Miscellaneous document sources

Washington, June 13, 1860. “Robert Tyler.

Dear Friend:—I have hardly time now to say my prayers. Should they succeed at Baltimore in rejecting the regular delegates from the seceding States, and admitting those who are bogus, then Douglass will or may be nominated. In that event the unity and strength of the Democratic party is annihilated and Lincoln elected. This is not the worst. The Democratic party will be divided—sectionalized—and that, too, on the slavery issue.

Everything looks bad, not only for the party, but for the country.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

There are fifteen hundred negroes on the Island of Key West, recently captured from slavers by the vigilant officers of the Government.

From the N. O. Delta.

Dixie’s Land.

In the popular mythology of New York city, Dixie’s was the negro’s paradise on earth in times when slavery and the slave trade were both flourishing institutions in that quarter. Dixie (or Dixy, as the name was spelt in those unsophisticated days when fashionable novels had not turned Sally into Sallie, Jenny into Jennie, Molly into Mollie, etc.,) owned a tract of land on Manhattan Island, and also a large number of slaves; and his slaves increasing faster than his land, an emigration of darkies ensued, such as we see going on to-day in Virginia. Naturally the negroes who left for distant parts looked to it as a place of unalloyed happiness, and hog and hominy. In fact, it was the “Old Virginny” to the negroes of that day. Hence Dixie became synonymous with an ideal locality combining every imaginable requisite of earthly beautitude; and hence the song which is not the popular musical furore in this city—one version of which we present below, composed for the occasion:

Wish I was in Dixie.

Come along boys, come out in the fields,
The moon is high and shines right cheerily,
………………..Ho, boys, for the days of yore;
Bring along the girls and we’ll have a merry time,
Never mind the dew, but come along merrily,
……………….Ho, boys, for the days of yore.
I wish I was in Dixie, yo ho, yo ho,
There is no land like Dixie all the wide world over,
The land, the land, the happy land of Dixie!
The land, the land, where all the airs were clover.

………………………………..Chorus.
…………For I was born in Dixie, yo ho, yo ho,
…………The happy land of Dixie, there I lived in clover,
…………The land, the land, the sunny land of Dixie!
…………The land, the land that beats the wide world over.

Nature, boys, kind goddess that she is,
Cares for us all, boys, tenderly, motherly,
……………….Ho, boys, for the days of yore;
Our youth flies fast, but memories last,
Then let us meet to-night right brotherly,
……………….Ho, boys, as in days of yore.
I wish I was in Dixie, yo ho, yo ho,
There is no land like Dixie all the wide world over,
The land, the land, the happy land of Dixie!
The land, the land, where all the airs were clover.

………………………………..Churus.
…………For I was born, etc.

The locks grow white, but the heart keeps green,
And blooms like a flower, boys, type of serenity,
……………….Ho, boys, for the days of yore.
Then hand in hand, as in Dixie’s land,
Dance again to-night, boys, meet with amenity,
……………….Ho, boys, for the days of yore.
I wish I was in Dixie, yo ho, yo ho,
There is no land like Dixie all the wide world over,
The land, the land, the happy land of Dixie!
The land, the land where every air was clover.

As a junior member of the United States House of Representatives, Charles Francis Adams, the grandson of President John  Adams and the son of President John, was not a regular speaker on the floor before his speech, “The Republican Party a Necessity.”

In this, his maiden session, except in answer to the call of the clerk, Mr. Adams’s voice was heard but once in the House.  He would have preferred to maintain an unbroken silence; nut a presidential election was impending, and set speeches were in order.  These speeches, of the abstract, educational kind, while addressed to the House, were meant for the constituencies.  Some of Mr. Adams’s friends at home insisted that he must make himself heard; and in response to their urgency, he spoke.  His speech was thoroughly characteristic.  In no way sensational or vituperative, – it’s   calm, firm tone, excellent temper and well-ordered reasoning naturally commended it to an audience satiated by months of turgid rhetoric and personal abuse.  This his Southern colleagues appreciated; for, conscious what sinners they were in those respects, they the more keenly felt in others moderation of language and restraint in bearing.  A few days later one of the most extreme among them, Mr. Cobb, of Alabama, went out of his way to refer to Mr. Adams as “the only member never out of order;” and the person thus curiously singled out noted,”there is something singular in the civility formally paid me on the other side of the house.  I have never courted one of them; but I have insulted no one.”  It was to these men – the members from the South, and more especially to those from Virginia – that Mr. Adams now addressed himself, setting forth the cause of being – the raison d’être – of the Republican party in a natural resistance to the requirements and claims of a property interest, which, alone of all interests, was directly represented on the floor of the House by a solid phalanx of its members.  Then passing on to an appeal from the modern interpretation of the Declaration and Constitution to the understanding of the framers, he closed with a direct statement of the of the constitutional limits as respects slavery recognized and accepted by the Republican party, and his own belief in the utter futility and foreordained failure of any attempt on the Union.

Adams’ closing statement from The Republican Party a Necessity:

The party thus associated has no purposes which it seeks to conceal. It harbors no hostile designs against the rights of any of the States. Its leading idea is reform, total and fundamental, in the spirit in which the Government has of late years been administered — reform, also, in the details, which appear of late to have been suffered to run into many grave abuses. It is not to be concealed, that all over the country there is a well-defined impression that, for the sake of retaining power, corruption has been tolerated, if not actively encouraged, in high places; and the various efforts at investigation made within a few years, so far from removing that uneasiness, have gone far to increase it. Without undertaking to judge of the truth or the error at the bottom of the feeling, I do yet maintain that, for the honor of the country and of all who may be concerned in the administration of the Government, there is an overruling necessity for a complete change of the persons now responsible for its direction. The reform must be wide enough to restore freedom as the guide of the Federal policy, and to pull down the idol which has usurped her throne. It must be deep enough to reinstate honesty above suspicion in the dispensation of the pecuniary contracts incident to the possession of great place. If the execution of such a policy as this constitutes good ground for a resort to extreme measures of resistance by any portion of the people of these States, then is there no hope of further harmony in America; for the evils which would ensue to us, if we were deterred from action by such considerations, would be far more fatal to the public peace and prosperity, in the ultimate result, than any which could grow out of perseverance against unreasonable demands. Once more may the words of the great Roman patriots be appealed to: “Nulla enim minantis auctoritas apud liberos est.”^[2]

And the remedy is secession, or, in plainer words, a dissolution of the Union and a disruption of the Constitution! So we are told. In a word, the people who defy us to put the negro out of this Hall; who claim that, by virtue of that negro, twenty of their number stand upon this floor; who hold a majority of the seats on the bench of the Supreme Court; who have time out of mind wielded in their own favor the executive influence of the Federal Government, imagine that they are about to better their condition by abandoning all these enormous privileges, and by setting up another Government, without any similar advantages, among themselves. Perhaps there might be some plausibility in this idea, if you could fence yourselves all round with a high wall, and proclaim a complete non-intercourse with the world outside. But the day for these fancies is passing off, even with the Chinese and the Japanese, who have held to them the longest. Your slaves will not be made safer at home, or less aggressive when abroad, by the withdrawal of the power of reclamation; neither will your internal condition be less an object of anxiety to your neighbors than it is now. The mere fact of the existence or the non-existence of a common bond of government may modify, but it cannot materially change, the conditions of your great social problem. If the Constitution were expunged by agreement to-morrow, its difficulties might, indeed, be aggravated, but, trust me, not one of them would be removed.

Whatever we may choose to think or say of one another, either for good or evil, a higher Power above us has raised up on this continent a people, who, whether united or divided, whether praying or cursing, whether loving or fighting, are destined to remain, in all the essential features of religion, language, thought, feeling, habits, customs, and manners, one and the same. Whatever seriously touches the condition of one portion of us, does and will have its effect upon the rest. In spite of all efforts to the contrary, there is and will be a common sympathy, having its root in that universal principle, a simple allusion to which, by a great dramatist of antiquity, is said to have instantaneously elicited a burst of enthusiasm from the thousands who crowded the Roman theatre — “I am a man; nothing that touches men can fail to move me.” Do you say that you can and will resist all this; that you will shut yourselves up at home, and see no more of the light of reason than is consistent with the preservation of what you are pleased to denominate your property? Then try it a while, if you are mad enough to be bent on the experiment. But permit me to predict, at this time, THAT IT WILL INNOMINIOUSLY FAIL. You cannot separate from us, unless you can blot from your memory all the traces of a common descent, a common literature, social affinities cemented by the dearest ties, and of a common faith. The violent men who are counselling this extreme policy, and in whom you now put your trust, will not retain their hold upon your confidence, when you open your eyes to the consequences of their work, and to the causes which they assign in their justification. It may then be too late entirely to repair the damage; but, whether late or early, you shall not have it to say, that there was not at least one voice, however humble, among those of your fancied opponents, which did not warn you of the folly of throwing off friends and fellow-citizens, only because they preferred to follow the doctrines taught by your and their fathers, rather than to desert them in your company. CHOOSE YE, WHERE YOU WILL GO.  AS FOR US, WE WILL ADHERE TO THE ANCIENT FAITH.

[1] We invite you to no quarrel; but we set a higher value on our own liberty than on your friendship.
[2] The voice of menace has no power with freemen.

Sources:

Charles Francis Adams, by his son, Charles Francis Adams, Houghton Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, copyright 1900

The Republican Party a Necessity, Speech of Charles Frances Adams of Massachusetts, Delivered in the House of Representatives, May 31, 1860.

The principle causes of their distress). Outrages committed upon them by pro slavery men from abroad.

Particular cases) J M Arthur was repeetedly driven from his home & his life [stricken?], his crop of about 50 acres distroyd, his house burnt down. After being [robbed?], & the person of his wife violated.

Mrs Kenshaw) her husband left home to assist in defending Lawrence, _________ was seen there, the night before the distruction of the Hotel & printing presses, has not been seen or herd of since. All of them where driven away by the invaders, & their crops distroyd.

Thaddeus Hyatt Esq made arangements to to releave their distress upon this creek & its tributaries there are upwards of 75 good timber claims unocupied. The exact location of which I can point out.

Plenty of stove coal, & fine springs of pure water. A large track of land which as been cultivated by the Indians, surrounded by loose rock enough to fence it all in.

Particularly adapted for stock raising.

The Settlers are very anxious for a saw & grist mill & will offer some indusement for the investment ofCapital in that way.

Railes for fencing are worth $125 pr 100. This creek is not considered liable to the fever & ague, except, the lower part of it. No schools of any kind nor any stated religious worship.

New York                   11 Feby 1857

Dear Sir

Your favor of 23d ult. I have just recd on my return from Kansas. I was so unfortunate as not to arrive in Season, and our Committee had adjourned before I arrived.

Notwithstanding all that has been done for Kansas there has been, now is, and will continue to be much unrelieved wretchedness there. Perhaps it is not necessary to say it publicly, but the clothing charity looks better on paper than it really is. Much of what was sent was unsuited for the Season. Very much was so worn as to be not worth the freight & of little service to the recipients. I suppose not half was really suitable. Less than half has yet arrived. Could a judicious and large hearted man like Dr. Cabot have had placed in his hands an amount of money equalling the cost of all this bounty he might have purchased & taken in material enough to not only have clothed double the number, but to likewise have kept many employed. However, this probably could not have been done. We must regard the clothing as an extra. The point is that its service has been overrated, and the North seems to now feel that enough has been done.

Bear with me while I present the case of Kansas as it stands to day.

Its present free state population as pioneers have the comon fate of pioneers before them unless aided by the North. That fate is to be driven back & off their claims for want of money to purchase them, or to borrow money at crushing rates of interest, thus enslaving them for years to come. Should not their services in behalf of freedom exempt them from this fate? [???] benefits they have to some extent recd? Perhaps they can do without any thing more of this kind. But an appropriation should at once be made for seed corn & wheat or next winter another season of suffering must be experienced. Be assured my Dear Sir, if this is not done the Territory will not nett over ¼ crop this year. The North have stayed their hands just at a moment to undo a great portion of the good they have done. My heart is heavy I must confess. The petty slanders that have been attached to my name I can not a rush for. God & History are enough for me. But for our poor brave & devoted settlers to see them deserted at this moment and left with no means of providing for the future does wring my heart with anguish. One hundred thousand dollars at this moment laid out in agricultural implements, cattle and seed corn would add millions to the wealth of Kansas besides taking from the North a future burden, and what a stroke for freedom! –

“How shall we pay for our lands?” This is the universal cry. I heard it everywhere. It is the great woe of the people. And after their unparalleled heroism and hardships, it does seem that this one woe at least should be taken from them by the sympathing hands of the North.

The States need not give a dime. Let them only make suitable Loan Funds & appoint intelligent & upright Loan Commissioners & they would be doing a work demanded by every consideration of Patriotism & Philanthropy. To do less seems to be an [???] finale to a work so well begun.

What can be done? Is there any help?

Believe me.

Amos A Lawrence Esqr

Thaddeus Hyatt

1856

Tuesday New York 19 Aug

W F M Arny

.

Dear Sir,

I succeeded yesterday in getting our Tabernacle Committee to pass Resolution paying over the Funds to the Chicago Com. I have sent Winchell to Hartford for 50 Sharpe’s Rifles & are negotiating here for 2 or $3,000 worth of side arms. Col Topliff is here in consultation with me & I think he must be with us at Saratoga on the 27th. The moment you rec this please call your com: together & have them authorize me to receive the Tabernacle Fund. I shall be drawn on for the Sharps Rifles probably at 10 days light.

I am arranging to have an earnest call made for Funds for the Chicago Committee. I am writing to Gov Reeder in reference to a public meeting here for 1st week in September.

Let Mr. Dole telegraph as follows:

.

“To Thaddeus Hyatt.

120 West Broadway N. Y.

Thaddeus Hyatt is authorized by the Chicago Committee to receive the Tabernacle Funds”

.

As I shall leave for Saratoga on the 25th probably, unless I am telegraphed & shall not receive Mr Doles authority for the N. Y. funds in time to meet my obligations.

The arms will be all forwarded to Chicago & be under the Supervision of the Committee.

I hope to secure the Tribune Fund likewise but this most likely will not be until after our Saratoga meeting. We must then adopt such an appeal as cannot fail to arouse the North. I am anxious for our meeting then.

In Haste

Yours truly

Thaddeus Hyatt.

1856

Burnet House.             Burlington, Iowa.        Thursday, 17th July

.

Dear Al

.

I am very sorry that I went to St. Louis last Monday. I wanted then to cross over here and come down and see you while my friend the Dr. should go to St. Louis. But his urgency that I should go with him – his objections to parting company, & the recent activities of my getting back here in season to meet him & our other two companions (Whitman & Searle, both Kansas men) overcame my strong desires to see you & I yielded. As things have turned out, [XXX], what I now know, I see clearly that there were no uncertainties about it, & that he might as well have taken this way to St Louis & dropping me at Keokuk gone on himself to St Louis & picked me up returning, getting a pleasant journey himself & very much obliging & graatifying me.

Whether on my return it will be possible for me to see you, I cannot say. I shall try very hard to do so & believe I shall accomplish it. The Dr. is bent on driving through. He talks about being in Lawrence in a week. But if we get there in a fortnight, my anticipations will be met. If his notions are prophetic we ought to be back here or at Iowa City about the 1st of August. I think it will be from the 5th to 10th of August. I should like to spend a month in the Territory. I should like to go up the Missouri above Council Bluffs, & up the Mississippi to St. Pauls. If I hurry home this time I am persuaded that it will only be to make a more important visit soon. Our National Committee meet at Saratoga on 23rd August. I must be back in season for that. I hope to be able to report with such effect in the City of New York as to find no difficulty in raising $50,000 at least for immediate aid to Kansas. I want yet to see stronger measures adopted. What improper [XXX] is this thought, viz. As the Federal Government by the abuse of its powers is in an attitude hostile to freedom & therefore hostile to the free States & to this extent are the free States set at defiance & their citizens left without protection, just as they would be in a foreign country, it does seem to me that the States should in their sovereign capacity take measures to have their own citizens protected. I know the difficulties of the Constitution. But there are no difficulties of this sort in the way of slavery! If the Instrument cannot build the South, why should it build the North? The fact is “we are their niggers & they are not ours!” This solves the problem. The infernal dough-faces of the north are the real enemies of freedom & I hate them wherever I see them. I feel towards them just as did the Whigs of the Revolution towards the tories. All that bitterness & hatred. Genl. Persifer Smith of South Carolina had gone into the Territory to Supercede Sumner because the latter is not sufficently pliant. The thickness of this fellows little finger will be found thicker the loins of the other tyrants.

You may rely upon it, the issue is to be one of blood. There are men at the North who wont submit: the more our tyrants drive us & the bloodier their rule, the harder will be our resistance. Resistance to the accursed Oligarchy, I percive is to be the [XXX] of my life. I can see no way of duty that will exempt me from this warfare. Oh, how foreign to my nature is war. How I long for peace. How I long for rest and quiet! But if is denied me.

I cannot have pleasure and repose while my countrymen are in chains. I cannot look upon the inevitable tendency of the accursed Despotism which has already shown itself in rampant ruffianism at the Capital of the Nation, and in bloody & cruel conflict with freedom on our National domain, without forseing that at no distant day & in another generation, all liberty shall be wiped from the land. The grave alone seems to be the termination of the hard life before me. In some respects this is not to be regretted. My life’s mind [XXX] by no means answered the prophecy of its dawn. It is fitting that its later years should be marked at least by peril. It is of little consequence when death comes so as we are found steadfast in duty. I could not without moral suicide, stifle my stern convictions in this cause. In such a crisis – when the powers of a free government are in the custody of the traitors – when a venal press & [XXX] [XXX] fed on public plunder are debauching what little of decent sentiment might & ought to have been left in the dominant party of the Nation – with blood dripping from the open wounds of a subjugated people – & this people my own kindred, how can I rest! How can I keep silence! How can private pursuits or private gain or pleasure withhold me from voluntary effort when effort is so much needed& so little offered!

Oh, where are the patriots! Is there no blood left in the North! Has manliness & virtue all died out! It does appear from all history that a Nation at lo ease are a Nation effeminated & depraved. Manly sentiments are developed by no hot house culture. Rude rough blasts and stern adversity makes men. Of such are they who found [XXX] – systems – religions – shake down throngs – slaughter tyrants & ——– Enter Heaven! Stranger! Passing Stranger! For us those who love freedom, there is no inactivity. For my solitary self – for my humble individuality, I can only say that When my country shall have regained her position among the Nations of the South, cleansed from the crimson blood that stains her trailing garments – When from her once proud & fair escutcheon shall have been forever wiped out the “damned spot” – When through all her stilled and quieted air shall again sing out the clarion tones of Freedom, echoing through all her valleys and from her many mountain sides and summits reverberating “Proclaim ye liberty through all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof!” then, and not till then, may I hope to cease from labor – then and not till then dare I seek or ask repose! —–

We leave here at 3 – just 2 hours hence for Mt Pleasant & hope to reach Rome before bed time. We have a good covered waggon & 4 first rate horses: two of them for the saddle. I trust the horseback exercise may prove beneficial to me & stimulate an appetite for I have not eaten since leaving home as much I suppose as you eat in a single day: I had almost said at a meal. And as for the reverse process of eating I am in a most singular condition. This day is the 10th full day since leaving home. An a need etc will explain. “Where are you bound?” said an old salt to a comrade “Bound!” exclaimed the other “ten days bound in the guts blast ye!” –

But the dinner gong sounds & I must go in to rice & molasses. Farewell – My love to Liz & all – Hoping to see you all before [XXX] weeks I remain as ever affectionately

& Sincerely yours

Thad

Remember me to Homer.

July 17th Thursday

Thaddeus Hyatt

To A. L. Winans

from Burlington Iowa

Osawatomie K T 16th Dec 1855 Sabbath Evening

Dear Wife & Children every one

I improve the first Mail since my return from the camp of volunteers who lately turned out for the defence of the town of Lawrence in this Territory; & not withstanding I suppose you have learned the result before this (possibly) will give a brief account of the invasion in my own way. About Three of the Four Weeks ago news came that a Free State man by the name of Dow had murdered by a pro-Slavery man by the name of Coleman; who had gone & given himself up for trial to pro Slavery Gov Shannon. This was soon followed by further news that a Free State man who was the only reliable witness against the murderer had been seized by a Missourian appointed Sheriff by the Bogus Legislature of Kansas upon false pretexts examined, & held to Bail under such heavy bonds to answer to those false charges as he could not give; & that while on his way to jail in charge of the Bogus Sheriff; he was rescued by some men belonging to a company near Lawrence; & that in consequence of the rescue Gov Shannon had ordered out all the pro Slavery force he could muster in the Territory; & called on Missouri for further help; that about two thousand had collected demanding a surrender of the rescued witness, & of the rescuers; the destruction of several buildings & printing presses & giving up of the Sharp’s Rifles by the Free State men; some threatening to destroy the Town with Cannon with which they were provided etc & that about an equal number of Free State men had turned out to resist them, & that a Battle was hourly expected; or supposed to have been already fought. These reports appeared to be well authenticated; but we could get no further account of matters; & I left this for the place where the Boys are settled at Evening intending to go to Lawrence to learn the facts the next day. John was however started on Horseback; but before he had gone many rods word came that our help was immediately wanted. On getting this last news it was at once agreed to break up at Johns Camp, & take Wealthy, & Jonny to Jasons Camp, (some Two Miles off); & that all the men but Henry, Jason, & Oliver, should at once set off for Lawrence under Arms, those Three being wholly unfit for duty. We then set about providing a little Corn Bread; & Meat, Blankets, Cooking Utensils, running Bullets, loading all our Guns Pistols etc. The Five set off in the Afternoon, & after a short rest in the Night (which was quite dark) continued our march untill after daylight next Morning when we got our Breakfast, started again; & reached Lawrence in the Forenoon all of us more or less lamed by our tramp. In reaching the place we found that negotiations had commenced between Gov Shannon(having a force of some Fifteen or Sixteen Hundred men) & the principal leaders of the Free State men; they having a force of some Five Hundred men at that time. These were busy night & day fortifying the Town with Embankments; & circular Earthworks up to the time of the Treaty with the Gov; as an attack was constant looked for; not withstanding the negociations then pending; This state of things continued from Friday until Sunday Evening. On the Evening we left a company of the invaders of from Fifteen to Twenty attacked some Three or Four Free State men mostly unarmed killing a Mr Barber from Ohio wholly unarmed. His boddy was afterward brought in; & lay for some days in the room afterward occupied by a part the company to which belong; (it being organized after we reached Lawrence) The building was a large unfinished Stone Hotel; in which a great part of the volunteers were quartered; & who witnessed the scene of bringing in the Wife & other friends of the murdered man. I will only say of this scene that it was Heart rending; & calculated to exasperate the men exceedingly; & one of the sure results of Civil War. After frequently calling on the leaders of the Free State men to come & have an interview with him, by Gov Shannon; & after as often getting for answer that if we had any business to transact with any one in Lawrence to come, & attend to it; he signified his wish to come into the Town; & an escort was sent to the invaders Camp to conduct him in. When there the leading Free State men finding out his weakness, frailty, and conciousness of the awkward circumstances into which he had really got himself; took advantage of his Cowardice, & Folly; & by means of that; & the free use of Whiskey; & some Trickery; succeeded in getting a written arrangement with him much to their own liking. He stipulated with them to order the pro Slavery men of Kansas home; & to proclaim to the Missouri invaders that they must quit the Territory without delay; & also give up Gen Pomeroy a prisoner on their Camp; which was all done; he also recognizing the volunteers as the Militia of Kansas; & empowering their Officers to call them out whenever in their discretion the safety of Lawrence or other portions of the territory might require it to be done He Gov Shannon gave up all pretention of further attempt to enforce the enactments of the Bogus Legislature, & retired subject to the derision & scoffs of the Free State men (into whose hands he had commited the welfare & protection of Kansas); & to the pity of some; & the curses of others of the invading force So ended this last Kansas invasion the Missourians returning with flying colors after incuring heavy expences; suffering great exposure, hardships & privations; not having fought any Battles, Burned or destroyed any infant Towns, or Abolition Presses; leaving the Free Statemen organized, & armed; & in full possession of Territory; not having fulfilled any of all their dreadful threatenings, except to murder One unarmed man; & to commit some Roberies, & waste of property uppon defenceless families unfortunately in their power. We learn by their papers they boast of a great victory over the Abolitionists; & well they may. Free State men have only hereafter to retain the footing they have gained; And Kansas is Free. Yesterday the people passed uppon the Free State Constitution. The result though not yet known; no one doubts. One little circumstance connected with our own number showing a little of the true character of those invaders. On our way about Three Miles from Lawrence we had to pass a Bridge (with Arms and Amunition) of which the invaders held possession; but as the Five had each a gun, with two large Revolvers in a Belt (exposed to view) with a Third in his Pocket; & as we moved directly on to the bridge without making any halt, they for some reason suffered us to pass without interruption; notwithstanding there were some Fifteen toTwenty Five (as variously reported) stationed in a Log House at one end of the Bridge. We could not count them. A Boy on our approach ran & gave them notice. Five others of our Company well armed; who followed us some Miles behind met with equally civil treatment the same day. After we left to go to Lawrence until we returned when disbanded; I did not see the last sign of cowardice or want of self possession exhibited by any volunteer of the Eleven Companies who constituted the Free State force & I never expect again to see an equal number of such well behaved, cool, determined men; fully as I believe sustaining the high character of the Revolutionary Fathers; but enough of this as we intend to send you a paper giving a more full account of the affair. We have cause for gratitude in that we all returned safe, & well; with the exception of hard Colds; & found those left behind rather improving. We have received Fifty Dollars from Father, & learn from him that he has sent you the same amount for which we ought to be grateful; as we are much relieved both as respects ourselves; & you. The mails have been kept back during the invasion; but we hope to hear from you again soon. Mr. Adairs folks are well; or nearly so. Weather mostly pleasant but sometimes quite severe. No snow of account as yet. Can think of but little more tonight. Monday Morning 17th Dec. The ground for the first time is barely Whitened with snow & it is quite cold but we have before had a good deal of cold weather with heavy Rains. Henry & Oliver & I may Jason were disappointed in not being able to go to war. The disposition at both our Camps to turn out was uniform I believe I have before acknowledged the receipt of a letter from you & Watson. Have just taken one from the Office for Henry that I think to be from Ruth. Do write often & let me know all about how you get along through the Winter. May God abundantly bless you all; & make you faithful.

Yours Affectionate Husband & Father

John Brown