Your letter of the 11th inst. was received from Boston
to-day. The $500 was furnished you by Whitman at my request. It was done
because I thought you needed money for the winter, not because I felt myself
under obligation to you, for I had made up my mind then, and still continue to
believe that our friends need no aid in defending themselves from all
marauders, and that their true course now is to meet the enemy at the
ballot-box, and vote them down on every occasion. With the Territorial
Legislature in their hands, they can defend themselves against every
oppression, and they should do so. If I am correct in my conclusions, the
contingency for which I gave you my pledge having ceased to exist, I am no
longer bound by it, and it should be returned to me without conditions.1
From your last letter to me I supposed you would return it as early as
convenient to you.
If am in error I shall be glad to be enlightened by you, and
hope to receive on my return to Boston an early reply to this.
I am not, however, indifferent to your request, believing
your advice and encouragement to our friends to be of great importance.
If you can go to Boston you will have a much better chance
of success, and I will aid you as far as it is proper that I should do so.
Colonel Forbes has written several abusive letters to
Charles Sumner, and Sanborn, claiming that you had made a positive contract to
pay him money, based on promises made to you by the New England men. Is it so?
Truly yours,
Geo. L. Stearns.
_______________
1 This may refer to the draft for $7000.
SOURCE: Frank Preston Stearns, The Life and Public
Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 162; Edward J. Jr. Renehan, Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who
Conspired with John Brown, p. 130 for the date of the letter.
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