The Massachusetts Kansas Committee to Edward Clark, January 30, 1857

The National Committee, at their meeting in New York, voted to resign all claim to the rifles at Tabor to our committee; and Mr. Hurd is to notify you of the fact officially. If, therefore, you have commenced any proceedings to get possession of them from the National Committee, you may suspend all action until you receive Mr. Hurd's letter, which will give you full power in the premises. We learn that the rifles are at Tabor, in charge of a certain Jonas Jones, and that they are properly stored and cared for. If this should not be so, or if the Central Committee at Lawrence have interfered with them at all, you may take measures to get immediate possession, as directed by us. All matters at issue between our committee and the National Committee have been satisfactorily settled, and we trust there will be no further misunderstandings. Mr. Hurd has been in Boston and arranged all things. We have been expecting a letter from you for some days. By the time this reaches you, you will have been at Tabor, we presume. There write us a full account of your proceedings, and also of the present condition of things in Kansas, the position of the Central Committee, etc. Much business was done at the New York meeting; but no final settlement of accounts could be made, by reason of the absence of important persons and papers. Conway and Whitman are here, preparing to appear before the legislative committee about a State appropriation.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 369

Henry H. Williams to John Brown, October 12, 1857

Osawatomie, Oct. 12, 1857.

Captain Brown.

Dear Sir, — Learning that there is a messenger in town from you, I will take the opportunity to drop you a line. We are just through with the October election, and as far as this county is concerned it went off bright. This was owing in a great measure to our thorough military organization here, and the well-known reputation that our boys have for fighting. There were about four hundred and twenty-five votes cast in this county: about three hundred and fifty Free-State. I have a company organized here of about eighty men, and we drilled twice a week for several weeks previous to election, which no doubt had a wholesome effect upon the borderers. Our company is a permanent institution. We have sent on to St. Louis for three drums and two fifes. We are very poorly supplied with arms. However, I understand that you have some arms with you which you intend to bring into the Territory. I hope that you will not forget the boys here, a considerable number of whom have smelt gunpowder, and have had their courage tried on several occasions. I do not like to boast, but I think we have some of the best fighting stock here that there is in the Territory. Speaking of arms reminds me that there was a box containing five dozen revolvers sent to you at Lawrence last fall to be distributed by you to your boys. K. and W. — two renegade Free-State men from here — went up to Lawrence about that time, told a pitiful tale, and said that they were your boys; and the committee that had the revolvers in charge gave them each one, and a Sharpe's rifle. A few days after, I was in Lawrence, and applied to the committee to know if they intended to distribute the revolvers; if they did, that I would like to have one. They refused, however, to let me have one, because forsooth I could not tell as big a yarn about what I had done for the Free-State cause as K. and W. could. I have since learned that the committee have distributed the revolvers to the “Stubs” and others about Lawrence, with the understanding that they are to return them at your order. But I think it is doubtful if you get them. There has been plenty of Sharpe's rifles and other arms distributed at Manhattan and other points remote from the Border, where they never have any disturbances, and a Border Ruffian is a curiosity; while along the Border here, where we are liable to have an outbreak at any time, we have had no arms distributed at all.

Two or three weeks before election I visited the Border counties south of this, and organized a company of one hundred men on the Little Osage, and a company on Sugar Creek; also at Stanton and on the Pottawatomie above this point. According to the election returns, we have done much better in this and the Border counties south than they have in the Border counties north of this point. The boys would like to see you and shake you by the hand once more. Nearly all would unite in welcoming you back here; those that would not, you have nothing to fear from in this locality. The sentiment of the people and the strength and energy of the Free-State party here exercise a wholesome restraint upon those having Border Ruffian proclivities.

Yours as of old for the right,

HENRy H. Williams.¹

_______________

¹ This letter was addressed “To Captain John Brown, Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa,” and among Brown's papers was accompanied with the following memorandum of the distribution made at Lawrence of the arms which Mr. Williams mentions, and which are the same spoken of by Mr. White in his testimony on page 342.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 364-6

Horace White to John Brown, January 27, 1857

Astor House, New York, Jan. 27, 1857.

Captain John Brown.

Dear Sir, — I am unable yet to give you the schedule of articles which the committee propose placing in your hands. Please address me at Chicago, stating whether a letter may he still sent to you at the Massasoit House. It will be necessary for me to examine shipping-books, etc., in our office at Chicago. I brought your matters before the notice of the committee yesterday. Resolutions were passed directing the secretary to instruct Mr. Jones, of Tabor, to retain the supplies, etc., in his hands until you had made your selections. Resolutions were also adopted empowering me to ship clothing, boots, etc., to you at Tabor, which will be done on the opening of navigation.

Very truly,

Horace White.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 360-1

Franklin B. Sanborn to Harvey B. Hurd, January 3, 1857

State Kansas Committee Rooms,

Boston, Jan. 3, 1857.

H. B. HURD, Esq., Secy. National Kansas Committee.

Dear Sir, — The Massachusetts Kansas Committee have thought it best to rescind the vote by which certain rifles owned by S. Cabot, Jr., are made subject to the order of the Kansas Central Committee, and to resume possession of the same. They were taken on to Tabor, it is understood, by Dr. J. P. Root; but they seem to be still at Tabor, and not to be at present needed in Kansas. Any information which you can give our agent Mr. Clark, or any directions to your agents which will facilitate his business, we hope you will give him. The necessary expense of transporting the rifles will be reimbursed by this committee when they have obtained actual possession of them; and they will be held in trust for the people of Kansas for the present.

Truly yours,

F. B. Sanborn,

Cor. Sec. Mass. S. K. Com.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 358

Watson Brown to his Mother and Family, October 30, 1856

St. Charles, Iowa, Oct. 30,1856.

Dear Mother, Brothers, And Sisters, — I sent you a draft for thirty dollars a few days ago in a sheet of paper with a very few words on it, — they being all I had time to write then. We are well and in fine spirits, besides being in good company. We are in the company of a train of Kansas teams loaded with Sharpe's rifles and cannon. I heard a report that father had gone East. We travel very slow; you can write to us at Tabor. On our way we saw Gerrit Smith, F. Douglass, and other old friends. We have each a Sharpe's rifle. Oliver, your watch was all that saved us. I want you to write and let us know how you get along. No more now.

Yours truly,

Watson Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 341

Owen Brown Jr. to Mary Ann Day Brown, August 27, 1856

Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, Aug. 27, 1856.

Dear Mother, — The last news we had from Kansas, father was at Lawrence, and had charge of a company, —the bravest men the Territory could afford. Those who come through here from the Territory say that father is the most daring, courageous man in Kansas. You have no doubt heard that the Free-State men have taken two forts, or blockhouses, with a fine lot of arms, several prisoners, and two cannon. Shannon was obliged to flee for his life; afterwards came to Lane to negotiate for peace. He proposed that the Free-State men should give up the prisoners and arms they had taken; at the same time they (the enemy) should still hold our men as prisoners, and keep all the arms they had taken from the Free-State men. But Lane would not consent to that; he required Shannon to deliver up the howitzer they had taken at Lawrence, release some prisoners, disarm the proslavery men in the Territory, and do all in his power to remove the enemy from the Territory. With fear and trembling, Shannon consented to all of Lane's demands.

There is now at this place a company of volunteers from Maine, Massachusetts, and Michigan, — about eighty in all. We hear lately that about three thousand Missourians have crossed at St. Joe and other places, and have gone armed into the Territory; that Governor Woodson has sent four hundred mounted men on to the frontier to intercept our volunteers and prevent them from carrying in provisions and ammunition, which are much needed now in Kansas. The last information comes from reliable sources, and is probably true, — a portion of it. We also learn that the Free-State men have melted up all the old lead-pipe they can get hold of for ammunition; and now the news comes from reliable sources that Lane is about to enter Leavenworth with two thousand men; that he has sent word to the citizens of Leavenworth, requiring them to deliver up a few prisoners they had taken, with some wagons and other property, or he will destroy the town forthwith. Colonel Smith, of Leavenworth, commander of Government troops, refuses to protect the proslavery men of the Territory, replying that Lane is able to dress them all out, troops and all. Shannon made a speech to them, urging them to cease hostilities, — that he could not defend them (that is, our enemies). At present our enemies and the Missourians are trembling in their boots, if reports are true.

I have gained strength quite fast, and am now determined to go back into the Territory, and try the elephant another pull. We hope that men will volunteer by the thousands from the States, well armed, with plenty of money to buy provisions with, which are scarce in Kansas Territory. There are probably several thousand acres less of corn in Kansas than there would have been had it not been for the war. We look hard for help: now comes the tug of war. We have sent on men to learn the state of affairs on the frontier, and will move on into the Territory shortly. We are now waiting for one other company, which is within a few days' drive of here. For the want of time I leave out many particulars in connection with the taking of those forts, which would be quite interesting, and show Yankee skill and strategy, at least. If any of our folks write to us, or to me (I assume another name, George Lyman), direct to George Lyman, Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, care Jonas Jones, Esq. Mr. Jones will take them out of the office here and send them on by private conveyance. We cannot hear from you in any other way. Perhaps you know of a different way, but I do not.

Your affectionate son,

Owen Brown.

P. S. Have not heard from Fred since Oliver and William Thompson took him into the camp; nor have I heard from Henry, Salmon, William, and Oliver since they left this place to go home.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 315-7

John Brown to Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, August 27, 1857

[Tabor, Iowa, August 27, 1857]

Mr Dear Friend, — Your most welcome letter of the 14th inst., from Au Sable Forks, is received. I cannot express the gratitude I feel to all the kind friends who contributed towards paying for the place at North Elba, after I had bought it, as I am thereby relieved from a very great embarrassment both with Mr. Smith and the young Thompsons, and also comforted with the feeling that my noble-hearted wife and daughters will not be driven either to beg or become a burden to my poor boys, who have nothing but their hands to begin with. I am under special obligation to you for going to look after them and cheer them in their homely condition. May God reward you all a thousandfold! No language I have can express the satisfaction it affords me to feel that I have friends who will take the trouble to look after them and know the real condition of my family, while I am “far away,” perhaps never to return. I am still waiting here for company, additional teams, and means of paying expenses, or to know that I can make a diversion in favor of our friends, in case they are involved again in trouble. Colonel Forbes has come on and has a small school at Tabor. I wrote you some days ago, giving a few particulars in regard to our movements; and I intend writing my friend Stearns, as soon as I have anything to tell him that is worth a stamp. Please say to him, that, provided I do not get into such a speculation as shall swallow up all the property I have been furnished with, I intend to keep it all safe, so that he may be remunerated in the end; but that I am wholly in the dark about it as yet, and that I cannot natter him much now. Will direct where to write me when I know how to do so.

Very respectfully your friend,

N. H.¹

¹ N. H. stands for "Nelson Hawkins," one of the names by which Brown was known to his friends when in an enemy's country.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 113-4