In your letter of March 10th you very kindly utter the wish that you could "commune with
some "Heavenly Messenger" and give vent before him to your feelings concerning tho to
whom you are bound by the ties or consanguinity" That you are often present in the spirit with
thou with whom you are bound by the ties of nature have no doubt and it is a source of much
satisfaction to me to believe that I enjoy a liberal share of your regard that I do not deserve
much of your consideration is a reflection ungrateful indeed to me but nevertheless quite true
unless my appreciation of your worth and a tender regard for you as a brother and friend
entitles me to a corresponding degree of your regard. I have felt a good deal of
interest in the accounts you give of your travels in the ministry more particularly per-
haps because it is a matter which concerns your welfare though I per am unwilling
to admit that I do not feel a good deal of interest also in the progress the work in
which you are so successfully engaged. I have followed you to the far west to the
field of contest and there my apprehensions were excited for you as well as account of
your exposure to the evil designs of the world as to the contagious malady which
prevailed to so alarming and degree. My excitement was of a feverish character.
I feared that the hand of the violent man would fall upon you—that the abuses of
the vulgar and the coarse minded would be heaped upon your head as upon the head
of an outlaw and a ruffian, and that no voice would be heard in your defense
declaring that you were innocent of any evil designs upon the peace of comm-
unity. Then the work came as on the wings of the wind that a deadly contagion
had visited your camp and that scores had already fallen before you and
could I rest and be at peace while my brother stood exposed to the shafts
of death! But another word came which told of the breaking up of
your bandy—of its disperson to East and to the South to the North and to
the West and you were placed before me a wanderer over the fair
of the Earth in the capacity of a preacher of doctrines which were a by-
word and a proverb among men. I already fancied I saw you exposed
to the ridicule and the scoffs of bigots, hypocrites unbelievers wicked men and
devils and was pained at indignities and insults which I imagined were
being heaped upon you and I had not even the consolation of knowing that you were
engaged in the cause of God (for then indeed I could have endured to
see you suffer persecution, under the full persuasion that you would be
blessed and honored by the King of Saints) though I did not doubt that
you believed you were doing right and that you bore along with ^you^ a clear
conscience and an honest heart. Many long months passed away and I heard
not a word respecting you – what might have befallen you I was in doubts andbut
I felt a fearful apprehension that you something ill had befallen you. An
angry insurrection had been plotted and was discovered just upon the eve
of its breaking out—the people of the South were inflamed and their
vengeance was visited upon many innocent and unsuspecting persons, there
was no liberty of speech there and a person had only to be suspected of
entertaining sentiments appored to some of the institutions of the South
to be visited with all the horrors of a hellish anarchy. Under these circum-
stances my emmotions were such as I cannot well ^express^—my fears were of the
gloomist character for I knew your enthusiasm and your determination
to maintain your priviledges rights as an American citisen—perhaps in your
sentiments you were appored to the institution of slavery and in the fear
of God you would be constrained to raise your voice against it, a course
which would have brought upon you swift destruction from the presence of
men—and my forebodings were bitter indeed. If I had any hope for
your safety it was in the kind care of providence—I had no confidence
in the protection which would be afforded you in the plea that you
