-State men of Kansas. You have something to learn in the political world here.

You will hear of me either at Lawrence, through J. E. Cook, of the firm of Bacon, Cook, &. Co., or I may be at Emporia, where I have taken a claim and make it my home. At any rate, Cook can tell you where I may be. A case has recently occurred of kidnapping a Free-State man, which is this: Archibald Kandell, a young fellow who came in with Redpath under Eldridge, last fall, and has been all winter on a claim near Osawatomie, was some two weeks since enticed out under pretence of trading horses, by four men, and abducted into Missouri. Archy was in my company, and is a good brave fellow. How long he is to remain incarcerated and in chains I will not in this place and time attempt to predict.

Judge Conway is here, radical and right. Dr. Robinson recently made a proposition with some leading proslavery men to compromise. The Free-State men won't do it. We are talking of running Phillips for governor next fall.

Very truly your constant friend,
James.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 392-3

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