Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/53

OF IOWA concerted movement. I had no means of knowing who wrote the letter. A gentleman in Cincinnati, whom I knew, wrote to me for the letter believing that the handwriting might be traced. The writer was not discovered, but they had strong suspicions that a certain person somewhere in Kentucky had written it.”

Had this letter of warning been heeded what a mighty change would have been wrought in our country’s history! For more than thirty-six years this letter has been the subject of historical controversy. The most skillful detectives were employed by government officials, assisted by experienced experts in handwriting, to hunt down and locate the author. It was believed by Floyd, Mason, Davies and Governor Wise, that if the writer of this letter could be found, he might be compelled to disclose the names of the persons from whom he learned the facts mentioned in the Floyd letter, and evidence might thus be secured to implicate prominent Abolitionists and Republicans in the conspiracy. But all efforts failed. Some have charged that it was written by Hugh Forbes, who was at one time employed by John Brown to drill his men. They had subsequently quarreled and it was thought by Brown’s friends that Forbes had betrayed them. Richard J. Hinton, the author of “John Brown and His Men,” believed the letter was written by Edmund Babb, an editorial writer on the Cincinnati Gazette, and gives his reasons, supported by some corroborating circumstances. *

F. B. Sanborn, another intimate friend and author of “Life and Letters of John Brown,” says, “It has never been ascertained who wrote this letter.” He thinks it might have been by a Cincinnati newspaper reporter, who had procured the information from a Hungarian refugee who had fought under Brown in Kansas. “Or it is possible the information came indirectly from Cook, who talked to freely.” †

The letter has been published in newspapers and

* “John Brown and His Men,” pp. 253-256. † pp. 543-544 of “Life and Letters of John Brown.”