Saturday, September 30, 2023

H. A. B.* to John Brown, November 28, 1859

Boscawen, N. H., Nov. 28.

Dear Sir: I hardly know how to address you at this time in appropriate language. I have read your history and admired your noble spirit, and have felt it my duty to say one word, at least, to you from New Hampshire, before you go to take your "crown of glory." I have daily wished to tell you of my sympathy, and have breathed in secret prayers for you and yours. I mourn that the world must lose from her visible, active scenes, and a wife and children a husband and father, one such as you are, I think I see the Heavenly ones around you, ministering to your spiritual being, and who will guide you to the Father, and give you a place among those who were "slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held," and to whom "white robes were given, and who serve him day and night in His Temple." We believe with the great good man who says, "In awful providences, and in fraternal triumphing love, the reign of night, this evil, (Slavery,) is shaken; thus mingling pearl and crimson the one the sign of peace, the other the flag of strife — herald the uprising dawn of deliverance New Hampshire has many sons and daughters who would help thee if they could, . . . Allow me to make two requests of you, to be granted, if in your power, during these last days of earth to you: 1. That you, a dear, Christian brother, just about to enter the celestial city, would write us one word—your autograph, at least. 2. That your last prayers and your "ministering" in the angel world may be for those whose powers and duties may lead them to labor for accomplishing the great and certain work of overthrowing oppression and error. May God sustain you.

Your friend,
H. A. B.
_______________

* A woman of New Hampshire.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 421-2

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