Posted on 11/27/2018 5:08:58 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed. To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
He doesn’t care for Wagner. I like Wagner.
OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS, Dec. 2, 1858.
DEAR CHILDREN, — I have a moment to write you, and I hasten to improve it. My health is some improved since I wrote you last, but still I get a shake now and then. Other friends are middling well, I believe. In some of the border counties south, there is the worst feeling at this time, which affords but little prospect of quiet. Other portions of the Territory are comparatively undisturbed. The winter may be supposed to have fairly set in, which may compel parties to defer hostilities at least. I want you to write my family to inquire particularly whether they are so circumstanced as to be able to get through the winter without suffering, so that I may hear from them when I know where to have you direct to me. I have but this moment returned from the south, and expect to go back at once.
Your affectionate friend.
P. S. Am still preparing for my other journey.
Yours.
P. S. I want you, some of you, for the present, to write John, saying all about the condition of your different families, and whether you are suffering for anything, or are likely to be, and for what, that I may get the information by-and-by, through him, when there is any chance. You may depend on my doing all in my power to make you comfortable. To God and his infinite grace I commend you all.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 480-1
Vague. It’s almost as if he’s plotting.
P. S. Am still preparing for my other journey.
Brown has a date with the executioner exactly one year from the date of this letter. I wonder if that is the journey he is referring to.
Fascinating. I was not aware of the date. He seems the sort to have had a vision of his demise, though.
Perhaps his opinion evolved over the years. Wagner was an accomplished composer by 1858 but still had a lot yet to write. I just noticed that Wagner's photos remind me a little of John Wayne.
The nose.
The nose, the forehead, the hairdo.
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