Amos Bronson Alcott, Saturday, November 5, 1859

Dine with Sanborn. He suggests that I should go to Virginia and get access to Brown if I can, and Governor Wise; thinks I have some advantages to fit me for the adventure. I might ascertain whether Brown would accept a rescue from any company we might raise. Ricketson, from New Bedford, arrives. He and Thoreau take supper with us. Thoreau talks freely and enthusiastically about Brown, denouncing the Union, the President, the States, and Virginia particularly; wishes to publish his late speech, and has seen Boston publishers, but failed to find any to print it for him.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 506-7

Amos Bronson Alcott, May 8, 1859

Concord, May 8, 1859.

This evening I hear Captain Brown speak at the town hall on Kansas affairs, and the part taken by him in the late troubles there. He tells his story with surpassing simplicity and sense, impressing us all deeply by his courage and religious earnestness. Our best people listen to his words, — Emerson, Thoreau, Judge Hoar, my wife; and some of them contribute something in aid of his plans without asking particulars, such confidence does he inspire in his integrity and abilities. I have a few words with him after his speech, and find him superior to legal traditions, and a disciple of the Right in ideality and the affairs of state. He is Sanborn's guest, and stays for a day only. A young man named Anderson accompanies him. They go armed, I am told, and will defend themselves, if necessary. I believe they are now on their way to Connecticut and farther south; but the Captain leaves us much in the dark concerning his destination and designs for the coming months. Yet he does not conceal his hatred of slavery, nor his readiness to strike a blow for freedom at the proper moment. I infer it is his intention to run off as many slaves as he can, and so render that property insecure to the master. I think him equal to anything he dares, — the man to do the deed, if it must be done, and with the martyr's temper and purpose. Nature obviously was deeply intent in the making of him. He is of imposing appearance, personally, —tall, with square shoulders and standing; eyes of deep gray, and couchant, as if ready to spring at the least rustling, dauntless yet kindly; his hair shooting backward from low down on his forehead; nose trenchant and Romanesque; set lips, his voice suppressed yet metallic, suggesting deep reserves; decided mouth; the countenance and frame charged with power throughout. Since here last he has added a flowing beard, which gives the soldierly air and the port of an apostle. Though sixty years old, he is agile and alert, and ready for any audacity, in any crisis. I think him about the manliest man I have ever seen, — the typo and synonym of the Just. I wished to see and speak with him under circumstances permitting of large discourse. I am curious concerning his matured opinions on the great questions, — as of personal independence, the citizen's relation to the State, the right of resistance, slavery, the higher law, temperance, the pleas and reasons for freedom, and ideas generally. Houses and hospitalities were invented for the entertainment of such questions, — for the great guests of manliness and nobility thus entering and speaking face to face:—

Man is his own star; and the soul that can

Render an honest and a perfect man

Commands all light, all influence, all fate.

Nothing to him falls early or too late:

Our acts our angels are, — or good or ill,

Our fatal shadows, that walk by us still.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 504-5

Franklin B. Sanborn to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, March 4, 1859

March 4.

Brown was at Tabor on the 10th of February, with his stock in fine erudition, as he says in a letter to G. Smith. He also says he is ready with some new men to set his mill in operation, and seems to be coming East for that purpose. Mr. Smith proposes to raise one thousand dollars for him, and to contribute one hundred dollars himself. I think a larger sum ought to be raised; but can we raise so much as this? Brown says he thinks any one of us who talked with him might raise the sum if we should set about it; perhaps this is so, but I doubt. As a reward for what he has done, perhaps money might be raised for him. At any rate, he means to do the work, and I expect to hear of him in New York within a few weeks. Dr. Howe thinks John Forbes and some others not of our party would help the project if they knew of it.¹

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1 Dr. Howe gave me the following letter at New York, Feb. 5, 1859 : —

JoHn M. FOrBES, ESQ.

Dear Sir, — If you would like to hear an honest, keen, and veteran backwoodsman disclose some plans for delivering our land from the curse of slavery, the bearer will do so. 1 think I know him well. He is of the Puritan militant order. He is an enthusiast, yet cool, keen, and cautious. He has a martyr's spirit. He will ask nothing of you but the pledge that you keep to yourself what he may say.

Faithfully yours,

S. G. Howe.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 493

Franklin B. Sanborn to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, October 13, 1858

I received the enclosed letter from our friend a week or two since. You see he is anxious about future operations. Can you do anything for him before next March; and if so, what! The partners in Boston have talked the matter over, but have not yet come to any definite proposal. I send you also an older letter, which should have been sent to you, but by some fault of others was not.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 492

Gerrit Smith to Franklin B. Sanborn, January 22, 1859

Peterboro’, Jan. 22, 1859.

My Dear Sir, — I have yours of the 19th. I am happy to learn that the Underground Railroad is so prosperous in Kansas. I cannot help it now, in the midst of the numberless calls upon me. But I send you twenty-five dollars, which I wish you to scud to our noble friend John Brown. Perhaps you can get some other contributions to send along with it. He is doubtless in great need of all be can get. The topography of Missouri is unfavorable. Would that a spur of the Alleghany extended from the east to the west borders of the State! Mr. Morton has not yet returned. We hope he may come to-night.

In haste, your friend,

Gerrit Smith.

P. S. Dear Theodore Parker! May Heaven preserve him to us!

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 483

John Brown to Franklin B. Sanborn et al, August 6, 1858

August 6.  Have been down with the ague since last date, and had no safe way of getting off my letter. I had lain every night without shelter, suffering from cold rains and heavy dews, together with the oppressive heat of the days. A few days since, Governor Denver's officer then in command bravely moved his men on to the line, and on the next adjoining claim with us. Several of them immediately sought opportunity to tender their service to me secretly. I however advised them to remain where they were. Soon after I came on the line my right name was reported; but the majority did not credit the report.

I am getting better. You will know the true result of the election of the 2d inst. much sooner than I shall, probably. I am in no place for correct general information. May God bless you all!

Your friend,

John Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 476-7

John Brown to Franklin B. Sanborn et al, July 23, 1858

July 23. Since the previous date another Free-State Missourian has been over to see us, who reports great excitement on the other side of the line, and that the house of Mr. Bishop (the man who fled to us) was beset during the night after he left, but on finding he was not there they left. Yesterday a proslavery man from West Point, Missouri, came over, professing that he wanted to buy Bishop's farm. I think he was a spy. He reported all quiet on the other side. At present, along this part of the line, the Free-State men may be said, in some sense, to “possess the field;” but we deem it wise to “be on the alert.” Whether Missouri people are more excited through fear than otherwise, I am not yet prepared to judge. The blacksmith (Snyder) has got his family back; also some others have returned, and a few new settlers are coming in. Those who fled or were driven off will pretty much lose the season. Since we came here about twenty-five or thirty of Governor Denver's men have moved a little nearer to the line, I believe.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 476

John Brown to Franklin B. Sanborn et al, July 20, 1858

Missouri Line (on Kansas Side), July 20, 1858.

F. B. Sanborn, Esq., And Friends At Boston And WorcesTer, — I am here with about ten of my men, located on the same quarter-section where the terrible murders of the 19th of May were committed, called the Hamilton or trading-post murders. Deserted farms and dwellings lie in all directions for some miles along the line, and the remaining inhabitants watch every appearance of persons moving about, with anxious jealousy and vigilance. Four of the persons wounded or attacked on that occasion are staying with me. The blacksmith Snyder, who fought the murderers, with his brother and son, are of the number. Old Mr. Hairgrove, who was terribly wounded at the same time, is another. The blacksmith returned here with me, and intends to bring back his family on to his claim within two or three days. A constant fear of new troubles seems to prevail on both sides of the line, and on both sides are companies of armed men. Any little affair may open the quarrel afresh. Two murders and cases of robbery are reported of late. I have also a man with me who lied from his family and farm in Missouri but a day or two since, his life being threatened on account of being accused of informing Kansas men of the whereabouts of one of the murderers, who was lately taken and brought to this side. I have concealed the fact of my presence pretty much, lest it should tend to create excitement; but it is getting leaked out, and will soon be known to all. As I am not here to seek or secure revenge, I do not mean to be the first to reopen the quarrel. How soon it may be raised against me I cannot say; nor am I over anxious. A portion of my men arc in other neighborhoods. We shall soon be in great want of a small amount in a draft or drafts on New York, to feed us. We cannot work for wages, and provisions are not easily obtained on the frontier.

I cannot refrain from quoting, or rather referring to, a notice of the terrible affair before alluded to, in an account found in the “New York Tribune” of May 31, dated at Westport, May 21. The writer says: “From one of the prisoners it was ascertained that a number of persons were stationed at Snyder's, a short distance from the Post, a house built in the gorge of two mounds, and flanked by rock-walls, — a fit place for robbers and murderers.” At a spring in a rocky ravine stands a very small open blacksmith's-shop, made of thin slabs from a saw-mill. This is the only building that has ever been known to stand there, and in that article is called a “fortification.” It is today, just as it was on the 19th of May, — a little pent-up shop, containing Snyder's tools (what have not been carried off) all covered with rust, — and had never been thought of as a “fortification” before the poor man attempted in it his own and his brother's and son's defence. I give this as an illustration of the truthfulness of that whole account. It should be left to stand while it may last, and should be known hereafter as Fort Snyder.

I may continue here for some time. Mr. Russell and other friends at New Haven assured me before I left, that if the Lecompton abomination should pass through Congress something could be done there to relieve me from a difficulty I am in, and which they understand. Will not some of my Boston friends “stir up their minds” in the matter? I do believe they would be listened to.¹

You may use this as you think best. Please let friends in New York and at North Elba² hear from me. I am not very stout; have much to think of and to do, and have but little time or chance for writing. The weather, of late, has been very hot. I will write you all when I can.

I believe all honest, sensible Free-State men in Kansas consider George Washington Brown's “Herald of Freedom” one of the most mischievous, traitorous publications in the whole country.

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¹ The allusion here 1s to Brown's contract with Charles Blair, who was to make the thousand pikes. Brown had not been able, for lack of money, to complete the payment, and was afraid his contract would he forfeited, and the money paid would be lost. He therefore communicated the facts to Mr. Russell, who was then the head of a military school at New Haven, and had some assurance from him of money to be raised in Connecticut to meet this contract.

² Gerrit Smith, and his own family.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 474-6

Edwin Morton to Franklin B. Sanborn, June 30, 1859

June 30.

News from Andover, Ohio, a week or more since, from our friend. He had received two hundred dollars more from here,¹ was full of cheer, and arranging his wool business; but I do not look for a result so soon as many do.

_______________

¹ That is, from Gerrit Smith.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 468

Edwin Morton to Franklin B. Sanborn, June 1, 1859

June 1.

Mr. Smith has lately written to John Brown at New York to find what he needed, meaning to supply it. He now sends to him according to your enclosed address. I suppose you know the place where this matter is to be adjudicated. Harriet Tubman suggested the 4th of July as a good time to “raise the mill.”

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 468

Edwin Morton to Franklin B. Sanborn, April 18, 1859

April 18.

Brown left on Thursday the 14th, and was to be at North Elba to-morrow the 19th. Thence he goes “in a few days” to you.¹ He says he must not be trifled with, and shall hold Boston and New Haven to their word. New Haven advises him to forfeit five hundred dollars he has paid on a certain contract, and drop it. He will not. From here he went in good spirits, and appeared better than ever to us, barring an affection of the right side of his head. I hope he will meet hearty encouragement elsewhere. Mr. Smith gave him four hundred dollars, I twenty-five, and we took some ten dollars at the little meeting. . . . “L’expérience démontre, avec toute l'evidence possible, que c'est la société que prépare le crime, et que le coupable n'est que l'instrument que l'exécute.” Do you believe Quetelet?

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¹ He actually reached [Sanborn’s] house in Concord, Saturday, May 7, and spent half his last birthday with me.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 467-8

Edwin Morton to Franklin B. Sanborn, Wednesday Evening, April 13, 1859

Wednesday Evening, April 13, 1859.

You must hear of Brown's meeting this afternoon, — few in numbers, but the most interesting I perhaps ever saw. Mr. Smith spoke well; G. W. Putnam read a spirited poem; and Brown was exceedingly interesting, and once or twice so eloquent that Mr. Smith and some others wept. Some one asked him if he had not better apply himself in another direction, and reminded him of his imminent peril, and that his life could not be spared. His replies were swift and most impressively tremendous. A paper was handed about, with the name of Mr. Smith for four hundred dollars, to which others added. Mr. Smith, in the most eloquent speech I ever heard from him, said: “If I were asked to point out — I will say it in his presence — to point out the man in all this world I think most truly a Christian, I would point to John Brown.” I was once doubtful in my own mind as to Captain Brown's course. I now approve it heartily, having given my mind to it more of late.¹

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¹ When I first met Brown at Peterboro', in 1858, Morton played some fine music to us in the parlor, — among other things Schubert's “Serenade,” then a favorite piece, — and the old Puritan, who loved music and sang a good part himself, sat weeping at the air.

“Northward he turneth through a little door,

And scarce three steps ere music's golden tongue

Flattered to tears this aged man and poor.

But, no; already had his death-bell rung;

The Joys of all his life were said and sung."

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 467

Gerrit Smith to Franklin B. Sanborn, July 26, 1858

Peterboro', July 26, 1858.

Mr. F. B. Sanborn.

My Dear Sir, — I have your letter of the 23d instant. I have great faith in the wisdom, integrity, and bravery of Captain Brown. For several years I have frequently given him money toward sustaining him in his contests with the slave-power. Whenever he shall embark in another of these contests I shall again stand ready to help him; and I will begin with giving him a hundred dollars. I do not wish to know Captain Brown's plans; I hope he will keep them to himself. Can you not visit us this summer? We shall he very glad to see you.

With great regard, your friend,

Gerrit Smith.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 466

Gerrit Smith to Franklin B. Sanborn, May 7, 1858

t seems to me that in these circumstances Brown must go no further, and so I write him. I never was convinced of the wisdom of his scheme. But as things now stand, it seems to me it would be madness to attempt to execute it. Colonel Forbes would make such an attempt a certain and most disastrous failure. I write Brown this evening.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 458

Franklin B. Sanborn to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, May 5, 1858

May 5, 1858

It looks as if the project must, for the present, be deferred, for I find by reading Forbes's epistles to the doctor that he knows the details of the plan, and even knows (what very few do) that the doctor, Mr. Stearns, and myself are informed of it. How he got this knowledge is a mystery. He demands that Hawkins be dismissed as agent, and himself or some other be put in his place, threatening otherwise to make the business public. Theodore Parker and G. L. Stearns think the plan must be deferred till another year; the doctor does not think so, and I am in doubt, inclining to the opinion of the two former.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 458

Franklin B. Sanborn to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, April 20, 1858

April 20, 1858

I have lately had two letters from Mr. Hawkins, who has just left Canada for the West, on business connected with his enterprise. He has found in Canada several good men for shepherds, and, if not embarrassed by want of means, expects to turn his flock loose about the 15th of May. He has received four hundred and ten dollars of the five hundred guaranteed him in Massachusetts, but wants more; and we must try to make up to him the other five hundred dollars. Part of it is pledged, and the rest ought to be got, though with some difficulty. . . . Hawkins's address is “Jason Brown,” under cover to John Jones, Chicago. He has gone West to move his furniture and bring on his hands. He has received two hundred and sixty dollars from other sources than our friends, and is raising more elsewhere, but got little in New York or Philadelphia.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 457-8

John Brown to Theodore Parker, March 4, 1858

American House, Boston, March 4, 1858.

My Dear Sir, — I shall be most happy to see you at my room (126) in this house, at any and at all hours that may suit your own convenience, or that of friends. Mr. Sanborn asked me to be here by Friday evening, and as I was anxious to have all the time I could get, I came on at once. Please call by yourself and with friends as you can. Please inquire for Mr. (not Captain) Brown, of New York.

Your friend,

John Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 447

John Brown to Franklin B. Sanborn, February 24, 1858

Peterboro', N. Y., Feb. 24, 1858.

My Dear Friend, — Mr. Morton has taken the liberty of saying to me that you felt half inclined to make a common cause with me. I greatly rejoice at this; for I believe when you come to look at the ample field I labor in, and the rich harvest which not only this entire country but the whole world during the present and future generations may reap from its successful cultivation, you will feel that you are out of your element until you find you are in it, an entire unit. What an inconceivable amount of good you might so effect by your counsel, your example, your encouragement, your natural and acquired ability for active service! And then, how very little we can possibly lose! Certainly the cause is enough to live for, if not to —— for. I have only had this one opportunity, in a life of nearly sixty years; and could I be continued ten times as long again, I might not again have another equal opportunity. God has honored but comparatively a very small part of mankind with any possible chance for such mighty and soul-satisfying rewards. But, my dear friend, if you should make up your mind to do so, I trust it will be wholly from the promptings of your own spirit, after having thoroughly counted the cost. I would flatter no man into such a measure, if I could do it ever so easily.

I expect nothing but to “endure hardness;” but I expect to effect a mighty conquest, even though it be like the last victory of Samson. I felt for a number of years, in earlier life, a steady, strong desire to die: but since I saw any prospect of becoming a “reaper” in the great harvest, I have not only felt quite willing to live, but have enjoyed life much; and am now rather anxious to live for a few years more.

Your sincere friend,

John Brown.¹

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¹ This letter, which is now in possession of Mrs. Stearns, was received by me soon after my return to Concord. On my way through Boston I had communicated to Theodore Parker (at his house in Exeter Place, to which I had taken Brown in January, 1857, and where he met Mr. Garrison and other Abolitionists) the substance of Brown's plan; and upon receiving the letter I transmitted it to Parker. He retained it, so that it was out of my possession in October, 1859, when I destroyed most of the letters of Brown and others which could compromise our friends. Some time afterward, probably in 1862, when Parker had been dead two years, my letters to him came back to me, and among them this epistle. It has to me an extreme value, from its association with the memory of my best and noblest friends; but in itself it is also a remarkable utterance. That it did not draw me into the field as one of Brown's band was due to the circumstance that the interests of other persons were then too much in my hands and in my thoughts to permit a change of my whole course of life.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 444-5

John Brown to Franklin B. Sanborn, February 26, 1858

Brooklyn, Feb. 26, 1858.

F. B. Sanborn, Esq., Concord, Mass.

My Dear Friend, — I want to put into the hands of my young men copies of Plutarch's “Lives,” Irving's “Life of Washington,” the best-written Life of Napoleon, and other similar books, together with maps and statistics of States. Could you not find persons who might be induced to contribute old copies (or other ones) of that character, or find some person who would be willing to undertake to collect some for me? I also want to get a quantity of best white cotton drilling, — some hundred pieces, if I can get it. The use of this article I will hereafter explain. Mr. Morton will forward your letter here to me. Anything you may be disposed to say to me within two or three days please enclose to James N. Gloucester, No. 265 Bridge Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Very respectfully your friend,

John Brown.

P. S. Persons who would devote their time to the good work, as agents in different parts, might do incalculable good. Can you find any such?

Yours,

J. B.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 443-4

John Brown to Mary Ann Day Brown, March 2, 1858

New York, March 2, 1858.

My Dear Wife, —I received yours of the l7th of February yesterday; was very glad of it, and to know that you had got the ten dollars safe. I am having a constant series of both great encouragements and discouragements, but am yet able to say, in view of all, “hitherto the Lord hath helped me.” I shall send Salmon something as soon as I can, and will try to get you the articles you mention. I find a much more earnest feeling among the colored people than ever before; but that is by no means unusual. On the whole, the language of Providence to me would certainly seem to say, “Try on.” I flatter myself that I may be able to go and see you again before a great while; but I may not be able. I long to see you all. All were well with John and Jason a few days since. I had a good visit with Mr. Sanborn at Gerrit Smith's a few days ago. It would be no very strange thing if he should join me. May God abundantly bless you all! No one writes me but you.

Your affectionate husband,

John Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 442-3