I.

Letters from Northern Men.

OHN BROWN, when in prison at Charlestown, Vir

JOHN

ginia, received a large number of letters of sympathy from different parts of the Northern States. None of them designed for publication, and written, mostly, from the heart, they indicate more clearly the sentiment of the people than any other utterances that the old man's glorious act called forth. Many of his correspondents asked for his autograph or begged for a lock of his hair; but the greater part of such notes and such requests I suppress. Other letters, by persons who would be known, even if their initials only were published, I find it, also, expedient to omit.

Dividing them into their natural order, as, Letters from Northern Men, from John Brown's Relatives, and from Northern Women, I need make no apology, I feel, for occupying so much of my volume with these interesting evidences of a Christian Republicanism in America. Without other preface, then, than to request you to note how superior, in every respect, are the letters of the women, and quietly to suggest the question, whether, upon the whole, the possession of political rights by them would very greatly hasten the approach of Chaos, I submit these records of John Brown's recognition as a just man and a Christian hero to the heads and the hearts of the American Nation.

FROM JOHN BROWN'S OLD SCHOOLMASTER. Litchfield, Connecticut, Nov. 8. To John Brown, now in bonds. My Dear Friend: In the hope that you are permitted to receive letters from those who have known and esteemed you in other years, I desire to send you a few lines to assure you that I hold your name in pleasant remembrance among the associations of early life. I know you have not forgotten the winter of 1816-17, when yourself and your brother Salmon and Orson M. Oviatt, all then from Hudson, Ohio, were pupils in Morris Academy, Litchfield South Farms, under the care of Rev. William R. Weeks, I also being assistant teacher in the same institution; how you boarded at General Woodruff's, since deceased; and how we had meetings for religious conference and prayers, in which your own voice was often heard. Why, I remember all these things as though they were the times and scenes of yesterday. I remember, also, meeting you about ten years ago in Springfield, Massachusetts, and how we then had a long talk regarding the events and mutual experiences of the by-gone years; also an interchange of opinions relating to the truth as it is in Jesus. Excuse me for adverting to these times, so unlike those through which you have since passed. I am an old man of sixty-five, have myself gone through a pilgrimage of some light and many shades; and now, I somehow love to thankfully dwell on the light and bright spots of the past. And of my Present — what? An invalid unable to labor, except a very little, and here in my native town awaiting my Master's call into the Future and Unseen. You too, — a Torringtonborn boy, nephew of Deacon John of New Hartford, (they say;) he was my friend, now in heaven, and awaiting your translation thither. He was as sound a piece of theological "heading timber" as ever grew on earth, and a consistent and practical Christian too. Be assured, my dear afflicted brother, that good people, here, in Goshen and Torrington and Winchester, and all about, do most cordially sympathize with you in all your sorrows, and remember you most devoutly in their supplications unto God. Yes, truly; whatever be their views as to the wisdom or otherwise of your plans and proceedings, their hearts go up to the High and Holy Throne in your behalf. You do not expect a release from prison, such as Peter had while sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains," but the prayer "made without ceasing of the Church unto God" for you; and your own faith and trust in Him may avail for a better and more glorious deliverance by the gate of death and through the gate of life into the city of our Lord on high. Rhoda may not be there to hearken, (see Acts xi. 13,) but angels will. God grant you, through the merits

of his Son, an abundant entrance into his everlasting kingdom. If all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the "Called according to His purpose," as you and I know they do, how comes it that some of His dear children die by a violent death? For the same divine reason and by the same divine appointment, that other Christians die in their beds. Our Heavenly Father has a great many ways by which He calls His children home, and whether by consumption or fever, or the flood or the flame, or by any other mode. His love to them is still the same.

Be of good cheer, then, my brother; and, living or dying, all will be well. I have written more, it may be, than I ought; but hope there is nothing here which you may not safely see; nothing which will do injury to yourself or any one. If I might be permitted a line from you before you leave, I would esteem it as a special favor; but, in any case, "the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace;" and so, till we meet in the world to come, Yours most affectionately and truly,

FROM THADDEUS HYATT.

- Farewell. H. L. VAILL.*

NEW YORK, Nov. 14.

My Very Dear Friend: Your letter to Mrs. Maria Child has attracted my attention and induced on my part the action indicated in the enclosed slip from the N. Y. Tribune. You will see that I need your autograph. Please address me immediately. Give yourself no further anxiety as to the needy ones left behind. Warm and loving hearts by thousands at this moment are ready to aid them. You little knew, my friend, when you gave me your likeness, to what good account it would be turned; and I, alas! how little could I then dream of your impending fate, or in that hour guess the motives that prompted you to enjoin upon me the strictest caution as to exposing the photograph to be seen. Did your young friend perish? God be with you, my brave heart! For one animated by such faith as yours pity were reproach. Instead of pity I therefore tender you, O my friend, sympathy and a like faith with your own.

God and his eternal heavens are above us! Eternity is ours! So that, in His sight who shall judge us at the last we stand approved. Life matters not, and death matters not; and whether the hours of this day, or the morrow, be shortened, is of little account; for the shorter life is, the longer eternity is; and which is best for us depends wholly upon God; and in which we can best serve Him it is for God alone to say.

* See John Brown's reply," Public Life," pp. 354 and 355,

Your courage, my brother, challenges the admiration of men; your faith, the admiration of angels. Be steadfast to the end! Be patient! farewell! I am yours in Christ" for the life that now is, and for that which is to come." Farewell!

Your affectionate brother,

Thaddeus Hyatt.

AID FOR THE FAMILY OF JOHN BROWN.

In his letter to Mrs. L. Maria Child, John Brown says:

"I have at home a wife and three young daughters, the youngest but little over five years old, the oldest nearly sixteen. I have also two daughters-in-law, whose husbands have both fallen near me here. There is also another widow, Mrs. Thompson, whose husband fell here. Whether she is a mother or not, I cannot say. All these, my wife included, live at North Elba, Essex County, New York. I have a middle-aged son, who has been, in some degree, a cripple from his childhood, who would have as much as he could do to earn a living. He was a most dreadful sufferer in Kansas, and lost all he had laid up. He has not enough to clothe himself for the winter comfortably. I have no living son, or son-in-law, who did not suffer terribly in Kansas.

"Now, dear friend, would you not as soon contribute fifty cents now, and a like sum yearly, for the relief of those very poor and deeply-afflicted persons? To enable them to supply themselves and their children with bread and very plain clothing, and to enable the children to receive a common English education? Will you also devote your own energies to induce others to join you in giving a like amount, or any other amount, to constitute a little fund for the purpose named?"

Friends of Freedom at the North, to these simple and touching words nothing more effective and affecting can be added. The story is here in its simplest and saddest form. Widows and fatherless children! all for liberty! Slain for a principle! The heads of the entire family slain! All the male members cut off! And this in the Nineteenth Century, and this amid a free people!

If there be any braver man in the country than John Brown, let him criticise John Brown at Harper's Ferry. If not, let another generation pass upon the fact and its author. Our duties now are with

and for the living. God and history will have a care for the dead. Friends at the North, what will you do for John Brown's family? I have a photograph of the old man, presented to me by his own hands, an admirable likeness. Let all who sympathize in the purpose send each a dollar, and I will forward for each such sum an exact copy of the original, and with it, if possible, John Brown's autograph. The proceeds from ten thousand such copies will produce a fund of eight thousand dollars for the benefit of the helpless and afflicted ones, whom the Kansas hero so touchingly commends to our sympathies and care. Suitable acknowledgment of funds received and applied, will be made from time to time through the columns of the N. Y. Trib

une.

The photographs can be sent by mail, as music is gent, at the expense of a stamp, which may be enclosed with the order. Address me at New York. Thaddeus Hyatt.

New York, Nov. 14, 1859.

FROM A SLAVEHOLDER'S SON.

Dear Brother: My father was a slaveholder, and when at school I commenced searching the Bible for sanction of the divine institution, but have not found it. I am Old School Presbyterian, and believe with our friends, the Quakers, Christ's kingdom will be peace; but now Christ told his disciples, He that hath a sword, let him take it. Therefore, I cannot say I think you exceeded your commission, and I rejoice that a man has been found worthy to suffer for Christ. Yes, dear brother, God Himself will send His angel, December 2, '59, to release you from your prison of clay, and conduct you to your Redeemer and mine, where you will join the souls under the altar, crying. How long before your blood be avenged on the earth? Truly, your ignominious death has a glory equal to that of the Apostles, in the eye of thousands who are praying for you that all your sins may be blotted out, and Christ's Cause, for which you suffer, may be speedily supplied with other witnesses for Right. Enclosed [is] one dollar for your use, because I want to do something to aid you, hoping others will do much. Kind regards to your family. One of the Seven Thousand the Lord knows; to every one known by man, who hate slavery because the Lord does. [No signature nor date.]

FROM COLORED CITIZENS OF CHICAGO.

Chicago, November 17.

Dear Friend: We certainly have great reasons, as well as intense desires, to assure you that we deeply sympathize with you and your beloved family. Not only do we sympathize in tears and prayers with you and them, but we will do so in a more tangible form, by contributing material aid to help those of your family of whom you have spoken to our mutual friend, Mrs. L. Maria Child. How could we be so ungrateful as to do less for one who has suffered, bled, and now ready to die for the cause? "Greater love can no man have, than to lay down his life for the poor, despised, and lowly."

Your friends,

H. O. W., and others.

FROM AN OHIO CLERGYMAN.

Cleveland, November 19.

Dear Sir: Though personally an entire stranger, yet as a friend to the righteous cause for which you have shown yourself willing to suf