“I am, your brother,
“BENJAMIN BROWN.”
Mr. Brown was visibly affected as he slowly read the letter, and tears filled the eyes of both himself and his wife by the time it was completed.
“Well, mother, what had I better write him?”
To which the good woman quickly replied: “Send for them both to come at once and make their home with us—at least for the present. You will soon go to Springfield, and will be gone all winter attending the Legislature. You expect to hire someone to attend the stock and the farm while you are away, and you always hire in the summer. Perhaps they might like farm work, and suit you better than anyone you can hire, and so stay permanently.
“The Lord has taken all our dear children away,” she continued; “and if Glen is the boy his father has always
“‘Fellow reformers, would you be free? Would you see the regimen of corporate power and class despotism at an end? Would you see the shackles stricken forever from the limbs of humanity, and behold emancipation—the rebirth? Do you believe that this can come through the ballot? No! You do not.
“‘Have not the reformers spent their lives, their fortunes, and their energies in the cause of political reform? Have they not seen the cunning and unscrupulous always victorious, emerging from every campaign master of the spoils? Have you any hopes that this will be changed in the future? The past is one long protest against the ballot as an instrument of reformation.’
“Scarcely a day passes that I do not receive one or more appeals to join one or the other of the revolutionary orders being formed in this country, and offers of money and arms are frequently received if I will give my efforts to the cause of revolution. Thus far I have persistently declined to give aid or encouragement to such movements. But if, through the writings of such men as Private Dalzell, revolution comes, in spite of all efforts to prevent it, I will not be found among the cowards, nor on the side of the plutocratic classes. * * *