Vergenses, Vt., May 13, 1857.
Some days since, while on my way home [to North Elba, N.
Y.], sick with fever and ague, I got your favor of the 29th April, saying, “Mr.
Lawrence has agreed with me that the one thousand dollars shall be made up, and
will write to Gerrit Smith to-day or to-morrow, to say that he can depend on
the money from him.” After getting home I agreed with two young men (by the
name of Thompson) who had bargained with Mr. Smith for the farm several years
ago, and paid him in part for it, and who had made the improvements on it, that
I would take the farm, pay the balance due Mr. Smith (some two hundred
dollars), and the remainder, about eight hundred dollars, to them; which would
enable them to pay for another farm which they had before bought of a Mr.
Lawton, and were unable to pay for. Three days ago one of these men set out for
Peterboro' (the home of Gerrit Smith) to meet me there, on my way West, and
have the thing completed. I will now say (“frankly,” as you suggest) that I
must ask to have the one thousand dollars made up at once and forwarded
to Gerrit Smith. I did not start the measure of getting up any subscription for
me (although I was sufficiently needy, as God knows), nor had 1 a thought of
further burdening either of my dear friends Stearns or Lawrence.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 408
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