Page:John Brown (W. E. B. Du Bois).djvu/80

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JOHN BROWN

than the Massasoit of Springfield."[1] He says to his children on the Ohio sheep farm: "I am much pleased with the reflection that you are all three once more together, and all engaged in the same calling that the old patriarchs followed. I will say but one word more on that score, and that is taken from their history: 'See that ye fall not out by the way; and all will be exactly right in the end.' I should think matters were brightening a little in this direction in regard to our claims, but I have not yet been able to get any of them to a final issue. I think, too, that the prospect for the fine wool business rather improves. What burdens me most of all is the apprehension that Mr. Perkins expects of me in the way of bringing matters to a close, what no living man can possibly bring about in a short time and that he is getting out of patience and becoming distrustful."[2]

Meantime Brown was racing from court to court in Boston, New York, Troy and elsewhere, seeking to settle up the business and know where he stood financially, and, above all, to keep peace with and do justice to his partner. Cases were now settled and now appealed and the progress was "miserably slow. My journeys back and forth this winter have been very tedious." Then, too, his mind was elsewhere. The nation was in turmoil and so was he. At the time Anthony Burns was arrested in Boston he was advising with his lawyers at Troy. Redpath says:

  1. Letter to his wife, 1850, in Sanborn, p. 107.
  2. Letter to his children, 1850, in Sanborn, pp. 75–76.