We have made the rifles subject to Captain Brown's order, as
we wrote you. From Mr. Winchcll's account, we conclude that you will find them
in the Territory, and in the hands of the Central Committee.1 In the
quarrel between the National and the Central Committees, we hope you will keep
yourself strictly neutral, and inform us how the case really stands. We hear
charges of misconduct from both sides. The order of Captain Brown will not
probably be issued till spring, if it is at all, since his use of the rifles
depends on a contingency which may not occur.
_______________
1 Originally they had been forwarded to this
committee, as appears by the following note:—
State Kansas Aid Committee Rooms,
Boston,
Sept. 30, 1856.
Dear
Sir, — At a meeting of this committee it was voted. That the arms
purchased by Dr. Cabot, in accordance with a vote of the committee, passed
September 10, be forwarded to the Kansas Central Committee at Lawrence, with
instructions that they be loaned to actual settlers for defence against
unlawful aggressions upon their rights and liberties.
GeorGe L. Stearns, Chairman.
H.
B. Hurd, Esq., Chicago.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 368-9
