The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume], November 11, 1859, Image 6

About The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
Surveys In Minnesota.
The Government surveys in this State,
under the energetic administration of Sur
veyor General Emerson, have rapidly pro
gressed within the last two years. We have
before us his official report of 1858, which
contains a deal of interesting information
which was not included in the synoptical
table which we published in the spring.
According to one computation from the
specifications given, the sectional subdivi
sions of 221 townships had been surveyed
or were in course of survey at the date of
the report, in November last. Of these, the
far greater portion lies west of the Missis
sippi. One solid block of 82 townships,
with a length from north to south of 96
miles, and a breadth from east to west of
from 24 to 42 miles, stretches from the lowa
line to the parallel of St. Paul, and from
the meridian of Fort Ridgely nearly half
way to the boundary of the State. North
of this again, another compact mass of sub
divisional surveys is exhibited upon the map
which accompanies the Report, with a
breadth of six or more townships upon the
western slope of the Mississippi, from Crow
Wing down to the mouth of the Clearwater.
Then there is a little block of twelve town
ships around the beautiful “ meanders ” of
Otter Tail Lake, on the east side of the
Mississippi. The Surveyor General has
put his stamp upon the townships which bor
der upon Mille Lacs, as also upon some ten
townships at the head of Lake Superior,
and a fringe of fractional townships along
the North Shore.
In addition to the sectional subdivisions
the standard parallels and guide meridians
were pushed immensely forward towards the
western and northeastern boundaries ot the
State.
The surveys actually executed and accept
ed at the date of the Report comprised 2398
miles of guide meridians, standard parallels
and township lines, and 5285 miles of sub
divisions, including 057 miles of meanders
of lakes and navigable streams. The area
of land embraced within such subdivisional
surveys is 1,802.219 acres. The remaining
subdivisions, under contract at the time,
and we suppose completed before the first of
January, comprised about 5,700 miles of
surveying, and embraced an estimated area
of 2,137,500 acres. The total completed
surveys of this year were, then, 3.939,719
acres—a pretty good year's work.
To these must be added the survey and
establishment of the boundaries of the
Reservation on Pigeon River and Lake
Superior—reserved by treaty with the
Chippewas of the Grand Portage band.
This reserve contains about 41,046 acres.
The survey of the Chippewa reservation
on St. Louis river—reserved to the Fond
du Lac band of Chippewas—was also
undertaken and was still incomplete at the
date of the Report.
The exterior boundaries of the Military
Reservation at Fort Ripley, was also sur
veyed, and laid down in the original town
ship maps.
A list of sixty contracts covered the
entire operations of 1858.
The Surveyor General’s recommendations
for appropriations—to the amount of some
SIOO,OOO, for carrying on the surveys of
the present year—were promptly responded
to by Congress.
The surveys west of the Mississippi, have
this year been pushed to the western
boundary of the State—as far north as
Wild Rice River, which is the boundary of
the Chippewa country.
The network of township lines now covers
the whole of the upper portion of the Red
River Valley, south of Wild Rice River,
while the minor subdivisions have been
made at all points where settlements have
formed, or are likely to be formed for some
time to come.
On the north shore of Lake Superior—
where the deputies report considerable tracts
of good agricultural country, and rich
mineral deposits—the surveys have been
this year carried up to the mouth of Pigeon
River.
The Surveyor General deserves much
praise for the regard he has always shown
to the interests of the frontier settlers, in
his prosecution of the surveys.
A collision took place on the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, on Thursday, the 27th
of October, between an accommodation and
a freight train. Mr. Sloan, President of the
Hudson River Railroad, was riding on the
engine of the passenger train, and with the
engineer and fireman, jumped before the col
lision. Mr. Sloan, falling among some
broken stone, was severely cut and bruised,
but not seriously. Mr.' Vail, President of
the Troy and Boston Railroad, and Mr.
Cohen, Assistant Superintendent of the
Hudson Railroad, were in the passenger car
and sustained slight injury. The fireman
and engineer were both slightly wounded.
No one was killed.
Gen.Viduari, recently deposed from his
command of the Mexican Constitutional
forces at Degollado, is reported to have ar
rived in Texas.
Our Own State.
The Wabashaw Herald says that the
Catholic Society of Wabashaw are erecting
an elegant church edifice on the corner of
Pembroke and Third streets. It is a frame
building, 30 by 60 feet, two stories high,
the lower story of which is intended for
schools. When completed, it will be one of
the most imposing buildings in the city. A
little more than a year ago, Wabashaw had
not a church of any description, but she has
now two, the Baptist and Congregational
completed, which will compare favorably
with other churches in the State, and a
month hence will witness the completion of
the Catholic church above mentioned, mak
ing three in all, of which any City in Min
nesota might well be proud. A new paper
has been started in Wabashaw county which
the Herald says is to “ be Wabashaw in re
ligion and politics,” or exclusively a local
paper. The Herald says that ten thousand
bushels of grain have been bought and
shipped from Reed’s Landing and Waba
shaw during last week.
The last Stillwater Democrat contains the
following paragraph :
The cutest little arrangement we have seen
ia a long time, is the presentation made us on
Monday last. It consists of a small piece of
blue-eyed humanity of the feminine order,
standing about one foot three without stock
ings, broad according, weighs ten and a quar
ter pounds, and has a tolerable good voice. Of
all the presents we ever had, this is worth any
two of them; in fact it is the biggest little cu
riosity our family ever possessed. The Winona
Democrat can beat us on vegetables and such
stulf, but in the article of ‘‘go/-meat,” we think
after this, it will have to take its place in the
second clais.
The editor was so excited by the recep
tion of the above present, that he let fall a
whole gal-ley of type, after he had corrected
it and was about ready to empty it into his
form. He says that if the thing should oc
cur again, he should feel very much like
selling out to some one who could endure
the sport better than himself.
Croffut, of the St. Anthony Neus,
published his valedictory last Satursday.
He says :
Four years of active service in the profession
editorial, have revealed to us the fact that the
principal emoluments and immunities enjoyed
by the Chair, are, an ocean of advice, a shower
of brick-bats, and an endless procession of
two dollar promises. It is for the reason that
we need respite and recreation from these per
petual harrassments to study patience and self
sacrifice, and because we wish to qualify our
self more thoroughly for the profession, tnat
we now resign our place in the office of the
News.
He has sold out his interest in the News
to Uriah Thomas, Esq., (a lawyer of Min
neupolis, and recently of the firm of Han
cock & Co., bankers,) who will succeed him
in the editorial management.
We copy the following items from the
last Dumber of the News :
Capt. Tapper went out yesterday with a
friend to Long Luke, and killed twenty-five
duck and one large splendid buck! A good
day’s work. The Captain is a dead shot, and
will kill further than the whisky they sell here
abouts—which is the highest compliment that
can be paid a sportsman.
Wc see that some of our brethern of the
Press are making Mr. King, of the State Atlas,
our successor, instead of Mr. Thomas. A little
too fast. Mr. King and ourself "failed to con
nect,” or rather, after we had connected the
coupling broke, and we switched off to the
right, and Mr. King scooted off the left, “on
his own personal curve.” We hope the ex
planation will satisfy the curious.
A Sioux hunting party, consisting of about a
hundred men, with a few women, crossed the
Suspension Bridge from Minneapolis this morn
ing, and are now hanging about the groceries
and bakeries of Upper Town. They have
about twenty or thirty Indian ponies with
them. It is not improbable that this is the party
that killed and scalped four Chippewas the
other day in Stearns county.
The Sauk Rapids Fronlierman has been
started again by our old friend, Jeremiah
Russell. There is not much encourage,
ment to start papers at the present time,
but as Mr. Russell makes a good local
paper, we wish him abundant success. We
clip a few items from the last number:
Several robberies and thefts have been com
mitted in the neighboring country within the
last three weeks. A jeweller’s shop was bro
ken open in St. Cloud some weeks ago, and
property taken to the amount of five hundred
dollars.
A few nights since, a store in Clearwater
was broken open and articles taken, but to
what amount we did not learn.
On Watab Prairie, checks to the amount of
two hundred dollars were abstracted from a
chest belonging to a Mr. Hayward.
The Sheriff of Meeker county was at Sauk
Rapids some three weeks since, in pursuit of a
man who had entered the house of a settler in
that county, and, after discharging a pistol at
him, which burst the barrel, and only inflicted
a slight wound on the thumb of the man as
saulted, attacked him with a pistol and beat
him so severely with it that he became insensi
ble and remained so until the robber had time
to rifle his pockets of two hundred dollars in
money and get safely away with his booty.
He appeared to be a stranger to the man
robbed. We were in hopes that the hard times
would have a tendency to make men honest,
at least, but from the frequent occurrence of
such crimes, we fear a contrary result.
An Act of Christian Charity.
We suppose it to be demanded by charity,
if not by courtesy, that we should inform
the public that the St. Anthony Express is
opposed to the instruction of the delegates
to the Charleston Convention; as otherwise,
the fact would be known to no one outside
of Hennepin county, and to but few inside
of it. There is an injunction implied in the
Divine statement, “ Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these,” &c.,
which we feel religiously bound to obey,
when so plain an opportunity is presented
for its application.
*“ " f
“1
THE WEEKLY PIONEER AND DEMOCRAT.
Letter from Stearns Comity.
St. Cloud, Nov. 7, 1859.
To the | Editort of the Pioneer and Democrat.
I regret to learn that the Sioux Indians
still continue their depredations Hpon the
property of the remote settlers. They seem
to grow more bold and troublesome. With
in a few days they shot down a valuable
ox in a team at Paynesville, which belonged
to 0. S. Freeman. The settlement of
Paynesville is thirty-four miles south west
of this place, on the north fork of Crow
River. The Indians also robbed a family
not far from there, of all their provisions.
In the neighborhood of Richmond they have
also committed outrages. It is to be hoped
some means will be devised without delay,
by the proper authorities, to keep the In
dians on their reservations. Serions troubles
must necessarily ensue if prompt means to
this end are not adopted.
Mr. J. W. Taylor’s lecture here on Sat
urday evening was listened to by a full and
attentive audience. It was illustrated by a
splendid map of that portion of the globe
lying between the 30th and 60th degrees of
north latitude, and which contained the
lines of mean temperature specified by Lt.
Maury. Mr. Taylor gave an interesting
account of his visit to Selkirk Settlement.
His whole lecture is well calculated to in
spire enthusiasm and confidence in respect
to the future prospects of Minnesota ; and
it surely produced that effect here. **
Telegraphic and other News Items.
Among the wounded by the late terrible
railroad disaster in Wisconsin, we have
news that the following are in a fair way of
recovering : Jas. McCabe, fireman ; Y.
B. Smead, editor of the Fond du Lac Press-,
James Page, 8. M. B. Stebbins, and J. F.
Craig.
A New York dispatch of the sth inst.,
states that a report is given in a letter from
Havana, of Oct. 30th, of a conspiracy, or
something of that character, having been
discovered among certain military officers
and soldiers at Matanzas. Various arrests
are understood to have taken place, but no
particulars have beeu permitted to reach the
public eye.
A woman in Fairfax county, Va., writes
to Gov. W ise that there are a great many
peisons residing in her neighborhood whom
she suspects to be abolitionists, and requests
a Sharpe’s rifle for herself. It is said that
the Governor sent her the rifle, and request
ed her to raise a volunteer corps of women
in her region.
The Chicago Press and Tribune learns
from a gentleman who left Pike’s Peak,
Oct. Bth, that about 5,000 persons will win
ter in the mines, where there was an abund
ance of provisions to supply them till next
summer. The amount of gold got out this
season will not exceed half a million dollars •
Many have piled up large quantities of
quartz for operation as soon as a crusher
can be got out in the Spring, and several of
these piles are computed to be worth $25,-
000 each.
Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe, who,
with her husband, has been residing in Lon
don for the past three months, is about to
proceed to Switzerland, where she will re
main during the winter with her daughter,
her husband, Prof, Stowe, returning to
America forthwith.
A Miss Thompson, in Tennessee, has re
cently recovered $15,000 in a suit for a
breach of promise against a mau named
Patterson.
On the first of October, John E. Bacon,
of South Carolina, Secretary of the United
States Legation in Russia, was married to
Miss Rebecca Pickens, daughter of the
Minister of the United States to the court
of St. Petersburg.
Gov. Banks inaugurated the Brooklyn,
New York, Mercantile Library Lectures on
Tuesday evening, the Ist inst., by delivering
a lecture on “ Personal Character.” He
said, among other things, that the man who
would imperil the Union was not born of wo
man, and that Washington was a “ leading
Abolitionist.” Phillips, on the contrary,
puts “ Ossawattomie ” above “ the father of
his country.”
The lady to whom Poe wa3 engaged to
be married, at the time of his death, is about
to publish a defence of the poet from the
malignings of critics, from the Edinburg
Review down to the ladies’ magazines.
The last number of the Sullivan (Ind.)
Democrat contaius a legal notice to Lucy
Stone Blackwell and her husband, that a
s uit is now pending against them in the
Circuit Court of that county.
A late Utah City paper mentions the
arrival of a company of European Saints,
who came in fifty-six wagons and numbered
about four hundred souls, mostly from Scan
dinavia. There were six deaths and three
births on their journey of three months
through the country.
Six of the laborers engaged in the recent
Bergen tunnel riots, in which the United
States mails were stopped, were on Monday
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment each
in the State prison.
Col. Bulloch, Mayor of Worcester,
Mass., has given to that city the sum of
one thousand dollars, the annual income of
which is to be appropriated for the encour
agement of merits in scholarship and de
portment in both sexes in the High School.
Col. Bulloch declines being a candidate lor
the mayoralty another year.
A letter published in the Press d’Orient
announces the convertion to Roman Cathol
icism of an entire district in Bulgaria, which
numbers not less than thirty thousand souls,
who hitherto belonged to the Greek Church.
They have addressed a letter to the French
consul, who promised the new converts the
protection of France, in case they should be
molested in the exercise of their new faith.
It is said that other districts in Bulgaria
are only waiting to see the issue of this re
ligious movement before following the ex
ample.
Judge Daniel Cady died at Johnstown,
New York, on Monday the 31st October,
at the age of 88. He had occupied a prom
inent position at the New York bar for
many years. From 1808 to 1814, Mr. Ca
dy represented Montgomery county in the
State Assembly; he was a member of the
14th Congress ; a Presidential Elector in
1846, and President of the Electoral College
He was also a Judge of the Supreme Court
of the 4th judicial district under the present
constitution.
Connecticut Railroad companies are
held to be liable for fires. Lieut. Governor
Trask has recovered from the Hartford
Railroad Company a verdict of $6,500
damages for the loss ot buildings in Spring
field directly alongside of the railroad, which
were destroyed by fire in April last.
The success of cheap literature is not con
fined to one country. The Bonners are
cosmopolitan, as a late instance shows in
England, where Mr. George Bigg, proprie
tor ot the Family Herald, has lately died,
leaving a fortune of $350,000, made by that
publication, the greater part of which is be
queathed to charitable foundations. The
Family Herald has always been noted for its
extensive “Answers to Correspondents,”
and the attention paid to that department is
the main cause of its enormous circulation
among the middle classes, with whom its
authority is unbounded on the delicate di
emmas that occur in questions of courtship
and marriage and affairs of the heart.
The Protestant Churchman gives the first
announcement of the names of the bishops
who voted aye on the motion of Bishop Mc-
Coskry to restore Bishop Onderdonk with
out any conditions. The ayes (report says)
were Bishops Otey, Kemper, McCoskry,
De Lancey, Chase, Whittingham, and
Odenheimer. We are glad to notice that
the name of Bishop Whipple, of Minneso
ta, does not figure in this disgraceful list of
“ayes.”
The Dean and Boker affair has broken
out again in a new spot. A person named
Louis Funke, having become the holder of
a mortgage given by Harry Bertholf
to Mr. Boker, commenced its foreclosure.
Mr. Bertholf brought forward, as offset,
certain services rendered in the Dean and
Boker nuptials, and board and lodging for
Boker’s daughter. The court decided that
the claim be dismissed with costs, and that
the bond and mortage be canceled.
Recent papers announce the death of
Mr. Edward James Thayer, lately the Di
rector General of the Postoflßce in France,
and a member of the Imperial Senate. M.
Thayer was a son of the late James Thay
er, a native of Rhode Island, and a lineal
descendant of Roger Williams.
There was frost and ice ten miles above
New Orleans on Sunday, the 30th of Octo
ber, and also in various parts of Mississippi
aod Alabama.
A couple of Boston lawyers went down
to Belfast, Maine, says the Portland Adver
tiser, to try a case during the late term of
the Supreme Court, and the members of the
jury were so impressed with their eloquence
that they held a meeting and passed a reso
lution thanking them for the able manner in
which they had presented the case and the
sound law displayed.
ASTOUNDING DISCLOSURES!
AN ORIGINAL CONSPIRATOR GIVES
THE HISTORY OP THE HAR
PER’S FERRY INSURRECTION.
The Names of Seward, Sumner, and
and otber leading Republicans
“ Blixed Up ” in tbe Affair.
SPECULATION IN MUKDEK —A RISE IN THE
PRICE OF COTTON TO FOLLOW.
The Herald, Times, Journal of Commerce,
and other New York papers, have published
a number of letters from “ Col. Forbes,”
addressed over a year ago by that gentle
man to Boston Abolitionists, which make
most astounding developments and show
that the Harper’s Ferry insurrection was
simply a continuation of the “ Free State ”
operations in Kansas, carried on under the
direction of the New England Republicans
and Abolitionists. How these letters came
into possession of these papers does not ap
pear, and th a Herald says the matter is “ its
own business.” Col. Forbes intimates that
they were found in Brown’s carpet bag.
Before touching these letters, let us see
who Col. Forbes is. The New York limes
says:
Col. Forbes is an Englishman, who came to
this country in 1849, soon after the break down
of the revolutions in Europe, in which he had
been somewhat involved. He had some mili
tary experience, having been connected, in a
subordinate position, with Garribaldi in Rome.
The New York Evening Post says:
This Forbes, on his arrival from Italy a
needy adventurer, was employed by the Amer
can and Foreign Christian Union. He wrote
for them tracts against the Homan Catholics
and their Church, but was much dissatisfied
with what he called the pecuniary compensa
tion which, ont of pity, probably, they allowed
him.
Such is the introduction of Col. Forbes
to the United States. After his arrival
here we gather his history from various
sources. After graduating from the Chris
tian Union he was engaged to write for a
New York weekly paper established by a
foreigner and called the European , its pur
pose being to discourage and prevent emi
gration to this country. This object was
pursued by villifying our institutions, ex
aggerating onr defects, and giving full de
tails of all the crimes perpetrated in the
country. It was while engaged on this
paper that Brown, of Kansas, came to him
with a letter of introduction from the Rev.
Joshua Leavitt, one of the editors of the
Independent, and proposed that he should
return with him to Kansas for the purpose
of aiding the Free State men in their war
fare. He went with him—joining the Mas
sachusetts emigrant party that went through
lowa—and intending to reach Kansas in
time for “ work.” But before arriving,
Gov. Geary had arranged affairs so as to
prevent a collision, and there was no more
work to be done in that quarter. Peace
soon after prevailed in Kansas, aDd the
men of war were all thrown upon their own
resources again. Col. Forbes appealed to
Brown for the payment he had promised
him, but Brown had nothing himself, and
had depended entirely upon anticipated
contributions from the East and North—to
which, however, the restoration of peace put
an end.
In this state of affairs, Brown turned his
attention to a war of invasion upon slavery
in Missouri, and headed the expedition for
ruuniDg off a number of negroes, with which
the public is already familiar. Forbes re
turned to the East and went first to Wash
ington, where, driven almost to desperation
by the pecuniary destitution of his family,
he made the most earnest appeals to the
prominent Republicans for aid. Having no
further use for him at the time, he met with
poor success in his appeals to the “friends
of freedom,” and becoming thoroughly dis
gusted with his late employers and unbur
thened his mind in several letters ta Dr. S.
G. Howe, of Boston, a prominent Republi
can and Abolitionist, and F. B. Sanborn,
Secretary of the Massachusetts Emigrant
Aid Society. In these letters the develop
ments are made, mixed up with a vast
amount of bitter denunciation against the
“ humanitarians,” as Col. Forbes contempt
uously calls the Republicans and Abolition
ists. We make such extracts as possess
striking significance :
Letter to Dr. Howe, dated Washington,
April 19,1859.
* It seems that Col. F. had induced Sena
tor Sumner to write to Dr. Howe in his
behalf, and the Senator received a reply
ontaining seven points. Forbes says:
Sir Senator Sumner has read to me your
answer to the letters he wrote to you in accord
ance with his kind offer to get this matter “put
straight.” * * * Capt. B. came to
me with a letter from Rev. Joshua Leavitt, of
the New York Independent .
FORBES APPEALS TO THE HUMANITARIANS TO
FULFILL THEIR PROMISES.
This extract is a fair sdecimen of the
bulk of the letters :
My family has been brutally treated, my
good faith has been taken a base advantage of,
and I demand redress. Ido not beg, nor will
I. You may suppose that I cannot cope with
you, because you are many and I am alone
one. You are at home and I am a stranger;
you are rich and lam poor. You do not take
in consideration that you are perpetrating an
atrocious wiong, while I am struggling to save
my family. lam the natural protector of my
children, and nothing but death shall prevent
my defending them against the barbarity of
the New England speculators. * * *
When I remonstrate, the humanitarians reply,
“We don’t know you”—“We made no engage
ments with you;” while Brown says, "Be quiet;
don’t weaken my hand;” and when I refuse to
be quiet, since my children are being killed by
slow torture through the culpability of the
humanitarians, thee B. denies his obligations to
me rather than displease the men of money.
The humanitarians and Brown are guilty of
perfidy and brutality, to which may be added
stupidity.
THE NEW ENGLAND ABOLITIONISTS TO BPECU-
LATE IN THE INSURRECTION.
Speculation is perhaps hardly the proper
term by which to designate the proposal of
John Brown to raise a sum by coming to an un
derstanding with some mercantile house (which
has to make its own profits also) by speculat
ng on the principal English and American ex
changes for the rise in cotton which would as
suredly result from the diminution of the usual
supply through our projected movement. 1
peremptorily refused to acquiesce, and the sub
ject was again mooted to me. But the discov
ery of the Boston $87,000 affair in wool reminds
me of John Brown’s cotton scheme, and induces
me to guess that he is not the only New Eng
land humanitarian who entertains peculiar no
tions of speculation.
Indeed, greediness to turn insurrection to
pecuniary profit may not unreasonably be re
garded as the grand motive for that projected
movement south of Mason and Dixon’s line,
which movement I looked upon till lately as
purely philanthropic. Judging of the probable
march of future events by these past, I say to
the colored people, as 1 and others have been
duped, so will be the slaves, and if they rise at
the call of New Eupland humanitarians they
will undoubtedly shed their blood lor the sole
profit of New England speculators.
Letter to Dr. Howe, dated Washington, May
6, 1858.
INTERVIEW WITH SEWARD.
On Saturday, Ist May, I had an interview
with Senator William H. Seward, of New York;
having been introduced to him through a letter
from a leading abolitionist, Dr. Bailey, of the
Era. I went fully into the whole matter in all
its bearings. He expressed regret that he had
been told, and said that he in his position ought
not to have been informed of the circumstance.
In part I agree with him and part I differ. I
regret that the misconduct of the New Eng
landers should have forced me to address my
self to him ; but being now enlightened on the
subject, he cannot well let this business con
tinue in its present crooked condition, instead
of causing it to be put straight, both as regards
my children’s situation, and the cotton specu
lation of the humanitarians.
Letter to Dr. Howe, dated Washington, May
14, 1858
This letter was prefaced with the follow
ing memorandum :
Please show to Messrs. Sanborn, Lawrence &
Co. Copies will be sent to Gov. Chase, who
found money, and Gov. Fletcher, who contrib
uted arms, and to others interested, as quickly
as possible.
COLONEL FORBES LOOKS FOR BIGGER GAME
THAN KANSAS.
When John Brown applied to me last spring
in the name of the committees and humanitari
ans, I answered, as you are aware, that being
an anti-slavery man, I would not stir merely to
get “Kansas for free white people,” and on his
assuring me that he himself and the leading
minds among his associates had views similar
to my own, I considered that the application
being put upon that basis, I ought to go.
Brown could not then disclose those detads.
We examined at Tabor the respective merits
of our plans.
THE three plans.
Forbes’ plan was to organize “stampedes,”
that is, the flight of parties of slaves, from
twenty to fifty—twice a month, or twice a
week, if need be—along the northern bor
der, so as to make slave property untenable,
and irritate the pro-slaveryites into blun
ders.
Brown’s plan was to organize a body of
twenty-five or fifty meD, black and white, ,
well armed, and with spare arms for the
slaves whom they were to call to their assis- ,
tance, to seize on the Armory at Harper’s
Ferry and destroy what they could not carry }
off. The slave quarters at other points to
be beaten up for recruits, and the band to
retreat to the mountains, and hold out till a
northern convention should be called to over
throw the Democratic Administration. He
had hope too of foreign intervention
The well matured plan was a mixture of
the two, such as Brown endeavored to ac
complish, and involved in this a speculation
in cotton, and in the rise of exchange on
England. Brown told Forbes that Amos
Lawrence had promised him seven thousand
dollars whenever actual hostilities should
be commenced, the New England humani
tarians intending to reimburse themselves by
the rise in cotton, and the sale of exchange
on England.
FORBES WANTS TO BACK DOWN.
In this letter to Dr. Howe, Col. Forbes
expresses a desire to back out of the plot,
especially as his plan failed to be adopted.
He further insisted that Brown should not
be allowed to go on:
For these and other reasons I call on you and
your associates to stop 8., and to take from
him your arms, &c. 1 have a right to exact
this, and Ido exact it. To your assertion that
to stop B. I would denounce and betray, I echo
what the abolitionists here say, that ff you do
not, by taking from him your arms, &c., stop
him, you betray them, for this concerns the
abolitionists, and they have a right to be
heard.
* * * Because the crude project which he i
and his confederates have in tneir heads is not
likely to succeed, bnt is merely suited for a
grand speculation in the sudden rise of cotton
on the exchange.
I repeat that B. & Co., shall not speculate on
the rise in cotton. Some may say, "Why not
let them make a little money, it won’t harm
the cause.’ ’ I say it will, because prudence
may demand that the initiative be unexpected- 1
ly hurried forward ; or it may be essential that
be defeated some weeks, or even months ; but ;
speculation necessitates that the panic seize
the market exactly on preconcerted day;
therefore, to manufacture that fraudulent rise
the ultimate success of the humanitarian move
without scruple be sacrificed.
Not being a commercial man, the full force
of D.’s proposal did not strike me till I in
quired, by conversation, how Lawrence <fc Co.,
could be so public spirited as to advance
$7,000, and SB,OOO to affect a tariff in which the i
whole trade, and not that firm alone, was inter
ested. The reply was, that to a house having
heavy speculations, it was well worth SIOO,OCO
to get within a certain time a change of duties,
which would enable the speculators to realize
five or ten times that amount.
AMOS LAWRENCE IN THE SPECULATION.
Then the whole cotton scheme reappeared
before me, and the recollection that B. HAD
TOLD ME THAT MR. AMOS LAWRENCE
HAD PROMISED $7,000 WHENEVER AC
TUAL HOSTILITIES SHOULD BE COM
MENCED. brought to my mind other reflec- 1
tions. THIS INIQUITOUS SPECULATION
IN HUMAN BLOOD FOR THE MERE
GREEDINESS OF DOLLARS SHALL SOME
HOW BE STOPPED--though you coolly tell
me that if I stop it I betray because I will not let
certain persons betray. To the abolitionists I
say—you must yourselves unite together and
stop it, and to the colored people I say—if you
rise at the call of New England humanitarians,
you will shed your blood for the sole benefit of
New England speculators, and the colored
people may very likely be re enslaved.
TRACTS FOR THE TROOPS.
You have as strange a notion of what is gen
tlemanly as you have of what is just. Last
autumn when I was asked to write strong
tracts addressed to the U. S. troops, pointed
against the U. S. government and the border
ruffians, I complied with the request, and the
productions wsre pronounced to be admirably
adapted to the purpose. I was urged to con
tinue them, and because they suited you and
yours, nothing was hinted as to their being un
gentlemanly, or that “that which cometh out
of the mouth defileth the man, and him only.”
WARNING AGAINST BROWN
Abolitionists must, however, in the interest
of the cause, understand that Brown and his
associate New England speculators cannot be
trusted to undertake any project, because they
have a pet scheme of private gain to gratify.
For this reason it should also be understood
widely that the secret service fund which you
and yours collect professedly for the prosecu
tion of the "well matured plan,” is not for
that, but is for the creation of a cotton panic
through the alarm at a probable interruption
or a sensible diminution of the supply, which
panic, beforehand known to you and yours as
a thing about to be, would at one sweep bring
from the exchanges stacks of dollars into the
coffers of half a dozen managers, at the ex
pense of the abolition cause, the blood of the
slaves, and the liberty of free colored people.
The Bennett divorce case, which agita
ted New Haven some months since, is again
in the newspapers. Mrs. B. desires to come
with her children to Minnesota. Her hus
band objects to such a step and the decision
of the Court is pending.
A special despatch to the St. Louis Re
publican, of the 2d inst., gives the official
vote of the recent election in Kansas, as
follows: For the Constitution, 10,419;
against the Constitution, 5,530; for Home
gtead Law 8,758, against it 4,772.