This letter requires the history which attaches to it, and illustrates the consideration which the brave martyr had for those in any way connected with him. It was written on a half sheet of paper, the exact size of the pages of a book into which he carefully inserted it, and tied up in a handkerchief with other books and papers, which he asked his jailer (Mr. Avis) to be allowed to go with his body to North Elba, and which Mrs. Brown took with her from the Charlestown prison. Her statement to me about it is this: She had been at home some two weeks, had looked over the contents of the handkerchief many times, when one day in turning the leaves of that particular book, she came upon this letter, on which she said she found two or three blistered spots, the only _tear drops_ she had seen among his papers. They are now yellow with time. On the back of the half sheet was written: "Please mail this to her," which she did, and so it reached my hand; seeming as if from the world to which his spirit had fled. It quite overwhelmed my husband. Presently he said: "See, dear, how careful the old man has been, he would not even direct it with your name to go from Virginia to Boston through the post-offices; and altho' it contains no message to me, one of those '_farewells_!' is intended for me, and also the 'Love to _All_ who love their neighbors.'" "CHARLESTOWN, JEFFERSON CO VA. 29th Nov. 1859. "MRS. GEORGE L. STEARNS "Boston, Mass. "My Dear Friend:--No letter I have received since my imprisonment here, has given me more satisfaction, or comfort, than yours of the 8th inst. I am quite cheerful: and never more happy. Have only time to write you a word. May God forever reward you _and all yours_. "_My love to_ ALL who love their neighbors. I have asked to be _spared_ from having any _mock, or hypocritical prayers made over me_ when I am publicly _murdered_; and that my only _religious attendents_ be _poor little, dirty, ragged, bareheaded and barefooted, Slave Boys; and Girls_, led by some old _gray-headed slave Mother_. "Farewell. Farewell. "Your Friend, "JOHN BROWN."[71] The man who hung him, Governor Wise, lived to see the plans of Brown completed and his most cherished hopes fulfilled. He heard the warning shot fired at Sumter, saw Richmond fall, the war end in victory to the party of John Brown; saw the slave-pen converted into the school-house, and the four millions Brown fought and died for, elevated to the honors of citizenship. And at last he has entered the grave, where his memory will perish with his body, while the soul and fame of John Brown go marching down the centuries!